In a Rhode Island Divorce proceeding alimony must be awarded or denied by the Family Court Justice.
Since alimony under Rhode Island law is rehabilitative in nature, more often then not it is waived by one or both parties during the course for most Rhode Island divorce proceedings.
Alimony that is rehabilitative is awarded by the court based upon the recipients need for financial support while he or she (1) re-establishes himself or herself in the working world with existing skills, (2) re-trains himself or herself with skills sufficient to sustain himself or herself with more modern skills, (3) is unable to care for himself or herself due to injuries, illnesses, handicaps or other circumstances that reasonably warrant the award of alimony for an extended period of time because one spouse is unable to care for himself or herself.
Alimony may be agreed to by the parties in circumstances when an award of rehabilitative alimony may be considered inevitable by the parties and/or their lawyers. In other instances, a spouse may agree to pay rehabilitative alimony to the other spouse because their is an ability to make such a payment, even if the court would not normally award it, and one spouse wants to help the other spouse for a reasonable period of time until he or she regains a financial foothold on his or her own.
Whether alimony is by an award of the court or by an agreement of the parties, it is important that the language used by the court for any award of alimony is accurate pursuant to the agreement of the parties or as intended by the court.
The typical example is when an award of alimony is made for a specific amount of money for a specific period of time. In this instance, clarity of language is essential!
Assume that Mr. Lawyers has agreed to pay Mrs. Lawyers alimony of exactly $400 per week for a period of three (3) years. Now let's assume that the alimony award is phrased as follows in both the Marital Settlement agreement of the parties as well as the Decision of the Court. Nothing else is mentioned about alimony.
"Defendant Mrs. Lawyers shall pay Mrs. Lawyers rehabilitative alimony of $400 per week for a period of three years."
Here is where accuracy in the language regarding the rehabilitative alimony provisions is crucial when it comes to clarifying the Marital Settlement Agreement and/or the Decision of the Court. If this is the ONLY alimony that Mrs. Lawyers is to receive per their Marital Settlement Agreement, then Mrs. Lawyers MUST request to waive alimony permanently on the record of the court and Mr. Lawyers or his attorney must make sure that the decision of the court is clarified to state that Mrs. Lawyers waives alimony permanently after that three year period. Either Mr. Lawyers or his attorney should do so even if it means clarifying to the judge BEFORE the hearing or trial is concluded that the award of alimony should involve a waiver of alimony permanently with the exception of that three year period.
Why is this so crucial in a Rhode Island divorce proceeding?
Well, in the first instance it is significant to Mr. Lawyers. If there is no permanent waiver of alimony by Mrs. Lawyers other than that three year period, then Mrs. Lawyers has a viable legal argument that alimony WAS NOT expressly limited to that three year period of payments because she DID NOT waive alimony permanently. Therefore, if things aren't going well for Mrs. Lawyers at that time and Mr. Lawyers still has the ability to pay continued alimony, then Mrs. Lawyers might decide to return to court for another 1, 3 or more years of alimony.
In the second instance, if Mr. Lawyers has hired a Rhode Island attorney to protect his interests in the divorce, then the attorney may have made a crucial mistake because he or she didn't make sure a permanent waiver of alimony was made by Mrs. Lawyers. Unless there was a miscommunication or some other circumstance which explains why the Rhode Island attorney didn't insure the permanent waiver of alimony was made, then the Rhode Island attorney may find himself or herself on the receiving end of a legal malpractice claim.
Authored By:
Christopher A. Pearsall
Attorney-at-Law
70 Dogwood Drive, Suite 304
West Warwick, RI 02893
Call (401) 632-6976 Now for your low-cost consultation.
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Copyright 2008. Christopher A. Pearsall
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