New Law on Maintenance in Divorce?

S8390 has been passed along to Governor Patterson for his signature on August 3, 2010. This measure would create numerical guidelines for calculating the presumptive amount of the temporary maintenance awards with deviation factors to be employed by the court in its discretion where the presumptive amount of the award is unjust or inappropriate.

The numerical guidelines proposed in this measure are similar to the recommendations of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers based on their study of approaches in numerous jurisdictions across the country. The duration of the temporary award under this measure would be determined by considering the length of the marriage. However the temporary award would end upon the issuance of the final award or the death either party, whichever occurs first. The temporary maintenance guidelines would only result in an award when there is an income gap between the two parties such that the less-monied spouse's income is less than two thirds of the more-monied spouse's income. For instance, if the payor's annual income is $90,000 a year, the guidelines will only result in an award if the payee's annual income is less than $60,000, The numerical guideline is only applied to the payor's income up to $500,000 of her/his income, with a set of factors to be applied by the court to determine any additional amount of temporary maintenance on the payor's income above this $500,000 cap.

GUIDELINE AMOUNT: To determine the guideline amount, the court must compare two calculations of the spouses' annual incomes. For both of these calculations, any income of the payor's that exceeds $500,000 is not included. * 30% of the payor's income minus 20% of the payee's income, OR * 40% of the combined income of the two spouses. The payee's income is then subtracted from this figure. The court must select the lesser of these two figures as the guideline amount. If the payor has an annual income exceeding $500,000, the judge may adjust the amount. This proposal would provide consistency and predictability for temporary maintenance awards similar to the child support guidelines in the Child Support Standards Act. It would also help bring parties to the table and facilitate settlement of cases.

Contact us at http://www.polizzotto.com/ for you matrimonial needs and for more information as this law develops