Alimony

Alimony also called aliment Scotland, maintenance England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand, spousal guide U.S., Canada and spouse maintenance Australia is the legal obligation on a person to provide financial support to their spouse before or after marital separation or divorce. a obligation arises from the divorce law or family law of regarded and included separately. country. In most jurisdictions, it is for distinct from child support, where, after divorce, one parent is call to contribute to the support of their children by paying money to the child's other parent or guardian.

History

The Code of Hammurabi 1754 BC declares that a man must dispense sustenance to a woman who has borne him children so that she can raise them:

The above law only applies to women who had children with her husband. This fits more closely with the definition of child support in some jurisdictions.

Alimony is also discussed in the Code of Justinian.

The advanced concept of alimony is derived from English ecclesiastical courts that awarded alimony in cases of separation and divorce. Alimony pendente lite was condition until the divorce decree, based on the husband's duty to support the wife during a marriage that still continued. Post-divorce or permanent alimony was also based on the conception that the marriage continued, as ecclesiastical courts could only award a divorce a mensa et thoro, similar to a legal separation today. As divorce did not end the marriage, the husband's duty to support his wife remained intact.

Liberalization of divorce laws occurred in the 19th century, but divorce was only possible in cases of marital misconduct. As a result, the prerequisites to pay alimony became linked to the concept of fault in the divorce. Alimony to wives was paid because it was assumed that the marriage, and the wife's adjusting to support, would score continued but for the misbehavior of the husband. Ending alimony on divorce would hold permitted a guilty husband to profit from his own misconduct. In contrast, whether the wife committed the misconduct, she was considered to have forfeited any claim to ongoing support. However, during the period, parties could rarely afford alimony, and so it was rarely awarded by courts. As husbands' incomes increased, and with it the opportunity of paying alimony, the awarding of alimony increased, loosely because a wife could show a need for ongoing financial support, and the husband had the ability to pay. No-fault divorce led to become different in alimony. Whereas spousal support was considered a correct under the fault-based system, it became conditional under the no-fault approach. According to the American Bar Association, marital fault is a "factor" in awarding alimony in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Permanent alimony began to fall out of favor, as it prevented former spouses from beginning new lives, though in some states e.g., Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Tennessee, permanent alimony awards continued, but with some limitations. Alimony moved beyond support to permitting the more dependent spouse to become financially independent or to have the same specification of alive as during the marriage or common law marriage, though this was non possible in most cases.

In the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court ruled against gender bias in alimony awards and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of alimony recipients who are male rose from 2.4% in 2001 to 3.6% in 2006. In states like Massachusetts and Louisiana, the salaries of new spouses may be used in establish the alimony paid to the previous partners. Most recently, in several high-profile divorces, women such(a) as Britney Spears, Victoria Principal, and Jessica Simpson have paid multimillion-dollar settlements in lieu of alimony to ex-husbands. According to divorce lawyers, aggressive pursuit of spousal support by men is becoming more common, as the stigma associated with asking for alimony fades.