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Dividing marital property in divorce: whose “mine” is it, anyway?

May 7, 2018 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Pittsburgh Equitable Distribution Lawyer
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“I’d marry again if I found a man who had $15 million and would sign over half of it to me before the marriage and guarantee he’d be dead in a year.” – Bette Davis

One of the most common questions clients ask me is “Who will get what out of the divorce?” immediately followed by, “Do I have to give my spouse anything?” My answer usually begins with the phrase that clients hate most: “Well, it depends…” Every divorce in Pennsylvania is different when it comes to property distribution, and the particular facts of your situation can make a tremendous difference in the outcome.

What is the Marital Estate for divorces in Pennsylvania?
Before even approaching the question of which spouse gets which property in the settlement, a good family law attorney will first analyze what the marital estate contains. The divorce lawyer representing you for property distribution must determine what assets are owned by you and your spouse (irrespective of whose name is on them), what those assets are worth, and what debts you owe. Every rule has its exceptions, of course, but in general if you or your spouse acquired an asset or a debt after your wedding and before your final separation, Pennsylvania says that it is part of the marital estate. The property you owned before you got married usually stays yours alone, but any increase in value prior to the date you separate is also included in the marital estate. This means that assets or debts in one spouse’s name can still be marital property, and therefore can be subject to equitable distribution by a family court judge. That includes credit card debt in your name or your spouse’s name alone, as well as the marital increases in the value of individual retirement assets such as pensions, 401Ks and IRAs.

After your divorce lawyer has determined the size and value of your marital estate, it is time to explore how to divide it between the two of you either by settling your case, or by moving forward toward an equitable distribution trial.

Does Pennsylvania split marital property 50/50 down the middle?
Nothing about marital property division in Pennsylvania is automatic. Before the best divorce attorneys are prepared to take a firm position about which spouse should end up with what property, first they will address the percentage share of the marital estate’s value that should go to each spouse. There are many instances in PA of equal division of the marital estate’s value, but divorce lawyers dealing with asset distribution will often talk about “skewed” splits in which one spouse will walk away with a greater share of the marital estate than the other spouse.

Skewed splits are especially common when one spouse has a substantially greater earning capacity than the other. PA divorce law recognizes that one spouse often is economically dependent upon the other, for reasons that include one spouse working as a homemaker, or one spouse being unable to earn as much as the other spouse in the local job market. Pennsylvania law requires the court to prioritize economic justice over a formula-based outcome in any marital property division that goes all the way through court, and that includes consideration of various factors such as the relative earnings (and capacity to earn) of each spouse, the length of the marriage, and the standard of living that the couple enjoyed.

Even an equal distribution of the marital estate can require one spouse to give up separately-titled assets.

I worked to earn my pension, so why does my spouse get to touch it?
Retirement assets usually are among the biggest things to divide in divorce; and often, the spouse with higher wages often has put more money into savings funds such as IRAs, TIAA-CREF plans and 401K plans. My economically-advantaged clients often become upset that they have to give part of these assets to their soon-to-be exes. From the higher-earning spouse’s perspective, it simply is not fair that they worked as hard as they did, earned what they did and sacrificed what they did, only to have to give part of it away to the spouse who failed to do the same thing.

You can expect a Pennsylvania family court to view things differently. One spouse’s time might be worth more money than the other’s in the world of employment, but as between the two of them in their marriage they will be viewed on much more of a level playing field. Were it otherwise, the breakup of a traditional family arrangement featuring a breadwinner spouse and a homemaker spouse would leave the breadwinner extremely well-off, while consigning the homemaker to financial ruin. No divorce court will permit this.

It may help you to understand that for purposes of Pennsylvania divorce law, marriage is neither a religious sacrament nor an affair of the heart; instead, it is no more (or less) than an economic arrangement created by contract (getting married), much in the nature of a shared business enterprise. A family court presiding over a divorce case is unlikely to be interested in the family drama incident to any marital breakup, but will focus instead upon the dollars and cents of the marriage along with what those dollars and cents were used to buy.

