Author: sitemanager

This becomes a big issue in many cases, because that’s essentially the argument that’s made by both sides. One side is going to be arguing that the parent is a stay-at-home parent and then the other side is going to be arguing that the person is basically unemployed. So, that often becomes a key issue in the case, especially when it comes to parenting and spousal support..

Often, one of the arguments that’ll be made is that the person needs spousal support to obtain additional skills, because they have been a stay-at-home parent for a number of years. The other side usually argues that’s not the case because this person either just volunteers to stay home, didn’t want to get a job, or couldn’t get a job for whatever reason. The court is really going to look at that and evaluate a number of different factors. For example,one factor is going to be, well, what is the actual education of this person? Is it a reasonable argument to make that they really were a stay-at-home parent and need the additional training or education? So let’s say that you’ve got somebody who’s highly educated. They have high skills and their home. You could make a pretty good argument here that the person is in fact,  by agreement of the parties, a stay at home parent.

One issue you may have in these situations is let’s say you’ve got somebody who doesn’t have a long track record of work, and they have been taking care of the kids for years. If you can it’s always best to find records of communication or even third parties who have witnessed discussions about what the intent was of the people who were involved in the divorce. That’s something that’s going to be very key. So if you have somebody who was witnessing communication between the two people talking about it, or if you have email communications, or even text messages, that’s all going to be helpful for a court to sort out whether the parties legitimately agreed upon one parent being a stay at home parent. The court is going to be looking at all of that and any evidence you have is going to be helpful to the court.

So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com

The first factor we are going to discuss today is the extent to which one of the parties contributed to the other obtaining things in their education, skills, and career. For example, let’s say one spouse worked while the other went through school. On the other hand, maybe one spouse made financial sacrifices so that the other spouse could move around and get a higher paying job. Those things could lend themselves towards one person being awarded some type of alimony. Things such as these are very significant in terms of awarding alimony and plays an important role in permanent alimony as well as rehabilitative alimony.

The next factor we’re going to talk about addresses the ability of an individual being able to increase their income earning ability through being awarded alimony. This is a factor that’s going to apply more in the context of rehabilitative alimony. Rehabilitative alimony is alimony that’s usually shorter in duration for the purposes of trying to get the person’s skills higher so that they can actually make more money. So if the person can establish that through alimony, they can substantially increase their income-earning ability then that can become an important factor for courts to consider. Sometimes people come up with a plan that they present to the court where they demonstrate their plan of going back to school to get an advanced education. The key part of that is though is that it has to prove how them going back to school could substantially increase their income-earning ability. So it’s really really important that the person comes up with a reasonable plan that they can present to the court to show why they’re going to be able to

substantially increase their income-earning ability if let’s say the other person pays for their school or for them to obtain other skills.

So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.

I’ll often get questions from people about weather conditions and whether they have to take the person to the exchange. This is an issue that comes up from time to time in court. The major issue that you have in court with this is one person claiming that the weather was so bad that they could not go and meet up for the parenting exchange. They may also claim that their life or safety was at stake. So those are the two extremes that people claim. What the court is going to do is the key thing here is if the person is legitimately not able to make it to the exchange, then the court will look at it and likely conclude that the person is not in contempt. Typically when someone doesn’t fulfill the obligations of a court order they can potentially be held in contempt of court.

So the process works in this way. After a contempt of court is filed you go to court with one person claiming that the weather is such, that they couldn’t have made it. Then the other person is claiming that they could. The court is going to look at what the conditions were and hear the testimony of the person claiming that the weather was such, that they couldn’t appear. The other person is going to claim that the person is just a liar and there’s no reason they shouldn’t have done the exchange. Then the court will have to decide. So, even if the court sides in favor of the person claiming that there was a legitimate reason for the exchange not to happen courts are usually inclined towards granting the other person some sort of make-up time. It’s unfortunate that we have to get to this point in these cases where people are making claims like that in court. However, sometimes it gets to that point. So the court will have to sort it out and once they do they’ll determine whether the one individual should be held in contempt of court.

Now, some of the remedies for contempt of court include incarceration, as well as potentially attorney fees. It’s more likely that a person is going to be awarded attorney fees or something along those lines or possibly fines. The court will not likely incarcerate somebody for any kind of claim of contempt of court on the first go-round unless it’s a special circumstance. So just remember if you’re not going to go out in the snow for an exchange, make sure that you have a legitimate argument and claim because otherwise, you could end up in court.

