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 analysis of the alimony factors in West Virginia and how courts apply them. We have generally been discussing two topics per day and today we are going to continue with that.
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.
