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When a married couple
or domestic partners separate or divorce, the court may order one spouse
or domestic partner to pay the other a certain amount of support money
each month. This is called "spousal support” or “partner support.”
You can ask for
spousal or partner support to be paid while your case is going on. This is
called a "temporary spousal support order" or a "temporary partner support
order." Many counties have formulas for calculating the amount of a
temporary spousal or partner support order. Check your court's local rules
for the temporary support guideline.
The judge will not
use a formula to figure out how much spousal or partner support to order
at the end of your case (called the "final judgment").
When the judge makes
his or her final order, the judge must consider the factors in
California Family Code section 4320. These factors are:
•The length of the marriage or domestic partnership,
•What each
person needs,
•What each
person pays or can pay (including earnings and earning capacity),
•Whether
having a job would make it too hard to take care of the child(ren),
•The age and
health of both people,
•Debts and
property,
•Whether 1
spouse or domestic partner helped the other get an education,
training,
career, or professional license,
•Whether
there was domestic violence in the marriage or domestic partnership,
•Whether 1
spouse's, or domestic partner's, career was affected by
unemployment, or
by taking care of the
children or home, and
•The tax impact of spousal support
(note: federal and state tax laws were not
changed to recognize domestic
partnerships.)
Either spouse or
domestic partner can later ask the judge to change the support amount if
the situation changes.
A spouse or
domestic partner can also ask the judge for help collecting (enforcing) a
support order.
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