TEMPORARY ALIMONY VS. LONG TERM ALIMONY - HOW TO CALCULATE - VIDEO #32 (2021)

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Second video in seven part series explaining alimony (spousal support) laws in California. This video explains how courts use different methods to determine the amount of temporary alimony versus the amount of long term alimony.

Courts in California use computer software programs, such as DissoMaster, to calculate temporary spousal support that is paid while parties wait to get to trial or until a final settlement agreement can be negotiated.

The courts do not, or at least are not supposed to, use a computer program to determine the amount of long term spousal support. Instead, they are required by law to perform what divorce lawyers call a Family Code 4320 analysis. Family Code 4320 sets forth a list of factors that the court is required to take into consideration when deciding how much long term spousal support to award and the duration of that support. There are a lot of factors listed in Family Code 4320. Those factors include items such as the income of the parties, the assets of the parties, the age and health of the parties, the duration of the marriage, the marital standard of living, and many other factors.

Long term spousal support is just the opposite of child support. When it comes to child support, the law says the courts must use a very precise “guideline” support formula that is set forth in the child support statutes. Judges have very little discretion. Judges are “locked in” and must order the guideline amount of child support, except for a few special circumstances. However, when it comes to long term spousal support, judges are given wide discretion to decide how much spousal support should be ordered and the duration of that support. A trial judge’s decision regarding long term spousal support won’t be reversed on appeal unless the judge abused his or her discretion.

You can’t know how the particular judge assigned to your case is going to decide the amount and duration of long term spousal support without going through an actual trial.

So what do you do about the amount of spousal support if you want to have an uncontested divorce and you don’t want to go through a trial? What you can do is look at the temporary spousal support number generated by computer support software calculators such as DissoMaster. You at least need a starting point if you are going to be able to reach an agreement on long term spousal support for an uncontested case.

Most people are going to look at that temporary spousal support number that was calculated with the computer program and then begin settlement discussions using that number. They may agree to adopt the temporary number as a long term spousal support number for settlement purposes. They may agree to discount that number or inflate the number. You can look at the temporary support number and then look at the Family Code 4320 factors and decide if the temporary support number should be increased or decreased.

Видео TEMPORARY ALIMONY VS. LONG TERM ALIMONY - HOW TO CALCULATE - VIDEO #32 (2021) канала Free Divorce