One of the concerns that many people have as they approach a divorce is what will happen after the divorce has concluded. Their “post-divorce” life is on a person’s mind when the initial paperwork is filed. This is not surprising, given that the divorce case itself is not pleasant to think about and is not that long in duration. Your divorce will take a couple of months to complete (on average), but your post-divorce life will hopefully be much, much longer. What kind of life you will lead depends mainly on the decisions you make in the case and the outcomes at which you and your spouse arrive.
Many more people worry about the costs of their divorce. They hire an attorney, take time off from work, court fees, mediation fees, etc. The prices of a divorce can add up quickly depending on your case’s specific facts and circumstances. On top of the reality of these cases, you have probably heard horror stories about divorces from friends, family members, and neighbors. These folks mean well and may even share their stories with you to help themselves with their coping process. That being said, it doesn’t help your anxiety to hear those stories!
Then we arrive back at your post-divorce life. What kind of life are you going to be able to lead in your post-divorce years. It doesn’t matter if you are a young person going through your divorce or a young at heart person going through your divorce. We all want a quality life and peace of mind when we begin a new phase in our lives. Since you have been married for an extended period, much of your life has been tied to your spouse. Getting a divorce means removing a considerable part of your life (for better or worse). What that means for you and your family could be anyone’s guess.
A typical scenario that plays out in many divorces…
Suppose that you are a stay-at-home mother and wife. You and your husband have agreed over the years that it would be best for your family that you remain at home to care for your three children. Your husband has a college degree and a ton of good work experience. He has been the breadwinner for your 18-year marriage. You’ve had your problems at the wedding, but you’ve always been able to work through them with your husband. Nothing has ever escalated beyond the point where you all could discuss what is wrong and figure out a solution.
That is, until now. In recent months, you’ve had a rougher patch in your marriage that you could tell was different from other rough patches. One day you arrive home from dropping your kids off at school to find that a person is waiting for you in your driveway. Without thinking, you park your car and approach this person. Surprisingly, he hands you some legal documents and walks towards his vehicle.
You walk into the house and open up papers to find out that you have just been served with divorce papers. Your husband is filing for divorce, and you have twenty days to file an Answer to his petition. With the room spinning, you sit down and reach out to a friend who can provide you with a recommendation for a family law attorney. The attorney takes your call and is willing to walk you through the basics of divorce. Once the basics have been discussed, you tell the lawyer that you have concerns about one particular area: how to survive financially during the divorce and in the immediate period after the divorce.
You want to make sure that you will be able to pay the bills, not have your home foreclosed upon, and then find work if that is what needs to happen for your family. With all these questions spinning around in your head, the lawyer begins to walk you through the concepts of temporary spousal support, contractual alimony, and spousal maintenance.
Spousal maintenance in Texas divorces
Like most people who use the word “alimony,” you’re not sure exactly what the term refers to but have a general sense that it means money paid to you by your ex-spouse after the conclusion of the divorce. After watching enough movies and television shows that detail alimony, you feel like you have a pretty solid idea about what it is and how it could benefit you and your family. Could you get anything like this in the divorce, you ask the attorney?
The attorney starts by telling you that the state of Texas has been a little slow on the draw, relatively speaking, when it comes to creating laws dealing with post-divorce financial support. Our form didn’t even have alimony or spousal maintenance until the late 1990s. The next thing that you all discuss is the word “alimony” itself. While it may just be semantics, Texas doesn’t have anything that is just called alimony. We have payments called “spousal maintenance,” which are post-divorce payments of money by one spouse to the other as ordered by a judge in a trial.
The first thing that the lawyer asks you about is the length of your marriage. He tells you that your wedding needs to have lasted for at least ten years for you to be a candidate to receive spousal maintenance. Since you and your husband have been married for 18 years, you can clear that first hurdle. To provide you with a complete picture of what spousal maintenance is, he tells you that the marriage does not need to have lasted for a full ten years if he has been convicted or placed on deferred adjudication for family violence in recent years. Fortunately, that does not apply to your situation, so you all move to the next relevant topic.
