Paying about $900 ALIMONY-Out of work 6 months, moved for wife's job to another state.

Changing alimony (spousal support) is VERY complex. You need to take your divorce judgment, all the documents from the two times you tried to change it, AND all your tax returns since the divorce to a divorce attorney for a thorough review, BEFORE filing anything with the court. Charges? I would charge $200 for this comprehensive analysis.

Oregon law doesn't use the term "alimony;" rather we speak of child support and spousal support. This may seem like a meaningless distinction, but it's really not. Different rules apply to the different kinds of support. Child support can be modified upon a showing of a substantial change in economic circumstances, or in the parenting time schedule with the child. You're entitled to periodic review of child support every three years. In order to successfully modify a spousal support amount, you have to show that there has been a substantial and unanticipated change of economic circumstances since the entry of the order. In other words, it's harder to modify spousal support than child support. But spousal support usually is 'transitional,' lasting only a time, while child support is paid until a child is 18 (or 21 if they attend school more than half-time until then). So without knowing the economic circumstances, there's no way to assess whether you have a chance of modifying support. You have to prove that change in economic circumstances - you can't modify support just because you don't like paying it. The more often you file motions to modify without a good-faith legal basis for doing so, the more likely the court will reject your arguments in subsequent motions. To give you an idea of cost, my firm's normal rate of billing is $200 per hour. We ask for a retainer of $5,000 in domestic relations cases. The retainer is held in a trust account and bills are paid from it - it doesn't become our money right away. If the case concludes before it's used up, you get the rest back. If the case takes longer, you're responsible for the additional bills. I think this rate is probably about typical for experienced family law firms.

You should speak to a family law lawyer about all of the circumstances surrounding this case - such as when you filed your two previous motions, under what circumstances your original judgment was determined, and what exactly the financial circumstances are now. You've tried on your own twice with an outcome you didn't like. Invest some money in speaking with an expert and listen to what the expert has to say. Different attorneys charge different hourly rates and want different amounts of money up front. I charge $100 for an initial consultation - to discuss the facts of the case and collaborate on possible strategies. You're doing the right thing by seeking out help. Get it and use it. Follow through. Best of luck to you.

I disagree with Mr. Bodzin in terms of his wanting to distinguish alimony from spousal support. The two terms really can be used interchangeably. While the legal community and the Oregon Statutes use the term "spousal support", the general public is more familiar with the word "alimony" and the lawyers and the judges will normally equate the word alimony as meaning spousal support. Mr. Bodzin and the other posters here are correct that a lawyer would need to know the specific circumstances of your case to even begin to discuss the possibility of a modification. The reason is that the Oregon Spousal support laws were modified about a decade ago to create approximately 4 categories of spousal support and now any Judgment that awards alimony is required to indicate which category of spousal support is being awarded. This categorizations were a codification of prior case decisions on spousal support. But making a written statute the legislature was hoping to get some uniformity in the spousal support Judgments that are being awarded so people don't have to guess why alimony was awarded in a given situation, especially when someone requests a modification. The reason for awarding alimony is important because that will influence what the court does when a modification is requested. The statutory categories of alimony are transitional, compensatory, and maintenance. You can read about the factors that go into deciding whether to award one or more of these types of support by reading the statute: ORS 107.105. Here is a link: http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/107.105. Maintenance and transitional support are more common than compensatory. Transitional would be when the working spouse is ordered to support the home maker spouse for a few years after the divorce, so that the home maker spouse can get more education or training to assist them in returning to the work force. If once spouse is in the middle of transitioning back to work but is in school, a sudden reduction in support could be devastating to them. Maintenance on the other hand is more about continuing a pattern of support that existed during the marriage and recognizing that the spouse receiving the support was economically dependent on the working spouse and due to a long time period of dependence doesn't really have the capability to survive without assistance. This is usually the case in very long marriages where the dependent spouse is really too old to be expected to get training and go back to work but there can be short terms of maintenance ordered in marriages that weren't long. Also permanent support is sometimes ordered no matter how long the marriage was if the dependent spouse has physical or medical disabilities which prevent them from working (although they would be expected to apply for social security or SSI to get some assistance.) If support was ordered based on a mutual settlement agreement in the divorce, or as part of a division of assets, then the court may be less willing to intervene and change the terms since the reason for the support is more of a contractual agreement between the parties then a creature of statute. ORS 107.135 explains what the court needs to consider when a modification of spousal support or child support is requested: http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/107.135. You probably should invest some money to sit down and talk to an experienced family law attorney and determine what factors would be involved in requesting a modification of support in you situation. (The remarriage of a spouse is often a good reason to cancel or modify support.) Discussing this with an experienced attorney may even help you present your own case, thus saving you money in the long run.