Applying for Temporary Spousal Support
Temporary spousal support—also referred to as temporary alimony—helps maintain the pre-divorce financial status quo. For example, let's say that before the divorce started, your spouse was paying the mortgage, utility bills, and monthly car lease, but now those payments aren't being made. In a request for a temporary support order, you'd ask the court to instruct your spouse to continue covering those expenses and/or provide you with a certain amount of money each month to cover your financial needs while the divorce proceeds.
The normal method of applying for temporary support is to file a "motion," which is a written request for the court to resolve a particular issue. Once filed, the requesting spouse must deliver copies of the motion to the other spouse, who is given a certain amount of time to respond. Local and state court rules control the allotted response time.
Hearing the Motion
Before a court rules on a request for temporary spousal support, it will need to review the spouses' financial information.
All states require divorcing spouses to fill out and exchange preliminary financial disclosures. In California, these forms are referred to as the Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure, which includes an Income and Expense Declaration and a Schedule of Assets and Debts. In New Jersey, the disclosure form is called a Case Information Statement. (Click here to see the New Jersey form.)
These forms should contain enough information about each spouse's assets, debts, income, and expenses to give the court a fairly accurate picture of the couple's financial condition. Once the court has received the required information from both spouses, it's ready to hear the motion.
If neither spouse objects, the judge can base its decision solely on the papers submitted. Otherwise, the court will schedule a hearing. During these temporary hearings, judges don't usually take testimony from anyone. Rather, they'll hear oral arguments from the spouses or their attorneys in support of—or in opposition to—the motion. If the spouses have attorneys, it's fairly common for the lawyers to appear alone in court, but spouses have the right to attend as well.
Deciding the Request for Temporary Spousal Support
The court will review the documents submitted and consider relevant points made during oral argument. Based on this, if the court believes that temporary alimony is appropriate, it will set a monthly payment. A temporary spousal support award is not a certainty: it depends on the facts of each case.
In some states, including California, courts can use a guideline formula to determine temporary spousal support. This is similar to what courts use to determine child support. But in states that don't use formulas for alimony, judges will try to be fair to both spouses and set an amount that's based in part on the requesting spouse's financial need and the paying spouse's ability to pay. Courts will also focus on trying to maintain the financial status quo.
As an aside, the reality is that in most cases, it's difficult—if not impossible—to maintain two households on the same income previously used to maintain just one. So, in families with limited income, temporary spousal support orders can effectively result in the paying spouse's inability to afford a separate residence.
The court will put its decision into a written order, which both spouses must follow. To modify a temporary support order later, a spouse will need to prove there's been a substantial change in circumstances, which justifies increasing or decreasing the support amount.
How Long Does a Temporary Spousal Support Order Last?
Temporary orders issued during a divorce are usually intended to remain in effect only until the case ends. Some may carry over into the final judgment of divorce, essentially becoming the permanent or long-term alimony order. This often happens with a child support order, but it's less likely with temporary spousal support, because at the end of the divorce, the court is no longer concerned with the pre-divorce status quo. When judges set long-term or permanent alimony, they consider factors set out in the state's divorce laws to decide the type and amount of final support, if any.
A request for temporary spousal support, as with so many aspects of divorce, can be a challenging task if you're not familiar with the process. If you have questions about your own divorce case and temporary support, you should contact an experienced family law attorney in your area.