Your divorce will impact your post-divorce quality of life and standard of living. These are central considerations during every divorce. Will you be able to afford a house or need to live in an apartment? Will your kids still be able to participate in as many activities? Will you be able to take a vacation? To retire as soon as you planned? To drive as nice a car? At Gjesdahl Law, we provide a safe environment for our clients to ask questions and seek helpful advice on how to proceed with their North Dakota divorce.
Please check out our Initial Contact Questions to learn how a relationship begins with Gjesdahl Law.
In North Dakota, alimony is called spousal support. Spousal support is a court-ordered set of payments from one party to another during and/or after the divorce process. A variety of factors are involved when calculating proper spousal support, including:
*North Dakota is a no-fault state, meaning that couples may divorce without a specific reason but this factor may be considered in determining alimony payments.
Spousal support and child support are different payments with different calculation methods. There’s a specific formula for calculating child support in North Dakota outlined on our website or you can navigate to this online child support calculator. On the contrary, there is no calculator or specific formula to identify the amount and/or duration of a spousal support obligation. Consequently, how a court will handle a spousal support claim is much harder, if not impossible, for a lawyer to predict.
North Dakota is not a 50/50, or community property, state. North Dakota is an equitable division state which means all assets considered marital property are divided equitably, not necessarily equally in divorce. That said, North Dakota’s Supreme Court has held in dozens of cases that, in “long-term” marriages, the initial presumption is that the marital estate should be divided equally. “Long term” has no specific definition, but courts have found marriages of less than ten years to qualify.
The length of time one spouse pays support to another is determined by a variety of factors, including length of marriage, custodial status, and standard of living changes. The timeline can be long enough to transition to a new living environment, long enough to complete rehabilitating education or re-training, and sometimes for tens of years.
Our family law attorneys know the intricacies of divorce and can help you (and your spouse) navigate any laws, costs, and transitions that come with divorce. Get in touch with us today or read through our Initial Contact Questions to learn more about how a relationship begins with Gjesdahl Law.
