What is alimony?
Alimony is basically support of a spouse. It’s different from child support in that it is funding that is to take care of the needs of the other spouse. It’s generally calculated by the needs of the one spouse and the ability of the other spouse to pay. So it’s, needless to say, support for the spouse that is in the most need. And the courts are generally fairly liberal about this to make sure that everybody has basic needs covered; food, shelter, clothing, that type of thing. It’s not designed for luxuries. It’s designed to make sure that the basic needs of a spouse are covered, because often in marital relationships, one spouse, as opposed to both, had been principally the wage earner and one of the spouses generally has an income or wage disparity that causes them to have a need, and the other spouse has the ability to pay, which is the concept of alimony.