For that reason, it is best to think about Pennsylvania divorce as being about economic closure rather than being about personal closure. The family court is unlikely to overlook the prospect that lower-earning spouses become financially dependent for many reasons, such as having sacrificed income potential or education, having focused on caring for the children, or having been in a state of impaired health. A divorce court judge is not going to leave a dependent spouse destitute simply because the marriage came to an end, and instead will want to ensure that he or she has sufficient resources available to attain financial independence. Giving a dependent spouse the greater share of the marital estate is one way a court can achieve that goal. This is an example of why “equitable distribution” often is not the same as “equal distribution” in the eyes of a Pennsylvania divorce court.

How a Pennsylvania family court divides marital property in divorce.
In making an award for equitable distribution of the marital estate, a judge has to consider eleven different factors. These factors include the length of the marriage, the incomes and earning potentials of the spouses, whether one spouse will be caring for minor children, and the opportunity available to each spouse to increase earning potential. None of these factors are assigned greater importance than any other by default, meaning that your judge has substantial discretion to determine a distribution that fits your (and your ex’s) actual situation and needs.

You may be surprised to learn that “marital misconduct” is specifically excluded from consideration by the court when it comes to allocating your marital property between you and your former spouse. Fault grounds for divorce have absolutely no effect on equitable distribution in Pennsylvania, and so claims of adultery or abandonment have no effect when dividing marital property. Your judge is there to judge the case, and not the hearts and souls of the ex-spouses. If you own a pen, for example, and use that pen to write terrible things about your spouse… you still own the pen. Nobody cares whether you deserve it, because (rightly or wrongly), ownership of property in our society has nothing to do with what the owner might deserve.

You can expect the court to worry less about what you and your spouse might deserve, and more about what each of you may need.

If you need legal assistance with your marital separation in east-end communities such as Squirrel Hill, Shadyside and Monroeville, call our office to set up a personal consultation with an experienced Pittsburgh-area marital property division lawyer and to learn how to get the most out of your separation. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

How can we afford to separate?

December 23, 2013 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

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“A lot of people have asked me how short I am. Since my last divorce, I think I’m about $100,000 short.” — Mickey Rooney

“I’m not sure my spouse and I can afford to separate.”

It can be hard enough while still in your shared household to accept that you and your spouse are heading toward divorce, without having to add that complicating question: How can we afford a separation right now? You may have known or heard about other separating couples who encountered the same problem, and who had no real choice but to continue living together for a while, simply because they lacked the money to afford separate residences. Sadly, the old adage that once worked in your favor is now your next hurdle: two people live together more cheaply than they do apart. It can be challenging enough right now to continue to live with your ex in one shared household (although there are coping strategies), without the added expense of establishing and maintaining two separate homes with income that may have been barely enough for one.

How a divorce lawyer budgeted his way to freedom.
When my former wife and I first separated, we knew that we could not afford to live in two separate households right away. Even though we were able to get through our days without fighting, it was awkward and very uncomfortable for both of us. I set out to determine how to make our transition possible sooner, rather than later.

The solution turned out to be very straightforward. I created three complete household budgets: one for the two of us together, and one for each of us in our new, separate households. I used realistic, reasonable average numbers based on the way we were actually living at the time, erring high and making sure to include a fair reserve for miscellaneous expenses. Doing things this way gave us a real picture of where we stood together, and what it would take for each of us to be able to afford the extra expenses of living apart.

Click on the PDF image below to download your own joint budget worksheet.

What if it turns out that we can’t afford to separate?
When we completed the task, the picture was less than pretty. If we lived very carefully while still under the same roof, we had enough income to pay our current debt with a small amount left over. Add the cost of rent and utilities for a second home, though, and there wasn’t enough money to go around. Like most people who carry a lot of credit card debt, a substantial portion of what my ex and I were paying month-to-month was interest.

