Craig Zotter & Associates

Alimony

Alimony is support that is paid to a financially dependent spouse after the Divorce Decree is finalized and all financial issues involving equitable distribution have been resolved through court action or agreement. After taking into consideration the parties' income and the assets each was awarded as part of equitable distribution, the court will award alimony only to a spouse that cannot meet their reasonable financial needs when the other spouse has the ability to meet their own reasonable needs and assist the financially dependent spouse.

There are no specific guidelines in Pennsylvania that determine how long alimony will be awarded.  There is also no specific state guideline to determine the dollar amount of alimony awarded each month or year.

Some situations in which alimony is awarded include those situations when the spouses have a great disparity in income, when the parties had a long-term marriage, when one spouse suffers from a mental or physical disability, or when one spouse primarily cares for minor children who are not yet of school age.

Different Types of Pennsylvania Alimony Awards

There are also different types of alimony that can be awarded:
1 ) Rehabilitative Alimony. Alimony payments may be awarded to a financially dependent former spouse when that former spouse requires a specific amount of time to "rehabilitate" himself or herself through education or otherwise.
2) Permanent Alimony. Alimony payments that are made to a financially dependent former spouse for the rest of the former spouse's lifetime.
3) Reimbursement Alimony. Reimbursement alimony is alimony awarded to a former spouse to reimburse them for expenses they incurred for the benefit of the other spouse such as when one spouse pays for the majority of marital debt or when one spouse supported the family while the other pursued an education.

In Pennsylvania, alimony, except reimbursement alimony, is usually terminated, unless *the order or agreement provides other terminating conditions, *when the recipient spouse begins residing with another person in a marriage-like relationship or *when the recipient spouse remarries or dies. Rehabilitative alimony may be established for a term of years or based upon some other terminating factor such as the completion of a college education.