Maintenance

Guidelines / Types of Maintenance / Maintenance Modifications / Choosing a Maintenance Attorney

Guidelines

Maintenance (formerly known as alimony, and in some states called spousal support) may be awarded to either spouse as the court deems just.  Maintenance may be awarded in an Illinois divorce or legal separation if one spouse is unable to be self supporting, either through employment or the use of income producing assets.

Marital misconduct is not to be considered in awarding maintenance. Maintenance may be paid from the income or property of the other spouse after consideration of all relevant factors, including:

1. The income and property of each party, including marital property apportioned and non-marital property assigned to the party seeking maintenance
2. The needs of each party
3. The present and future earning capacity of each party
4. Any impairment of the present and future earning capacity of the party seeking maintenance due to that party devoting time to domestic duties or having foregone or delayed education, training, employment, or career opportunities due to the marriage
5. The time necessary to enable the party seeking maintenance to acquire appropriate education, training, and employment, and whether that party is able to support himself or herself through appropriate employment or is the custodian of a child making it appropriate that the custodian not seek employment
6. The standard of living established during the marriage
7. The duration of the marriage
8. The age and the physical and emotional condition of both parties
9. The tax consequences of the property division upon the respective economic circumstances of the parties
10. Contributions and services by the party seeking maintenance to the education, training, career or career potential, or license of the other spouse
11. Any valid agreement of the parties
12. Any other factor that the court expressly finds to be just and equitable

There is no Illinois formula that dictates how courts should deal with whether a spouse should receive long term support, how much that support should be, or how long it should last for purposes of the final divorce decree.  As a result, maintenance is often a wild card in Illinois divorce settlements, and the judge can use it as a balancing tool to make the asset division fairer.

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Types of Maintenance

There are several types of maintenance.  The process of determining what type of maintenance and whether the court will award maintenance is complex.  Below are very general definitions of the types of maintenance to better help you understand the terms if you hear or read about them.

• Permanent maintenance is to last for the payee’s entire life.  It is usually subject to termination upon the happening of certain events, such as the death of either the paying or recipient party, the remarriage of the recipient party or if the recipient party cohabits with another person on a resident, continuing conjugal basis.
• Rehabilitative maintenance indicates that although maintenance is awarded, the payee must make efforts to rehabilitate themselves so that they eventually become financially independent.  Once this occurs, the maintenance may be terminated.
• Reviewable maintenance is awarded for a specific period of time and then the court reevaluates to see if the maintenance should continue.

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Maintenance Modifications

Sometimes maintenance awards are made nonmodifiable as to term, as to amount, or both.  In other cases, awards of spousal maintenance may be the subject of later modification proceedings.   An award of maintenance may be modified or terminated only upon a showing of substantial change in circumstances.

In Illinois, the court will consider the following factors, including: change in the employment status of either party and whether the change has been made in good faith; the efforts, if any, made by the party receiving maintenance to become self-supporting; the reasonableness of the efforts where they are appropriate; and any impairment of the present and future earning capacity of either party.

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Choosing a Maintenance Attorney

Because the issue of spousal support is very case specific, your maintenance attorney needs to be an experienced negotiator.  Your attorney also needs to know how to try cases in court, in case the issue doesn’t get settled.  This includes using vocational evaluations, earnings history, job search information, tax analysis and the like to advance or oppose a claim for maintenance.

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The attorneys at the Steele Law Firm are expert negotiators who will fight for you, whether you are receiving maintenance or seeking a change in maintenance.  Call us at (312) 893-5888 if you have any questions, or to set up a FREE consultation.