Does Cheating Affect Alimony Awards In Divorce
Does Infidelity Affect Alimony Orders In Divorce Cases? Your Attorney’s Answer May Surprise You
There are many reasons why two married people may decide to call divorce attorneys and call it quits. With nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce it is a reality that all married couples must contend with. One of the most common reasons for divorce rates being as high as they are is infidelity in the marriage. Additionally, in divorce cases where the parties were married longer than seven years one of the more common issues aside from child issues and division of assets is spousal support also called alimony.
Alimony exists, in theory, to guarantee that both spouses are on equal footing when it comes to supporting themselves after the marital relationship ends. The stereotypical example of this idea is in the Doctor who married a secretary, had two kids, kept his wife as a home maker and after twenty years left her for his 21 year old assistant. Of course the husband, in this hypothetical example, will be able to support himself just fine but the wife may well be left in poverty. This alimony exists in order to equalize everyone’s ability to support themselves based on the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage.
There almost seems to be a subculture of infidelity in today’s society. With popular television shows portraying a glamorous side to swingers [2] and cheating in addition to the rise of online cheating communities such as Ashley Madison the site which was made famous in recent months for a data breach which has revealed the identities of millions of its users many of whom are from right here in Central, FL [1]. All a person needs to do is to review the world map of Ashley Madison customer density to realize the popularity of sites of this type [3]
There is no doubt that the revelation of Ashley Madison users has led to an upswing in calls to divorce lawyers and one of the first questions being asked at consultations may be: Does cheating affect alimony awards?
The answer in short is “it depends”. While the Florida Statute still permits divorce judges to consider certain types of marital misconduct when ruling on alimony requests in divorce litigation. What happens in many cases is that an increasing number of judges are understanding that cheating is often a symptom of larger problems in a relationship and do not necessarily hold it as marital misconduct that rises to the level of affecting spousal support awards.
What Are The Most Important Factors For Spousal Support?
The most important factors for alimony awards continues to be length of marriage, need and ability to pay, standard of living durning the marriage, disparity of incomes between husband and wife, whether one spouse sacrificed their educational or career opportunities in order to further those of the other spouse, and to a lesser degree marital misconduct.
It will be important to talk to the divorce attorneys at Sean Smallwood, P.A. about all the alimony factors that may be in play in your case in order to make sure that your case is properly pled and defended.
If you need to speak with a divorce lawyer about your case then call us today at 321-800-3682
Resources:
[1] http://www.wcjb.com/local-news/2015/08/ashley-madison-users-north-central-florida
[2] http://www.people.com/people/mobile/article/0,,20900948,00.html
[3] https://tecnilogica.cartodb.com/viz/56e702fe-4693-11e5-8f79-0e853d047bba/public_map#/more
Sean Smallwood is an Orlando divorce attorney for the law firm Sean Smallwood, Orlando Divorce & Family Law P.A. where he represents clients in all areas of family law and divorce. 100% of the practice is devoted to family law. As an attorney in Orlando, he has helped many families with a wide variety of family law cases including Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, and many other issues.