The lawyer tells you that the main issue to keep in mind is that judges can order spousal maintenance in a trial, but they are loathed to do so. Many judges will not collect spousal maintenance payments unless it is an absolute necessity to do so, and all other options have been reviewed and ruled out as possibilities. For instance, the law in Texas states that spousal maintenance payments are made only when you lack sufficient property (including separate property that you entered into the marriage with) to meet your minimum reasonable needs.
What does that mean, exactly? The bottom line is that you cannot have much in the way of assets, property, or other items that could be sold for money to contribute to your material well-being after the divorce. If you have a lot of property, or the division of your community estate was such that you walked out of the divorce with a ton of property, it is unlikely that you will be awarded spousal maintenance in the divorce. See what I mean about judges treated spousal maintenance as a last resort?
More regarding the high bar to receive spousal maintenance in a Texas divorce
So while you are letting the above requirements to receive spousal maintenance sink in, the lawyer hits you with another wave. In addition to not being able to meet your minimum reasonable needs with the property you already have, a judge needs to find that you were unable to earn a sufficient income for yourself to provide for those needs due to a disability or the need to care for a child with a disability.
This should tell you right away that a judge will expect you to do everything you can to find a job for yourself before he will even consider awarding spousal maintenance in a divorce. This means, for example, that if you have a college degree that you never used, it would be an excellent time to dust off the old diploma and get to work sending out resumes and asking your social network for leads on jobs.
If you need to go back to school for certification, training, or other courses, you should make plans. Since you are early in the divorce process, it would make a lot of sense to ask your spouse if he could pay for the class you need to take. If you can show the ability to go out and earn a living for yourself, even if it takes a great deal of effort, then the judge will not award you spousal maintenance.
If you are awarded spousal maintenance, how long can it last?
The attorney advises you that the other thing to keep in mind about spousal maintenance is that it likely will not last forever even if you are awarded that benefit in your divorce. If your marriage has lasted for 18 years, you would receive at most five years of spousal maintenance. 20-30 year marriages are allowed at most seven years of spousal maintenance, whereas 30+ year marriages would be eligible for ten years of care. It is only when you or your child has a disability that indefinite spousal maintenance can be ordered.
Based on the circumstances of your case and your specific needs, a judge will tailor a spousal maintenance order to last the minimum length of time required to develop the skills, gain the experience or attain the degree that allows you to provide for yourself without the need for maintenance.
How much spousal maintenance are we talking about here?
Spousal maintenance is typically paid every month. You could be paid up to $5,000 by your ex-spouse per month or 20% of his average gross monthly income- whichever figure is more petite. You and your ex-spouse would both submit budgets to the judge showing your household expenditures, and then he could decide what you need to sustain yourself. If all you can do is work a job where you earn $2,000, the judge could figure out what additional money you need to get by and then order that you receive that amount of money for five years. In that five years, it would behoove you to go back to school or do something to begin to earn enough money to provide for yourself.
What factors will a judge look to when awarding spousal maintenance in a divorce trial?
When determining how much spousal maintenance to award and how long to grant it to you, the judge has some factors to consider in performing his analysis. The relative difference in your and your spouse’s ability to provide for yourselves is one of those factors. Again, if your spouse is highly educated and has a great work history. In contrast, you have “only” a high school diploma and never worked outside the home, and this would encourage a judge to be more liberal in his award of spousal maintenance.
The length of your marriage (as we just discussed), your ages, earning potential, your health, and the contributions you made towards your husband establishing his career will also be considered final if your spouse (or you) contributed in some way to the break up the marriage (infidelity, family violence, financial misdeeds) that is an essential factor as well.
Questions about divorce? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
The experienced family law attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan are equipped to provide you with the sort of assistance, advice, and advocacy that you need in this time where you are approaching a divorce. The hypothetical situation I laid out for you in today’s blog post is not a fantasy: our attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week here in our office. You can ask questions and receive direct feedback about your specific circumstances by simply picking up the phone and giving us a call.
Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.
Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.
His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.
Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.
