Where Is the Column for “Adultery” on the Financial Disclosure Forms in Divorce?
If one spouse had an extramarital affair, both spouses will probably think of the affair as the main reason for the divorce, even years later. The divorce court does not usually see it that way, though. The divorce court is only interested in dividing marital assets and debts in the fairest possible way. If you think about it, you and your spouse probably disagreed with each other’s values about money, and perhaps about other things, and one spouse’s affair was probably just the final straw. The only way that adultery affects the distribution of marital property is if one spouse used marital funds to support his or her affair partner financially or to meet the affair partner in secret. If your marriage ended because of adultery, and you and your spouse disagree about the distribution of marital property and how, if at all, the affair should affect this, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Your Ex-Spouse’s Adultery Does Not Automatically Excuse You From Paying Alimony
A middle-aged Florida couple married in 1999. They bought a marital home, but by the time they filed for divorce in 2011, after the wife had an extramarital affair, they owned negative equity in the house, meaning that the amount of debt encumbering it was greater than the house’s value. The wife left the workforce shortly after the parties married, because of multiple chronic health problems. She owned substantial assets before the marriage, which she sold over time to contribute to marital finances. In 2008, she settled a workers’ compensation claim and received a lump sum.
When the parties divorced, the husband argued that he should not have to pay alimony to the wife. He reasoned that, since she had an affair, the divorce was her fault. Unfortunately for him, that is not how alimony works in Florida. Alimony is based on one spouse’s need for financial support to avoid dependence on public benefits, and on the other spouse’s ability to pay, not on which spouse is at fault for the divorce.
If You Are Healthy Enough to Cheat on Your Spouse, You Are Healthy Enough to Work
The couple’s divorce case dragged on for five years, including an appeal, with the couple disagreeing about alimony and about division of marital property. The appeals court eventually determined that the trial court had failed to impute income to the wife. Most alimony recipients must return to the workforce, unless they have reached retirement age or cannot work because of a disability. In this case, the wife was not in the best of health, but she had never been declared legally disabled, so a vocational expert would likely have determined that she was capable of working at least part-time.
Contact Schwartz | White About Divorce in Sickness and in Poverty
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if you are getting a divorce while everything else in your life is going wrong. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5308360634380841701&q=divorce+market&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2014&as_yhi=2024
