My husband and I have been married for 17 years. We have two children 15 and 12. We decided before the birth of our first child that we did not want other people raising our children. Therefore, I have been a stay at home mom raising our children, being very active in their education and extra activities, keeping the home, etc...I have also been very supportive in the advancement of his career. I not only encouraged him to get his Electrical Contractors License, but also did ALL the paper work and research for him, he did receive his license. My question is after 17 years of marriage and two children what should I realistically expect to receive as far as alimony, child support, losing my home that I have raised our children in, and vehicle?
I can breakdown your question into three areas: division of property, child support and alimony.
Division of property – The Court uses the standard “equitable division” when it comes to division of property (assets and debts). Georgia does not automatically divide the assets/debts equally (50/50) but looks at what would be fair give the particular circumstances of each case. The Court will also look for misconduct of the parties (adultery, abuse, addictions, etc) to determine if those behaviors should effect the allocation of assets and debts. However, the overarching issue is what you have to divide in the first place.
Even if there has been misconduct but you have few assets (a couple cars that each of you drive, perhaps a house with little to no equity and no real savings or retirement funds), it will not really affect the outcome. All this said, the Court often does divide the marital estate equally, and usually apportions debts to the party most able to pay them off.
The issue of equitable division is a grey area that is best addressed with an attorney who is familiar with the Judges who would hear your case if it went to trial.
Child Support – The Court has a Child Support Worksheet calculator to compute child support that takes into account his income, your income, the cost for health insurance for your children and various other costs (extracurricular activities, medical expenses, etc). Child Support is not income to the primary parent who receives it (i.e. you do not report it as income to be taxed at the end of the year). The calculator comes up with a number for child support and the Court will order that amount to be paid. The calculator can take into account many other ways that each of you may financially support the children that can have an effect on the final support number, like extra visitation time, travel expenses to exercise visitation if one of you lives out of state, business income and others. Since child support can be manipulated a great deal with the child support worksheets, I highly suggest getting legal advice in computing the final number.
Alimony – The answer to this question is not as simple as the calculator response for child support. Alimony is based on 8 factors, many of which you mentioned (supporting his career, raising children, homemaking, etc). The first issue to address, however, is his ability to pay alimony once you deduct child support. If he makes enough money to pay alimony, then the next issue is to determine how long you should receive support. Alimony stops regardless if you remarry, die or cohabitate with a lover. In addition, alimony is usually offset by how much child support you are receiving. Attorneys vary on what they argue alimony should be, but most calculations range in length for about one fourth to one third of the marriage and about ten to twenty percent of his income. Alimony is taxed to you and income (tax deductible to him).
If you need assitance with any of these questions, or are interested in have a consultation, please click on the link to my website.
Damon Sharad BivekFamily Law AttorneyMarietta, GA ·
There are many factors that go into determining how much alimony and child support you should receive. Alimony is largely based on your husband's income and your needs. How much is he earning? What are his expenses? What is your education level? When was the last time you worked? What are your expenses? The length of time that you have been married is one of the factors that go into determining what type of alimony award you should receive. Other factors include the standard of living that the two of you enjoyed during your marriage, your respective earning capacities, and education levels.
Child Support is calculated by the child support worksheet which takes into account both your income and your husband's income, as well as your children's expenses (health, education, and extracurricular activities).
As far as the house and vehicle is concerned it depends on when these assets were acquired. Did you buy a house together while you were married? Did you buy any cars? You would be entitled to an equitable division of all assets acquired during the course of the marriage. You are also entitled to an equitable division of all debts acquired during the marriage.
I strongly urge you to speak to an attorney, so that he can have some more facts about your situation. With more facts, an attorney will be able to give you a good idea of what to expect in your divorce settlement. Many attorneys and law firms, like my own, will even offer you a free consultation.
