Can Cheaters Get Alimony?
The family courts are not in the business of ordering restitution for broken hearts. Cases where the divorce court finds one spouse at fault for the divorce are rare exceptions; most divorce filings are for no fault divorce. Couples can decide among themselves that their marriage is irretrievably broken, and the court will grant their request to dissolve it. In this case, the court’s only role is to take an accurate assessment of the couple’s financial situation and divide their marital assets and debts equitably. In practice, this usually means that the spouses decide during mediation how to divide their marital property, and the court simply signs off on their decision. A divorce resulting from adultery might feel unimaginably painful for the spouse who got cheated on, but for the family court, it is business as usual. Furthermore, the extramarital affair does not count against the spouse who cheated when it comes to awarding marital property or, if appropriate, alimony. It is as if the courts acknowledge that it takes two people to ruin a marriage; anyone who has ever cheated on their spouse will acknowledge that the marriage was over long before the first flirtatious text message to the paramour. If your spouse cheated on you and you want to walk away with your dignity and, if possible, a fair share of marital property, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Paying Alimony and Residual Marital Debts Is a Small Price to Pay for Dumping a Cheater
A couple married shortly after the wife suffered a work injury that left her with chronic pain and other long-term symptoms. Soon after the couple married, the wife received a workers’ compensation settlement. The couple agreed that the wife would stay out of the workforce instead of looking for a job that she could do with her physical limitations, because the husband’s income plus the wife’s workers’ comp money was plenty to sustain the couple.
Eventually, the couple’s relationship deteriorated, and the wife had an extramarital affair. When the husband found out about the affair in 2008, he filed for divorce. Another factor that contributed to the divorce was the housing market crash; when the parties filed for divorce, they had $200,000 of negative equity in their home. The wife requested alimony, since she had been out of the workforce for many years.
The court awarded the marital home to the husband, and he was happy to keep it, negative equity and all; it gave the wife a deadline by which to move out of the house. It awarded the wife alimony, but not in the amount and duration that she originally requested. It reasoned that she was capable of working, so it calculated the alimony amount by imputing income to her.
Contact Schwartz | White About Divorcing Your Ex and Embracing Your Debts
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if you are so glad to get out of your marriage that you don’t mind taking responsibility for the marital debts. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5308360634380841701&q=lostaglio&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10
