Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law
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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law

As a business owner, keeping informed about the finer points of employment law is important. If you're getting ready to hire your first employees, you need to be sure that you understand exactly what you can and cannot do. Don't risk getting yourself into legal trouble by asking the wrong question at the interview or making an off-hand comment that's considered legally unacceptable. I created this site to give you the basics of employment law expectations. I hope that the information here helps you to understand what you should and shouldn't do as you're interviewing and hiring your first staff members.

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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law

Three Different Types Of Spousal Support

Irene Robertson

When a marriage is coming to an end, the financial situation of the couple can be in for a major upheaval. For spouses that have been depending on the income of their spouse, the divorce might be put off due to fears of suffering an economic disparity. This situation constitutes the primary reason that spousal support (alimony and maintenance) exists, so read on to learn about the three main types of spousal support and more about why it might be needed.

Does the spouse need spousal support?

One spouse must show a reason for asking for support, as it is not just a given. Nowadays it's more likely that both spouses work outside the home and can support themselves. It may cost more to live as a single individual than it does for a couple, however, and sometimes one spouse's salary is not enough to live on. Often, couples decide that one of them will refrain from pursuing an education or a career and devote time and attention to child-rearing instead. That can put the stay-at-home spouse at an extreme financial disadvantage when a divorce threatens.

There are several determinants used in evaluating a case of spousal support, such as:

  • age
  • education
  • work experience
  • health
  • length of marriage
  • income of the spouse

and more.

Three different types

When spousal support is ordered it can be for different purposes and time periods.

  1. Temporary: Some divorcing couples fail to consider that spousal support can be ordered before the divorce is final. The time period between the separation and the final decree can stretch to many months, and a temporary order of support can be provided to fill that gap. In some cases, the temporary order is turned into a permanent or rehabilitative form of support with the final decree.
  2. Permanent: This type of support has been around for centuries and is nowadays used only in certain situations. Since it can go on indefinitely, permanent support is ideal for spouses who are older and/or in a diminished state of physical or mental health. A remarriage by the receiving spouse usually brings permanent support to an end.
  3. Rehabilitative: This might be the most often-used, and its end is based not usually on a certain time but upon achieving a certain goal. For example, rehabilitative support might be paid until the spouse attains a college degree or gets a job.

Learn more about spousal support by speaking with a divorce lawyer such as Cooper Levenson Attorneys At Law right away.


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