Come up with a plan.
We calculated how much income each month we needed to free up to make it possible for one of us to move out of our marital home. We recovered some of those funds by cutting our expenses as close to the bone as we thought we could manage, knowing that every dollar we saved was a step closer to the exit from our amiable-but-painfully-awkward cohabitation. When we ran out of things to cut and needed plenty more, we decided to attack our credit debt.

We decided which among our various credit card obligations had the best combination of low balance and high monthly payment to be good targets, so that when they were paid off we would have the money we needed to separate. We made our list of “target” debts and decided on which order to pay them off, ignoring which ones had high interest and instead focusing on the ones that would free up the largest amount of money for us in the least amount of time. Our focus was not long-term economy, but rather short-term cash flow.

Plan your post-separation finances.
My ex and I decided which of our consumer credit debts would still be around when we went our separate ways, and we included the monthly payment for each in the separate budget for that one of us who would be paying it, at least in the short-term. We did our best to move the numbers around on our separate household budgets so that we knew who would be paying what, and so that the monthly payments for the debts each of us were assuming fit within our respective means.

Consider whether there is a need for spousal support or child support.
Both my ex and I were earning a decent living wage when we separated, and we had no children together. If you have minor children or if one of you is economically-dependent upon the other (or both!) you will probably need to consider making the budgets balance by means of one spouse paying support to the other.

Worry less about long-term issues such as alimony, and more about short-term concerns such as spousal support and child support. To the extent that you can manage to keep your respective households afloat financially by mutual agreement, you can save yourselves substantial conflict and expense. That said, though…

Get professional legal advice from a family lawyer.
As self-serving as it may seem coming from a divorce lawyer in Pittsburgh, there is no substitute for understanding the road ahead. Knowing where you stand according to the Pennsylvania child and spousal support guidelines can help you make informed decisions that will let you do things right the first time. A good divorce attorney will not create conflict where none needs to exist, and will make sure that you are taking every important consideration into account as you structure your future. A single hour of a lawyer’s time can be cheap at the price when the advice you get can save you thousands of dollars in expenses, and months or even years of unnecessary fighting.

Stick with your budget plan.
This is the hard part, but not as hard as feeling like you are stuck in the doorway of the next part of your life! No budget is any more useful than your willingness to stick to it, and if one of you changes the rules it all falls to pieces.

My former wife and I agreed to stick to our budget like it was written on two stone tablets, and to use all the money we freed up each month against the single debt that we wanted to pay off first. Once that first debt was paid off and its monthly payment was ours again, we had that much more to throw at the next debt in line, and more still to throw at the third, until we reached our goal.

Patience. Lots and lots of patience.
It took seven months to bring us where we needed to be. Seven months of peaceful-but-empty coexistence. Seven months of careful courtesy and closed doors. Seven months of whispered telephone conversations. Once a month we paid our bills and inched our way toward our goal, only to go back to seemingly-endless waiting for our new lives to begin. From January until July of that year we did our best to make it easy for each other, but both of us had our eyes on August.

It seemed to take forever, but August finally came. It was worth it, in the end; both because it helped us to avoid a fight that neither of us wanted, and because it kept us out of the financial death-spiral that you can see everywhere, these days.

May your own separation likewise be free from conflict and disaster. As the Boy Scouts like to say, though: be prepared.

If you need legal assistance with arranging your separation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call our office to set up a personal consultation with a Pittsburgh marriage attorney. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

How to find a good divorce lawyer in Pennsylvania

April 11, 2011 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

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I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five. — Steven Wright

You need legal help, and you are resolved to go looking for a good divorce lawyer. You don’t know anyone who knows anyone, so you’re left to your own resources. You are not sure what you’re in for or whether you can afford it, and the last thing you want is to end up saddled with someone who can’t help you or doesn’t care, and there goes the retainer money. Lawyers are as common as grains of sand at the beach, and at first glance they all look pretty much the same. How do you find a divorce lawyer in Pennsylvania? (Well, other than by calling us at our Pittsburgh family law office, that is.)