So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.

One of the factors that we will be discussing today is a court’s consideration of the cost of educating minor children. Whether the children are going to private school, public school, or homeschool, one of the factors the court can consider is the cost of educating that child. The court is going to look at things such as private school tuition, school supplies, extracurriculars, and anything else that might fall under the cost of educating children. So, for example, let’s say that one of the parents is going to be the primary residential custodian. They’re going to have the children most of the time. This means they’re going to have certain expenses that are associated with the child attending school. Even if the child was being homeschooled there are going to be certain expenses that are involved with that as well. All of these factors can be considered when a court is going to possibly grant some sort of alimony.

The next factor we’re going to talk about is the education expenses. So let’s say maybe the payee spouse, the one who’s receiving the spousal support, is going to obtain some education or training. There will be certain costs associated with that and a court may look at that as well. The court’s going to ask whether that training or extended education is going to cost a significant sum of money. The court could conclude that the cost is prohibitively expensive based on what the payee spouse is proposing. The court could also look at it and say, well, the cost is reasonable. The point is though is that a court is going to be looking at the overall cost for the person who’s going to be the payee spouse in terms of getting compensated with what we call rehabilitative alimony. That’s what we’re talking about here is when somebody is trying to rehabilitate themselves so they can move on and get a higher paying job. A court is certainly going to factor in those costs.

So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.

To begin, the first factor we’re going to be talking about is the tax consequences to each party. Before a few years ago, the law was such that the person who paid alimony would receive a tax deduction and the person who received alimony would have to pay taxes on the alimony. The law has since changed on a federal level and not the person who is the payer spouse no longer gets a deduction for the alimony. Also, the person who is receiving the alimony no longer has to claim that on their taxes. In some respects, it’s better for the payer spouse but in some ways, it’s not. It has however made things easier in some ways because when you’re trying to figure out whether a person should be paying some sort of alimony, you’re not factoring in the tax deduction that they’re going to get. Furthermore, the person who’s going to be receiving alimony is not going to be paying taxes on that. So it’s in some respects a lot more simple than it was before.

The next factor we’re going to discuss that a court is going to consider is the impact of healthcare costs for both themselves and the children. So let’s say that somebody is going to have a huge bill when it comes to their health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act, it might be that they get some sort of supplement in the form of a subsidy. A court is going to look at the cost of health insurance for themselves, as well as the children. Now, in most instances, the order will be set up so that the person who is paying the spousal support is also going to be having to cover the cost of the children’s health insurance, to the extent that it is reasonably available to them. This is usually not going to be a factor that adds cost to the payer because this person typically just adds the child to their insurance. However, this is a factor that the court looks at when they’re going through the alimony factors to determine how much a person should be paying in support.

So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.

So let’s say that you have a stay-at-home mom who has stayed home for several years. The court could look at that and that could be used as a factor as to why alimony should or should not be appropriate. That’s one of the things that a court is going to look at and they will look at all of the facts and circumstances regarding that.

The other factor that we’re going to be talking about today is the financial need of a party. Oftentimes this is considered to be a crucial factor in family court, depending on the judge, but  other judges will look at it and they’ll just consider it to be one out of many factors. So what they would do is the court, under those circumstances, would look at the reasonable expenses of one of the people involved in a divorce action. That’s going to be a factor that they consider. You would look at various expenses, such as rent, mortgage, car payments, utility bills, cable, and possibly even something for vacations. A court would be looking at the financial need of the party overall. On some level that’s somewhat subjective as to what a financial need is, but oftentimes the courts will look at what is going to be the reasonable expenses. So it’s a very, crucial and important factor. Other items that might be included in there could be money to set aside for an emergency fund, or it could include things like something as small as tuneups for your vehicle. Some more examples include things such as oil changes, tire rotations, a reasonable clothing budget. These things would be spread out over a year and then divided by 12. A court would look at all of those to determine whether a particular person has a financial need and they might get to look at what the financial need is after they’re working.

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.

