How Does Alimony in Utah Work?

Usually, the goal of alimony is to allow both former spouses to continue living at a similar “standard of living at the time of separation.” If your marriage was quite short, the court may instead set the standard of living by assessing your situation at the beginning of your marriage. Our lawyers can advise you whether that may apply to you.

The amount of alimony you can expect to pay or receive can be confusing if you’re trying to understand it for the first time. You can’t reference a table, look up your income, and know exactly what to expect. Instead, you need a thorough accounting of both your former spouse’s and your own income, assets, debts, and expenses. That requires a lot of careful legwork, which we’re prepared to do.

Once you know both your income and your expenses, you can ask to receive the difference. So, if you usually spend about $3,000 a month, but only make $2,500, you can ask for $500 in alimony. The numbers could scale up or scale down, but under the law, you generally can’t successfully ask for more than your proven expenses.

Confusion and uncertainty can be cleared up with one good choice. You need a trustworthy Salt Lake City alimony lawyer. Our attorneys at Christensen Law can evaluate your divorce and explain to you the options you have.

Your Alimony Options

During your divorce proceedings, you may be presented with alimony options that could be advantageous or disadvantageous to you. For example, you might trade some of your alimony payment for a share or for all some marital property, like your home or retirement accounts. We can look at the whole financial picture and tell you what would be best for you.

Alimony can be paid in lump sum or in monthly installments. We’ll figure out if it would be good for you to accept such an offer. When you hire Christensen Law, we’ll dedicate ourselves to finding out what’s in your interest. With full information at hand, you can feel confident about your decisions.