Why hire a lawyer at all?
Could you handle your own case and keep the money you would have paid? Maybe. Maybe not. People hire lawyers for the same reason that you would hire a roofer when you discover a leak. Technically, there is nothing stopping you from climbing the ladder yourself with a handful of shingles and a box of nails, but most people would rather get help from the person who knows the job and has been doing it for years. Case preparation begins long before you see the inside of a courtroom, and a skilled lawyer can do much more than marshal evidence and stand tall for you in front of the judge; he can offer you not only options you might otherwise have missed, but also ongoing guidance to help you maximize the potential of your situation from the very beginning. A lawyer also has no emotional involvement in your situation, guaranteeing a cool, objective and educated head in your corner at all times.

Throw away your Yellow Pages.
You probably already figured this one out for yourself. For all the money that people still spend on print advertising, it seems to me that overall it is a dead advertising form to find anything at all. An eye-catching ad is no longer enough, whether you are looking for a good lawyer or a good used car. People want to know more about a family lawyer than that he can afford the cost of a print advertisement.

Do your research.
When you look for a used car, you want to know about not just the model, but also the individual vehicle: its mileage, its condition, and its repair history. You want to get behind the wheel and learn something about how it handles on the road during ordinary conditions, and to get an idea of how responsive it will be when things get dicey. You certainly don’t want to be left broken down on the roadside! Since a divorce lawyer’s services can cost you anything from a few hundred dollars (for a simple matter) to the cost of that used car (if your case becomes very contentious), shouldn’t you be just as thorough before you buy?

Word of mouth.
If you don’t already know a good Pennsylvania family law attorney, there is no substitute for a personal referral to find a lawyer. You’re off to an excellent start if someone can tell you, “Attorney __________ handled my divorce and child custody case, and he won’t steer you wrong.” Talk to the lawyer yourself and make your own evaluation, of course, but in a field where the professional license carried by the best lawyer in town is just the same as the license carried by the worst, there is nothing like a good recommendation from a dependable source to get you started on the right path. Even if you don’t know someone who knows someone… maybe you know someone who knows someone who knows someone. These days, asking around can be as simple as posting a Facebook status. Meanwhile…

Look for a lawyer on the Web.
More and more, it seems that if an attorney doesn’t have a good Internet presence he might as well not exist. The Web offers you a chance to see beyond what a divorce lawyer’s advertising firm wants you to know. You can learn in advance what the lawyer has to say (and to say for himself), and what kind of useful information he can offer you, before you even hire him. Professional family law blogs such as this one, web-based informative articles, client reviews, and other convenient online resources allow you to assemble a deeper picture of the professional you are thinking of retaining. In the final analysis, no matter how “corporate” a law firm is, your relationship will be with the individual lawyer who is handling or supervising your case. Get to know him.

Lawyers pay to be found on the Web, of course, just as much as they pay to be found in the Yellow Pages (if not more!). Even if you decide to go through Google or another public search engine that offers results without cost to the sites they show you, you can bet that the law firms showing up at the top of your keyword search paid good money to have their web sites designed and “optimized” to maximize the number of searches that will bring their sites to the top of the list. I certainly did! Read what the websites have to say, but recognize that there is a fair chance that unless authorship is specifically credited to the divorce lawyer you are researching, you are reading professional ad copy written by someone other than the attorney.

If you don’t know where to start, there are plenty of websites designed to help you (some better than others, so use your judgment). Here are a few of them, along with my comments:

Google keyword search. This is a fair starting point. It can be like drinking from a firehose, but with a little patience and judgment you can get some very good basic information about Pennsylvania divorce and family law in general, and about the family lawyers in your area (and what they have to say). Once you have some likely prospects, look particularly for articles, blogs or other writings authored by the divorce attorney you are researching.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board. This will not help you find a lawyer, but it will help you make sure that a lawyer you are investigating is in good standing with the Pennsylvania bar. All lawyers admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania will be registered here.

