Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Georgia law allows for a spouse, an ex-spouse, to receive alimony payments from her or his former spouse
under certain circumstance. Alimony is not as popular a remedy of courts as it was 30 or 40 years ago, given
that increasingly both the moms and the dads are oftentimes in the workforce already working to provide
financially for the family. However, in events and circumstances where an economically dependent spouse
needs the financial support for a period of time from their former spouse inthe form of alimony, Georgia
courts do have the authority under some circumstances to award alimony. Factors that are most commonly
looked at by courts are what is the financial need of the dependent spouse or ex-spouse, what is the financial
capacity of the other ex-spouse to provide some amount of alimony for some amount of time and what
has been the standard of living that the parties enjoyed during the marriage, particularly during the latter part
of the marriage. And there are some additional factors as well but those are the larger ones. Alimony is
one of the most sensitive and controversial topics in family law because it is always the case in my experience
that the payor of alimony does not want to pay and certainly does not want to pay for as long or pay as much
as the hoped for recipient of the alimony would like. So it is a difficult area of family law but one that
is very important.