Military spouse divorce alimony (also known as ‘spousal maintenance’ ) is money paid by the higher wage-earning spouse to the lower wage-earning spouse. If you make more money than your spouse, you may be concerned that you will end up paying spousal support for the rest of your life. While lifelong support is not common, the court may order support for any set period of time It deems appropriate. There is no set schedule or formula for setting spousal support. It is up to each attorney to demonstrate what is fair and reasonable, and for each judge to decide which side is correct.

In a divorce, Washington courts strive to lessen the hardship placed on the more financially dependent spouse by the end of the marriage. The court looks at the length of the marriage and what the dependent spouse will need to become self-sufficient. It also considers the ability of the higher-earning spouse to pay, but the needs of the weak are often found to be more important than the ability of the strong to pay.

The longer the marriage, and the more time your spouse has been unemployed or underemployed, the more likely spousal support will be ordered. However, it is not an absolute thing and, it does not necessarily have to last forever. The family law courts in Washington have enormous discretion when determining the appropriate support award and the duration of the alimony payments. This makes alimony and spousal support one of the more complex, and risky, family law issues in Washington. When one of the parties in a divorce is a military member, this can further complicate things, making military alimony or spousal support doubly complex.