Avvo. I like Avvo quite a bit. It creates profiles for individual lawyers that they can “claim” and add useful information such as areas of practice and professional history, and — especially important — some of the critical information on the profile is out of the lawyer’s control. The site “rates” lawyers according to an arbitrary point system that I view more than a little skeptically (e.g., young lawyers rated with more experience than old warhorses), but it does identify important information such as the length of time the attorney has been licensed, and whether there have been disciplinary issues. It lets clients rate attorneys. It gives lawyers the opportunity to submit articles that you can access from their profiles, and (for lawyers who participate) you can see how they answered short legal questions posted by others.

Nolo. This is one of many “find a lawyer” directories that might help you narrow the field. This is a directory that lawyers pay to participate in, but it is a handy collection of successful local lawyers in the discipline you seek, along with links to their websites. You can also browse a substantial collection of articles on a variety of legal topics, including articles by divorce attorneys.

Talk to your prospects.
The more involved your case, the closer you are going to be working with your lawyer. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is going to be like working with a mechanic; after all, you can’t just “drop off” your case to a family law practice and come by later to pay the bill and drive it away. Talk to this person, listen to this person, and see how comfortable you feel at the prospect of making important life decisions under this person’s guidance and protection. A lawyer should be willing to give you at least a few minutes on the telephone before charging you anything at all, both to get a sense of your case and to give you a sense of who you are dealing with. Don’t expect the lawyer to give you a full consultation by telephone, or to give you more than about ten or fifteen minutes — our time is what we sell, after all — but that is plenty of time to get at least a general idea of whether this person is worth more of your time, as well as your money.

Value a lawyer’s experience, knowledge and personality over his price.
I realize that this sounds a little self-serving, but give it some thought. There is no virtue in paying more for something than you have to, but neither is there virtue in false economy. All lawyers are not created equal. An inexperienced attorney (no matter how affordable) can give you book-learning, whereas an experienced attorney understands the law and how it applies to your case. An experienced attorney has a strong working familiarity with the court system and its personnel, and can give you not just his own knowledge, but also the experience of many other clients who have faced issues not much different than yours. He can help you learn from the mistakes of others, choose which battles not to fight, and will help you make the most out of your circumstances long before it is time to go to divorce court.

Incidentally, beware of proud-but-empty boasts like, “Over 30 years of combined experience!” Experience doesn’t combine.

A family lawyer’s attitude also matters. There is a particular child support case from several years ago that comes to my mind, in which both parents were full-time, W-2 wage-earners. Because the Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines are fairly straightforward when nobody is fighting over earning capacity and there are no other issues, I proposed to my opposing counsel that we exchange income information, run the numbers, and see if we could enter into a consent child support order that would spare everyone a trip to court. “No,” said the other lawyer, very matter-of-factly, “If I do that, I don’t get to charge my client to appear at the hearing.” Jaw, meet floor. That’s not how I do business — to my mind, I can’t do that and still call myself a professional — but greedy self-serving lawyers like that are out there. So are the angry ones, so are the cynical ones, so are the self-important and self-impressed ones. So are the inexperienced ones. Even if you find them at a cheaper hourly rate, all of them can end up costing you more money than necessary as they spend extra billable time to berate, inflate or educate at your expense.

Retain the professional, not the price tag.

What to expect from your family law attorney.
I have written a lengthy article about what to expect from a divorce lawyer. If you retain a family practice attorney and he does not appear to be living up to your expectations, never fear getting a second opinion or a “reality check” from another attorney. Never forget that this is your case, and that long after your lawyer has moved on to other matters you will still be living the consequences of your choices. Make sure that you choose a divorce lawyer who seems to understand that essential truth.

If you need legal assistance with your divorce or family law matter in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call my office to set up a personal consultation with a Pittsburgh divorce lawyer. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

I got served with divorce or custody papers in PA. What do I do?

