San Bernardino & Riverside Spousal Support

1. The extent to which the earning capacity of each party is sufficient to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage, taking into account all of the following:
   • The marketable skills of the supported party; the job market for those skills; the time and expenses required for the supported party to acquire the appropriate education or training to develop those skills; and the possible need for retraining or education to acquire other, more marketable skills or employment.
   • The extent to which the supported party's present or future earning capacity is impaired by periods of unemployment that were incurred during the marriage to permit the supported party to devote time to domestic duties.
2. The extent to which the supported party contributed to the attainment of an education, training, a career position, or a license by the supporting party.
3. The ability of the supporting party to pay spousal support, taking into account the supporting party's earning capacity, earned and unearned income, assets, and standard of living.
4. The needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage.
5. The obligations and assets, including the separate property, of each party.
6. The duration of the marriage.
7. The ability of the supported party to engage in gainful employment without unduly interfering with the interests of dependent children in the custody of the party.
8. The age and health of the parties.
9. Documented evidence of any history of domestic violence, as defined in Section 6211, between the parties, including, but not limited to, consideration of emotional distress resulting from domestic violence perpetrated against the supported party by the supporting party, and consideration of any history of violence against the supporting party by the supported party.
10. The immediate and specific tax consequences to each party.
11. The balance of the hardships to each party.
12. The goal that the supported party shall be self-supporting within a reasonable period of time. Except in the case of a marriage of long duration as described in Section 4336, a "reasonable period of time" for purposes of this section generally shall be one-half the length of the marriage. However, nothing in this section is intended to limit the court's discretion to order support for a greater or lesser length of time, based on any of the other factors listed in this section, Section 4336, and the circumstances of the parties.
13. The criminal conviction of an abusive spouse shall be considered in making a reduction or elimination of a spousal support award in accordance with Section 4325.

Any other factors the court determines are just and equitable.

Most cases will request support as soon as the petition is filed.  This is called a "temporary spousal support order." Many counties have formulas for calculating the amount of a temporary spousal support order. In San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, the court’s use computer program to determine this amount.
The judge will not use a formula to determine how much spousal support to order at the end of the case.  When the judge makes the final order, a number of factors will be evaluated and are set forth in California Family Code section 4320:

• Length of the marriage,*
• Each person needs,
• Ability to pay (earning and capacity),
• Employment interfering with care of the children,
• The age and health of both parties,
• Debts and property,
• Spouse helped the other obtain an education, training, career, or professional license,
• Domestic violence,
• Spousal sacrifice by taking care of the children or home instead of career, and
• Tax consequences of spousal support.**

*Spousal support usually ends when:

• Court order or judgment
• Death of spouse
• Remarriage

**Usually, spousal support is tax deductible for the supporting spouse and taxable income for the supported spouse.

The court will consider various factors when evaluating spousal support modification requests, such as the ability of the supported spouse to engage in gainful employment without interfering with the interests of dependent children in their custody or the age and health of the parties.  The court may also consider other factors that it deems “just and equitable” which may include remarriage, cohabitation and retirement.
Remarriage – Usually, a spousal support order automatically terminates upon the supported party's remarriage.
Cohabitation - Cohabitation may also be considered when seeking a modification of spousal support.  However, more than a simple roommate or boarding house arrangement must exist and there must be evidence of a true sexual relationship, a romantic involvement, or at least a "homemaker-companion" relationship.  If your former spouse is cohabitating with a member of the opposite sex our firm will request that the court order a termination of support or at least a reduction.
Retirement – If the supporting party retires by at least 65, there may be a sufficient basis to warrant a termination of support. However, in cases where the supporting spouse elects to take an early retirement the court may properly deny a spousal support modification request.
If there has been a substantial change in circumstances since the support order, we can terminate or reduce your existing spousal support obligation.  However, each case is distinct and depends upon the many unique facts and circumstances.  The Law Office of Michael R. Young, APC, can meet with you to review your case and provide you with more detailed information about how best to proceed when a modification of spousal support is sought.

Current California Law emphasizes that even in long-term marriages (10 years or more), the supported spouse has a duty to become self-supporting “within a reasonable period of time.”  Where the duration of the marriage is less than ten years, support orders typically last about half the length of the marriage.  Toward that end, the court will issue a “Gavron warning” which means that the supported spouse should become self-supporting within a reasonable period of time. A failure to do so may be grounds for reducing or terminating support.  If a spousal support order does not contain a Gavron warning, we will immediately ask the court to issue one.
When the court gives such a warning, we will ascertain what efforts your former spouse has made since the date of separation to achieve self-sufficiency. If there has not been such efforts, we will request that the court terminate support or that the court impute more income to contribute to their own support.  On the other hand if your ex-spouse has increased earnings, we have a good argument for the court to reduce support payments.
Where support is significant and the estate is large enough, the deposition of your former spouse can be useful.  While common in civil litigation, dissolution cases normally do not have depositions.  However a deposition can be very useful in helping us obtain specific information regarding what your former spouse has done since the time of the spousal support order to seek employment and other factors such as assets, inheritance or other types of relevant information to help us be successful in your request.

Post-separation income increases for the supporting spouse may NOT be considered by the court as a basis for increasing or modifying spousal support. Therefore, if there has been a raise in income, it is not to be considered if a support modification request is made.  The court will look to the standard of living established during the marriage.  In addition, any income of the supporting spouse’s subsequent spouse or non-marital partner is not to be considered.