Des Plaines Spousal Maintenance Attorney
Advising Clients throughout Chicago and the Northwest Suburbs with Divorce Issues
Spousal maintenance, or alimony, is the financial support provided by one divorcing spouse to the other. Maintenance awards may be in gross (lump sums) or periodic payments made for a fixed or indefinite amount of time. At the Law Offices of Scott D. Rogoff, our Chicago area divorce attorney has considerable experience helping clients through the maze of legal issues involved with divorce, including spousal maintenance, property division, child custody, visitation, and child support.
Types of Maintenance:
- Permanent Maintenance. If the divorcing spouses have been married for a considerable amount of time and one spouse left the workforce to raise their children, permanent maintenance may be appropriate. Permanent maintenance typically continues until a “terminating event,” such as the death of one of the spouses, remarriage or cohabitation of the payee spouse.
- Rehabilitative Maintenance are those maintenance awards that terminate upon the completion of a specified duration of time unless the receiving spouse files a petition (written request) with the court to have it extended.
- Terminable Maintenance ends on a specific date or following a specific number of payments.
- Temporary Maintenance. When one spouse makes payments to the other during the pendency of the divorce, it is referred to as temporary maintenance.
Generally maintenance awards – whether permanent or temporary – will terminate upon the death of either party of the remarriage (or continuing, conjugal cohabitation) of the party receiving the financial support. Spousal maintenance is taxable income to the party who receives support and is tax deductable to the party who is paying.
Criteria for Determining Spousal Maintenance
The right to maintenance, even in a long-term marriage, is not an absolute right. When determining a claim for temporary or permanent maintenance, the court will consider a wide range of factors including:
- Income and property of each party
- Needs of each party
- Present and future earning capacity of each party
- Any impairment of present or future earning capacity due to the devotion of time to domestic duties or a delay or a relinquishment of education, training, employment or career opportunities due to the marriage
- Time necessary to enable the party seeking maintenance to acquire the necessary education and training to support himself or herself
- Standard of living during the marriage
- Duration of the marriage
- Age and physical/emotional condition of each party
- Tax consequences of the property division
- Contributions and services of either spouse to the education, training, career or license of the other spouse
- Any valid agreement between the parties, such as a prenuptial agreement
- Any other factor that the court considers just and equitable
Alimony in Illinois
At the Law Offices of Scott D. Rogoff, our knowledgeable Des Plaines divorce attorney has extensive experience in divorce cases involving claims for spousal maintenance. We can seek or oppose all types of alimony, including temporary maintenance, rehabilitative maintenance and permanent maintenance.
As an experienced Illinois divorce attorneys, Scott D. Rogoff has a firm knowledge of issues that must be considered in any case involving claims for spousal support. Contact our office at (847) 768-2194 to learn more about your legal rights and options with respect to spousal maintenance.