April 9, 2011 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Family Law Litigation Attorney in Pittsburgh
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Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from lawyers. — Elbert Hubbard

Maybe you were expecting this, maybe not, but here it comes: your spouse has filed a Complaint for divorce or child custody (or both!), and now you hold papers in your hand that ominously proclaim: “YOU HAVE BEEN SUED IN COURT.” The closest you ever got to a courtroom before today was fighting a traffic ticket. What do you do now?

Don’t panic.
Douglas Adams had it right: DON’T PANIC. You will get through this. So will your children. Even if the papers you hold impose deadlines, schedule events for you to attend or require payment of fees, odds are that you have at least a couple weeks of breathing room. You have the chance to make good use of the time you have, and more options than you probably think you do. The key not just to survival, but also to success, is above all to keep your head together and to keep reminding yourself: don’t work hard, work smart.

You have been sued in court.
Even a friendly divorce process (well, as friendly as they get) is still a lawsuit. Your spouse, as the Plaintiff, wants something from you that the court has the power to grant. That does not automatically mean that you are going to fight about your divorce, or your property, or your children, but it does mean that your rights and options are going to be affected. When you read the Notice to Defend, take it seriously. Your actions (or your inaction) will have consequences. Educate yourself as thoroughly as you can about where you stand and what your options are, so that the decisions you make are informed ones; in this game, “do-overs” are rare, and often expensive. If you are unsure of your rights, options and obligations or how to exercise or fulfill them, spending a little money now to meet with a lawyer to discuss matters might save you from having to spend a lot of money, later. Let your rule of thumb be: never guess when you can know for sure.

Anatomy of a Complaint.
COVER SHEET: this tells you who versus whom, what particular court is involved, the title of the document, on whose behalf it was filed, and how to contact the lawyer who filed it. A miniature version of this will appear as a “caption” at the top of many documents connected with your court process.

NOTICE TO DEFEND: this is a series of warnings intended to get your attention and encourage you to take this seriously. Take this seriously! It will offer you contact information for the local bar association or lawyer referral service, if you do not already know how to hire a lawyer. As a wise reader, though, you already know that all you really have to do is to call the telephone number at the bottom of this article!

THE BODY OF THE COMPLAINT. This will be a series of numbered paragraphs, each one making an assertion of fact. At the end of each set of factual allegations will be a short paragraph beginning with the word “WHEREFORE,” that tells the court what the Plaintiff wants it to do (e.g., legally dissolve your marriage, divide property, award custody of children). This invokes the jurisdiction of the court over the issues identified, and sets the stage for whatever litigation is going to happen next (if any).

VERIFICATION PAGE. The Plaintiff has signed an affidavit stating that the facts he or she alleged in the Complaint are true, subject to criminal penalties for unsworn falsifications. Don’t let the words “criminal penalties” give you any ideas about “getting” your spouse or co-parent for errors or misstatements, though. Overall, Family Court is unlikely to be interested in arguments over the kind of “technicalities” you hear about in criminal trials.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS. There may or may not be additional documents that were served on you with the Complaint, or that you will receive afterward. They can include information sheets in connection with a support claim, orders to participate in child custody-related educational or dispute resolution programs, instructions to pay fees, or a document stating that your marriage is irretrievably broken and that one year or more has passed since your final separation.

A note about that last item: if you are served with a document called an “Affidavit under Section 3301(d) of the Divorce Code,” which states that your marriage is irretrievably broken and that one year or more has passed since your final separation, you are probably facing a deadline of not more than 40 days either to do something affirmative to protect your rights as a spouse, or to risk losing them when a divorce decree is awarded without need for your consent.

Read everything both carefully and thoroughly.
The papers you hold are your spouse’s or co-parent’s representations to the court about what is going on, and what he or she wants the court to do about it. They will tell you what he or she is asking for, and (by its absence) what isn’t being requested at this time. They may contain instructions to attend programs, or to pay fees. They may include deadlines. If action or a response is necessary, and you do not act or respond as the court instructs, there are consequences that can be severely negative. Don’t stick your head in the sand; of all the luxuries you cannot afford, that is the most dangerous of them all.