Let’s say that somebody has a child from a different relationship. It might’ve been before the marriage or it might have been after. A court can consider this when assessing whether alimony should be paid. For example, let’s say somebody had a child before the marriage and they have a child support obligation for that child. That could be factored into the alimony. Another factor that a court is going to consider is the legal duty for somebody to care for a child with mental or physical disabilities. For example, maybe one parent has taken it upon themselves to care for the party’s adult child, who has some sort of mental disability physical disability. For this example, let’s say it’s the payor spouse. What the court could do is factor that into their decision as to whether that person should be paying alimony, because that person has all of those expenses associated with taking care of that individual. This can impact how much the person is going to be paying in terms of alimony or whether the court may negate any kind of alimony from being required to be paid

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.

Let’s start by discussing some examples. For instance, a court may look to see if one person in the marriage was producing the majority of the income. This doesn’t clearly fall within one of the alimony factors, but it is something the court might consider. Another example is let’s say one person is going to be getting a large inheritance of some sort. Maybe the court wants to consider that when deciding whether somebody should be awarded alimony. Another example may be that there is some sort of fault on the part of one of the parties.

The court can generally do what they want when it comes to these alimony factors. That can become very risky when you go into court because you don’t know what a judge is going to decide or how they’re going to weigh the alimony factors. You could have two different judges that are going to completely weigh alimony factors in different ways. I’ve had some judges that say that one of the primary considerations is a person’s ability to pay. Then I have had judges that do not weigh that as much. So, it really comes down to this last factor. It’s a very important factor because it gives the family court a lot of what we call discretion. This means they have a lot of leeway as to what they may or may not do in terms of awarding some form of alimony.

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.

First, let’s discuss how the education level of an individual factors into an alimony decision. So let’s say that you have one person who is a medical doctor, and the other person has little to no formal education. Maybe they have a high school diploma and that’s it. Under those circumstances, the person who is the medical doctor is that is going to be weighed against them in terms of whether they should be required to pay some sort of alimony. That factor would be in favor of the person who has far less education. Now, the closer you get to the education level of the people that are involved, then the less likely it’s going to weigh into the decision. For example, let’s say that you have one person with a bachelor’s degree and the other person has a master’s degree. Well, it’s not going to weigh as much as opposed to a person who has significantly greater education in terms of any kind of formal education. So that’s going to be how that factor is weighed.

The next factor that we’re going to be talking about is whether a person has foregone or postponed opportunities for various reasons. So, in the previous example that we gave, let’s say we still have one person who is a medical doctor and the other person decided to stay at home with the kids. On the other hand, maybe the other person decided to work a lot while the other person was going to medical school, while at the same time, even while the person was working, they could have gone and gotten a master’s degree. They’ve been working the whole time to put the other person through medical school. Now, clearly, that person has forgone or postponed various opportunities. Alternatively, what might’ve happened is that person might have delayed opportunities. So to speak that person sacrificed a lot for the person who has the education. Maybe the person who made these sacrifices wanted to go to medical school or go back and get some sort of advanced degree but they didn’t. That factor would be a major consideration for a court under the circumstances.

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.

This is an important factor that the court is going to take into account and I’ll use this by way of an example. Let’s say that you have one person who is a CEO of a company, and they have established a certain lifestyle throughout the marriage. That factor is that is going to weigh heavily in terms of whether the court you’re going to award alimony. So in that scenario, let’s say the person has been working in that job with a high income for several years, it’s going to weigh a lot heavier than let’s say a person who has only been working it for a few years and is right out of college. There’s a standard of living that’s been established, but at the same time, the standard of living hasn’t been as long in duration, based on those circumstances. You really can’t argue that there’s been a tremendous amount of established income. That’s the difference between the two.

So the other factor that a court can consider among the 20 factors is the likelihood that a person is going to be able to increase their income earning ability throughout the marriage. This is only a situation where the issue of rehabilitative alimony is going to be an issue. There’s a difference between rehabilitative alimony and permanent alimony. Rehabilitative alimony is for those situations where let’s say you have somebody who has been in the marriage for five, eight, or maybe 10 years. They can still go and make a decent living if they were to get the right kind of training. So if they can establish that they can go and get the education and be able to make a decent living based on the training then the court may consider whether the other person should pay for that training. Also, that would weigh in favor of the person being able to receive some sort of alimony award.

That consists of today’s topic. Please tune in tomorrow or the next business day to see more analysis of the alimony factors in West Virginia divorce. 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.