When you and your spouse decide to separate, suddenly everything changes. You go from two individuals in a household taking care of one home, to one individual taking care of one home. Suddenly, children’s schedules change and financial worries increase. Now, you worry about whether you will have to get a job after divorce just to make ends meet.
Deciding Whether To Get A Job After Divorce In Tulsa
For the spouse that gave up their career to stay home and raise children, it is not an easy transition once your spouse leaves. Often, the family court judge will assign temporary custody to the parent who is primarily caring for the children in the family home. Now, you are alone in the home to care for your children without the partner you thought would always be there.
Although your spouse cannot force to you work, the circumstances surrounding your divorce order may require you to eventually obtain employment.
Temporary Support
During the first hearing, your attorney can ask for temporary alimony in order to maintain your lifestyle. This means during the divorce you should be able to continue to stay at home and care for the children without a decrease in your standard of living.
Typically, temporary alimony is a higher monthly or weekly amount than the permanent alimony you will receive once the divorce is final.
Permanent Alimony
Your permanent alimony in Oklahoma depends on many factors. The primary factors include the supported spouse’s need, the supporting spouse’s ability to pay and still maintain their lifestyle, the ability of the supported spouse to work, and how assets were divided.
There are several other factors the court considers; however, the final result will be an amount to compensate you for your decision to leave your career and care for the household while your spouse leaves the marriage with the same or greater income as when the marriage began.
The overarching concept the family courts try to leave litigants with is fairness.
How To Get A Job After Divorce
While the court cannot force you to work, your circumstances may necessitate you to find employment eventually. Alimony is not meant to last until the supported spouse dies, depending on the age of the spouse.
The purpose of alimony is to provide a cushion that lasts a reasonable amount of time compared to the marriage that allows the supported spouse to recreate their life. Typically, support lasts one year for every three years of marriage. However, there are exceptions.
The timing of your alimony provides you with a warning as to when you will need to secure other sources of income once your alimony stops. Whether this means you borrow from parents, friends, or family members, get remarried, or obtain employment, you will have to find a source of income once your alimony ends.
If you have children you are caring for, you will still receive child support from your ex-spouse until your child turns 18, regardless of when your alimony ends.
The best steps you can take for your children and yourself are to retain an Oklahoma divorce attorney and to start preparing early for how you are going to replace the lost income.
A great Tulsa divorce attorney can try to negotiate your spouse to pay for job training or education in a new field. In exchange, you can offer to receive less alimony at some future date when you are finished with your training.
Free Consultation With A Tulsa Divorce Lawyer
The divorce process is what you make it — the higher the conflict, the more expensive your case becomes. Hiring a skilled and experienced Tulsa divorce attorney ensures your rights are protected and explains all necessary and unnecessary steps in the process.
Contact an experienced Tulsa divorce lawyer when you need to go through the Oklahoma divorce process.
For a free, confidential consultation, call 918-924-5526 now.