Often, people will find that all their spouse wants is the piece of paper saying that the marriage is dissolved, because all the Complaint asks for is a Decree in Divorce. If that is the case the matter can be relatively simple, but be sure that you, yourself do not want anything else out of the situation before you decide to cooperate, or to allow matters to go forward without your opposition.

Should I call my ex’s lawyer?
If you are unrepresented, you can contact your spouse’s or co-parent’s lawyer if you wish, to discuss the case and any possible resolution. If you decide to make the call be polite and civil, and know that you have a right to the same treatment from him. Remember that you are calling someone whose job is to protect and advance the interests of someone who wants something from you, whether you want to give it or not. However polite or courteous he is — and he should be! — you can count on the lawyer listening to everything you say with a keen ear, hoping to learn something that he can turn to his client’s advantage if push comes to shove. Keep your conversation on-topic and to the point, and don’t bother trying to convince him that you are in the right and your spouse or co-parent is in the wrong; he’s being paid to do a job, so even if you convince him personally, you won’t convince him professionally. Every lawyer has his game-face, and that’s the only one you get to see when you deal with him. He might be able to answer your questions (except for giving you legal advice, which he can never do), and he might (and should) be telling you the literal truth… but not necessarily the complete truth. Never forget that he has a client to serve and protect, and a set of goals to achieve. Get any promises he may make in writing; a good lawyer will understand why you want that, and will deal with you as fairly as possible subject to his duties to his client. The bottom line here is that the only person in the situation whose job is to protect your interests is you, unless you decide to retain an attorney for yourself. Keep your eyes and ears open, and your critical mind engaged.

Should I file an answer to the Complaint with the court?
Family lawsuits in Pennsylvania are handled differently than civil lawsuits. Pennsylvania law does not require that divorce and child custody defendants file an answer to Complaints. There are times when filing such an answer is desirable anyway, and also times when it is also desirable (or necessary) to file claims of your own in response to a divorce Complaint or a child custody Complaint. There are circumstances (especially if you are being sued for divorce under the ground of Irretrievable Breakdown) that if you do not challenge your opponent’s claims or raise claims of your own in a timely fashion, you can lose important rights. Educate yourself, and if you are at all in doubt, talk to a lawyer sooner rather than later! It is better to get information while there is time to do something about it, than to wish that you had. I can’t tell you how many times in my career I have wished for a time machine, to let me go back months or years to help a client when he or she could have used my help the most.

Set clear and achievable goals.
Don’t fight just to fight, and don’t allow yourself to be provoked into going to great lengths just to “set the record straight.” The paperwork in your hand tells you what your spouse or co-parent wants out of the situation, and now is the time to consider what you want. Stay focused. Make sure that your goals are reasonable and reasonably achievable, remembering that some forms of justice are beyond the authority or willingness of a court to award and must be left to a higher authority. Consulting with a lawyer can give you a useful “reality check” that your goals are achievable, and can offer you guidance about how to go about achieving them. Think of the court as a dance hall, and take the opportunity to learn the steps now that the music has started.

Dealing with deadlines and court dates.
There is an old Latin expression: festina lente, or “hurry slowly.” Haste is not the same thing as speed, and just as in a distance race, starting promptly and pacing yourself can be the key to success. You need not fear deadlines if you organize yourself and your resources, get the information you need, and prepare yourself properly. If you are represented, make sure that your attorney is telling you what you need to do, and what you can expect. Take deadlines and appointments very, very seriously. Know what you are getting into before you get into it. Be where the court says you need to be, pay what the court says you need to pay, and be fully prepared to proceed when you arrive at your appointment. Court is most frightening to those who are unprepared, and who have no understanding of what they are in for. That can be fixed if you are willing to be attentive, proactive and diligent.

