Hello everyone. It’s Chris, Pritt back again with a new topic in West Virginia divorce. Today, we’re going to be talking about the various alimony factors. We’re going to be doing this over a series of videos where we’ll go through all of the alimony factors that are found in West Virginia law in particular chapter 48. So we’re going to go through those one by one.
Today we’re going to start at the top of the list and then go right through the first alimony factor that’s listed in the code. This is the number of years in which the parties were married. This is one of 20 factors that a court is going to consider when it comes to whether to award alimony. So, for example, let’s say that you have a couple that has been married for 30 years. Well, that’s a pretty long marriage under the alimony factors. That one is going to be a factor that would weigh in favor of the person who is seeking to get some sort of alimony. Now let’s say we have a marriage of shorter duration, maybe it’s only a three or four-year marriage. Well, that is going to weigh against an award of alimony. Often in divorces, they usually end up falling somewhere in between that in terms of how long the people are married. They’re going to weigh that along with the other factors that are found in the West Virginia code. So the court will look at that factor and they will look at the other 20 factors. Then they will conclude whether alimony should be awarded.
Now in West Virginia, notably, we do not have an actual alimony formula. There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about trying to set it up so that there is one, but as we speak today, there is no alimony formula. So what you’re going to have is a court is going to go through every single one of the factors that is found in the West Virginia code. Then the court is going to decide as to how long alimony should be awarded. Different judges rule in different ways when it comes to whether alimony should be awarded and for how much. It depends on the judge that you get. Some judges are very inclined to grant alimony while others are not. So you just have to be thinking about that and trying to assess whether you should come to an agreement or whether you should try to present the case to the judge.
That consists of today’s topic. If you have any questions at all, feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.
