There are a lot of issues that need to be dealt with when a divorce occurs. One of these issues is spousal support. This won’t necessarily be involved in every divorce, but it is certainly a topic that can be addressed. But how does spousal support get awarded in the state of Arizona?
Well, this is a multi-step process. The first step is deciding whether you and your spouse can work it out on your own without the court making a decision. If this is possible, you should try to make it work.
But if you can’t work it out together, then it would be put forth to the court. At that point, the court would need to determine if spousal support is even necessary in your case. They would look at the situations of the two spouses and see if they were self-sufficient, or if either spouse lacked the means to take care of themselves in the wake of a divorce. Longer marriages can also increase the likelihood of spousal maintenance, as longer marriages may mean that one of the spouses lost his or her job prospects during the course of the marriage.
If spousal support is deemed applicable in your case, then the court will have to decide how much is paid from one spouse to another. The court will look at many different factors, including the earning potential of the spouses, the length of the marriage, the health of the spouses and other relevant pieces of context to determine the support payments.