Alimony, spousal support or spousal maintenance, as Texas courts call it: These terms all refer to the same legal concept. Either you or your former spouse would take on part of the financial responsibility for the other after your divorce.
Assuming you were the financial provider of the family, you might have serious concerns about supporting your former spouse as you proceed with your life. After all, you would probably face many changes that require a reinvestment of your resources, such as buying a new home, starting a new family or looking for a new career.
Texas courts would probably let you and your counterpart agree to some level of spousal support independent of a formal order. An initial offer of alimony payments could be an excellent bargaining technique for you in certain cases, but it is not always appropriate. You could view this support structure as a way of making installation payments on an item of shared property you request, for example.
There are some situations in which your spouse might make a formal request for maintenance. As discussed on FindLaw’s section on alimony in Texas, courts could uphold your spouse’s requests for support in two specific situations:
- You committed acts of violence against your spouse recently
- Your spouse lacked necessary financial resources
There are various qualifications on these conditions that could provide grounds for your successful contest of a maintenance request. However, there are often many variables involved in even the simplest divorce cases. Please do not think of this as legal advice. It is simply an educational discussion of the subject.
