MODIFICATION OF ALIMONY/SPOUSAL SUPPORT

Faulkner Legal Group, P.A., an Orlando divorce law firm, handles a variety of divorce related issues in the Orlando, Central Florida and surrounding areas as well as the State of Florida as a whole.  As an Orlando divorce lawyer, attorney David A. Faulkner represents clients with regard to Florida divorce related alimony and spousal support modification issues.

SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES

If you have a previously court ordered alimony/spousal support arrangement in place, there are certain grounds that, if proven, may justify modifying the existing court order.  In order to modify such an existing court order, the parties must not have waived modification.  If alimony/spousal support was agreed by the parties to be non-modifiable, then modification may not be allowed.  If, however, modification was not waived, then the spouse seeking the modification must allege in a supplemental petition to modify and must ultimately prove the existence of one or more substantial changes in circumstances.  In order to be a substantial change in circumstances, it must be a material (not slight) change in circumstances.  Further, the change must be a change that was not contemplated at the time the original order was entered.  Also, the change must be one that was not voluntarily created by the spouse seeking the modification.  As to any requested change in alimony/spousal support, the recipient spouse must have a need for the alimony modification, and the payor spouse must have the ability to pay the modification amount.  An example of such a substantial change in circumstances might be that the payor spouse's ability to pay alimony has been reduced since the original order because he or she lost their job as the result of an involuntary layoff.  Conversely, it may be that the recipient spouse's need for alimony has increased since the original order as a result of a new medical condition that prevents the recipient spouse from working.  There are of course a wide variety of possible changes in circumstances that might be found to be substantial in nature.    

WHERE TO GET LEGAL HELP?

If you have a Florida divorce related alimony/spousal support modification issues you need help with, then contact Faulkner Legal Group, P.A. so that Orlando Divorce lawyer David A. Faulkner can inform you of your legal rights.  Call today.