Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog
Alimony is an important aspect of many divorce cases. In almost all divorces, one spouse earns more than the other, creating the possibility (if not likelihood) of disparate standards of living post-divorce without alimony. If you are involved in a divorce where alimony is an issue, it is essential to recognize that the law in this state sets up some clear guideposts for when (and what kind of) alimony is appropriate. To ensure you walk away from your divorce with a just and reasonable outcome, be sure to retain representation from an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer.
The Maryland Appellate Court recently looked at the divorce and alimony case of a Gaithersburg couple. This case offers valuable lessons and reminders about the legal rules governing the types of alimony available in Maryland.
To set the background, the husband was an engineer at Microsoft, earning nearly $300,000 per year. The wife had risen from a fitness club lifeguard to working as a graphic designer and video editor, earning almost $90,000 per year before her job ended in early 2024. (He said she quit; she said the employer laid her off.)
At the couple’s divorce trial, the wife asked for indefinite alimony “based on unconscionable disparity in their incomes.
Indefinite Alimony and ‘Unconscionable Disparity’
Courts can award indefinite alimony when spouses have health, disability, age, or other problems that dictate that they have limited earning potential. In the vast majority of indefinite alimony awards, the spouse either cannot be financially independent or will struggle to become independent.
Alternatively, the court can award indefinite alimony if an award is necessary to avoid an outcome where the two spouses’ incomes are “unconscionably disparate.” This would mean that the spouses would leave the divorce with incomes so far apart that it constitutes an injustice. A trial court will examine the spouses’ income figures to make this determination, but those numbers are just the starting point. Ultimately, the law requires the judge to decide whether or not “the standard of living of one spouse will be so inferior, qualitatively or quantitatively, to the standard of living of the other as to be morally unacceptable and shocking to the court.”
That wasn’t the case for this Gaithersburg couple, according to the trial court. The wife was entirely capable of becoming fully self-sufficient by finding new employment. The wife’s education, experience, and background were strong enough that she could secure a new job paying her around the same amount she was making before. The trial judge also reasoned that the husband making $290,000 and the wife hypothetically making $90,000 was not a disparity so great as to be shocking.
The trial judge, however, did award the wife five years of rehabilitative alimony.
Rehabilitative Alimony: When It Is (and Isn’t) Allowed
The award of rehabilitative alimony might have seemed like a reasonable compromise to provide a wife who made far less than her husband with some alimony while stopping short of that something being indefinite alimony. As the appellate court ruled, however, rehabilitative alimony was not a legally permissible option.
Maryland law is very clear that a spouse is only entitled to rehabilitative alimony if she is not self-supporting and needs additional education, training, or something else to become self-supporting. In the Gaithersburg couple’s case, the trial judge expressly ruled that the wife needed no further training or education to find a new job earning around the $89,000 she was earning before, and if she landed a new job earning in that income range, she would be fully self-supporting.
As the appeals court explained, rehabilitative alimony may be appropriate while a spouse undertakes a job search, but the duration of the alimony must match the time that the court deems “reasonably necessary” for the spouse to find a job that provides self-sufficiency. In this case, “there was no evidence that five years was a reasonably necessary time frame” for the wife to find suitable employment, so five years of rehabilitative alimony was not proper, and the award had to be thrown out.
Courts’ decisions about alimony are heavily fact-based. That means that you need a strong presentation with ample evidence to help you get a fair and appropriate outcome. The experienced Maryland family law attorneys at Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC can help you navigate the divorce litigation process and provide the judge with everything necessary to make an informed decision. Contact us today at 301-519-2801 or via our online form to set up your consultation.