California Spousal Support
- General Information:
When a couple separates or divorces, the court may
order one spouse to pay the other a certain amount of
support money each month. This is called "spousal
support."
The judge will take many things into consideration
when deciding what spousal support should be ordered.
Examples of some things the judge may consider are:
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How long the couple has been married;
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The age and health of each spouse;
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How much income each can earn on their
own;
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What the expenses of each spouse are;
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Whether there are minor children at
home; and
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The history of the way the couple
handled money during the marriage.
You can ask for spousal support to be paid while your
case is going on. This is called a "temporary spousal
support order." Many counties have formulas for
calculating the amount of a temporary spousal
support order. Check your court's local rules for the
temporary support guideline.
The judge will not use a formula to figure out how
much spousal support to order at the end of your
case (called the "final judgment").
When the judge makes his or her final order, the judge
must consider the factors in California Family Code
section 4320.
These factors are:
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The length of the marriage,
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What each person needs,
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What each person pays or can pay (including
earnings and earning capacity),
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Whether having a job would make it
too hard to take care of the child(ren),
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The age and health of both people,
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Debts and property,
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Whether 1 spouse helped the other
get an education, training, career, or professional
license,
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Whether there was domestic violence
in the marriage,
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Whether 1 spouse's career was affected
by unemployment, or by taking care of the children
or home, and
-
The tax impact of spousal support.
Usually, spousal support is tax deductible for the
paying spouse and taxable income for the supported spouse.
Spousal support usually ends when:
If you don't get public assistance, you may get child
support from the day that you filed your case asking
for child support. To get support from this date, you
must serve the other parent within 3 months after you
file your case.
The judge may also award child support starting from
the date of the hearing, the date the other parent was
served, or another date depending on the facts in the
case.
Either spouse can later ask the judge to change the
support amount if the situation changes.
A spouse can also ask the judge for help collecting
(enforcing) a support order.
First - Start A Court
Case:
You must start one of the following cases:
This section does not contain forms to file any of
these court actions. You will find some of these in
other sections of our free legal forms menu.
When Child Support Orders
May Be Made:
Child support orders may be made at a hearing held
shortly after the filing of the underlying court case
and may be modified any time before the child(ren) turn
eighteen.
Spousal Support Forms:
| Description |
Form |
| Order to Show
Cause |
FL-300 |
Notice of Motion
|
FL-301 |
| Application for Order and
Supporting Declaration (Family Law-Uniform Parentage) |
FL-310 |
| Child Custody and Visitation
Attachment |
FL-305 |
| Temporary Orders |
FL-305 |
| Income and Expense
Declaration (Family Law) |
FL-150 |
Financial Statement
(Simplified)
|
FL-155 |
| Proof of Personal
Service |
FL-330 |
| Responsive Declaration
to Order to Show Cause or Notice of Motion |
FL-320 |
| Findings and
Order After Hearing (Family Law-Custody and Support-Uniform
Parentage) |
FL-340 |
| Child Custody
and Visitation Order Attachment |
FL-341 |
| Supervised Visitation
Order |
FL-341A |
| Children's Holiday
Schedule Attachment |
FL-341C |
| Attachment Provisions
- Physical Custody Attachment |
FL-341D |
| Joint Legal Custody
Attachment |
FL-341E |
| Child Support
Information and Order Attachment |
FL-342 |
| Notice of Rights
and Responsibilities - Health Care Costs and Reimbursement
Procedures, and Information Sheet on Changing a
Child Support Order |
FL-192 |
| Stipulation and
Order for Custody and/or visitation |
FL-355 |
| Child Support
Case Registry Form |
FL-191 |
| Order/Notice
to Withhold Income for Child Support |
FL-195 |
| Additional Page-Attach
to Judicial Council Form or Other Court Paper |
MC-020 |
- Gene
Kinsey
|
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