If you need legal assistance with your divorce or family law matter in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call us to set up a personal consultation. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

Is there alimony in Pennsylvania? You bet!

February 9, 2011 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

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“You never realize how short a month is until you pay alimony.” — John Barrymore

One of the more common misconceptions about Pennsylvania divorce law has to do with alimony. Throughout my career, clients have asked me, “Is there alimony in Pennsylvania?” Happily for some and sadly for others the answer is yes, there is alimony in Pennsylvania.

Unlike spousal support and alimony pendente lite (courtspeak for temporary alimony, and often abbreviated as “APL”), which are usually calculated according to a guideline formula, alimony is much more dependent on the discretion of the court unless the divorcing spouses are able to reach an agreement.

The economic reality of marriage.
Unless the married couple has signed a prenuptial agreement that says neither spouse will be entitled to alimony, it is important to realize that the act of getting married does not just bind you and your spouse to each other, but also to the terms of the Pennsylvania Divorce Code. Marriage, under the Pennsylvania domestic relations law, is an act of becoming economically interdependent. Creating a marital union in Pennsylvania means that economically as well as personally, a “you” and a “me” become an “us.” One spouse often becomes economically dependent on the other during the course of a marriage, and Pennsylvania law offers economic protection to that spouse in the event of a separation. One spouse might be dependent on the other from staying home to raise the children or otherwise performing domestic services as a homemaker. Also, a spouse can become disabled, can be laid off and unable to find new employment at the same pay, or might simply be in a career that offers less income potential. An economically-dependent spouse may have sacrificed opportunities for job seniority or additional training, or may have worked to put the other spouse through school. Pennsylvania domestic relations law recognizes the reality of this, and the mission of the court is to do economic justice when a married couple separates and divorces. Alimony is one of the tools available to the judge assigned to the divorce case.

Seventeen factors to consider for an award of alimony in Pennsylvania.
There is no set formula to calculate the amount of alimony in Pennsylvania, the way spousal support or APL is calculated. Instead, there are — literally — seventeen factors that a judge is expected to take into account when deciding whether there will be alimony and (if so) how much, for how long. These factors include how long the marriage lasted until the date of final separation, what each spouse is capable of earning, whose ability to earn might be affected by taking care of the children, and each spouse’s relative health. It is easy to see that this gives a judge a very wide discretion. The good news about this is that the court has the power to create an alimony award that fits the actual needs and circumstances of both spouses. The bad news is that it is correspondingly hard to challenge alimony through appeal, because if the Superior Court decides that the judge was operating within his or her discretion, and that there is evidence enough to support the award, the alimony order will stand.

Does adultery prevent an award of alimony in Pennsylvania?
Marital misconduct — adultery, brutality, abandonment, etc. — is indeed one of the seventeen factors a court must consider before making an award of alimony to an economically-dependent spouse. However, it is only one of the seventeen, and you can expect the court to weigh a claim of adultery or another form of marital misconduct (as well as your spouse’s defenses) as part of the whole situation rather than viewing it exclusively in its own light. Also, divorce law in Pennsylvania specifically excludes marital misconduct occurring after the date of final separation when considering an award of alimony, unless one spouse has abused the other. This means that a separated spouse is free to be in a romantic relationship with another partner without penalty once the spouses have made their final separation.

How long does alimony last in Pennsylvania?
The duration of an alimony award depends on the circumstances of the case, and on the judge. A court has the authority and discretion to award alimony for a definite period (up to the remainder of a lifetime), or an indefinite period (i.e., open-ended and subject to later review). Lifetime alimony awards are very rare, but they do happen if the circumstances justify it. Awards of alimony remain within the discretion of the court to modify or terminate, if one of the former spouses is able to prove that there has been a change in circumstances of a substantial and continuing nature. Cohabitation and remarriage ordinarily will terminate alimony, as will the death of either spouse.

If you need legal assistance with your divorce or family law matter in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call my office to set up a personal consultation with a Pittsburgh divorce lawyer about alimony in PA. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

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