Is Temporary Alimony A Predictor Of Post-Divorce Litigation?

Earlier this month, a court in Miami ordered Lenny Hochstein to pay $8,000 per month in temporary alimony to his wife Lisa Hochstein, a cast member on the Real Housewives of Miami, with whom he is currently going through a divorce.  You might think that a situation like this could never happen to you.  Isn’t it only celebrities and multimillionaires whose divorces are so messy that a judge needs to order one spouse to pay alimony to the other before the couple is even officially divorced?  Temporary alimony is more common than you think, but it is as temporary as its name suggests.  If your spouse is being uncooperative about short-term financial plans while your divorce case is pending, contact a Boca Raton alimony lawyer.

How Is Temporary Alimony Different From Other Types of Spousal Support?

Out of the six types of alimony recognized under Florida law, only one of them is permanent.  Permanent alimony is becoming rarer, as more of the long-married couples getting divorced these days have had a dual income throughout their marriage.  Temporary alimony, also known as pendente lite alimony, is different from the other four types of non-permanent alimony, though.

The court orders one spouse to pay temporary alimony to the other while the divorce is in progress; it automatically ends once the court finalizes the divorce, and the court may or may not issue a different alimony award in its place.  The purpose of temporary alimony is to cover the household bills until the couple is able to separate their finances by finalizing the divorce.

Hasty Divorce Cases Can Be as Messy as Time-Consuming Ones

Most couples are able to work out their short-term finances while the divorce case is pending, even if the case ends up going to trial to resolve issues related to property division, durational alimony, or parenting time.  When a judge needs to get involved in disputes that are necessarily self-limiting, such as who pays for what until a currently pending divorce becomes final, it is a sign that the divorce case will not be over quickly.

Consider the big picture, though.  It is better to resolve all your property division issues in a satisfactory way, even if it means that it takes longer before you become legally single.  This is ultimately less costly than signing a hastily put together marital settlement agreement and then ending up back in court when disagreements inevitably arise.  In other words, paying temporary alimony now could stop you from having to pay for post-divorce litigation in the future.  Financial considerations do not predict whether a parenting plan will require modification; if the children are young at the time of the divorce, you may need to modify the parenting plan as the children enter school or reach adolescence, so you can account for school and extracurricular activities.

Contact Schwartz | White About Temporary Alimony

A South Florida family law attorney can help you look at the big picture, as painful as it can be to pay temporary alimony.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

yahoo.com/entertainment/rhom-lisa-hochstein-8k-month-152703948.html