Hello everyone. It’s Chris, Pritt back again with a new topic in West Virginia divorce. Today, we’re going to be continuing with our series on the alimony factors under West Virginia law. We are going through those usually about two per day, and we’re going to try to get those wrapped up here quickly. One of the things that I want to talk to you today about is the next factor, which is the extent to which it would be appropriate for one of the parents to receive alimony because they are the primary custodian of one or any of the minor children involved in the action.
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.
