Divorce doesn’t always mean the complete end of the connection between you and your spouse. Sometimes, one party is entitled to financial support from the other for several months or years after the ink has dried on their divorce decree. This may be the case even if your marriage didn’t last very long. So can you get alimony after two years of marriage or a short marriage? Maybe.
Courts across the country take many factors into account when determining whether a divorcing spouse is entitled to alimony (also called spousal support or spousal maintenance). In most states, alimony may be possible after a short marriage ends, but your entitlement to such alimony depends on your circumstances and the specific facts of your case.
Let’s take a look at what you might be able to expect when you or your spouse requests alimony in a divorce.
Can I get alimony after two years of marriage?
Whether you can get alimony after a short marriage depends on where you file for divorce and the circumstances of your breakup.
States that allow alimony after a short marriage
The vast majority of states don’t explicitly require that a marriage last a specific number of years before a spouse may be eligible to receive some type of alimony. These states include:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
However, many of these states still factor in the length of a marriage when determining whether alimony is warranted and how much to award. Absent unusual circumstances, courts may hesitate to grant alimony for shorter marriages.
Even if a court determines that alimony is appropriate, a shorter marriage might reduce the duration of your alimony award. For instance, Delaware law doesn’t allow a spouse to receive alimony for a period longer than half the length of their marriage unless their marriage lasted for at least 20 years.
States that restrict or deny alimony after a short marriage
Some states limit alimony if you’ve only been married a few years.
- Maine divorce law presumes that long-term alimony for spouses married for fewer than 10 years should not be awarded.
- Texas divorce law may not allow you to seek alimony when ending a marriage that lasted fewer than 10 years unless you or your child has a disability or your spouse committed an act of family violence.
- Florida law doesn’t allow a spouse to receive long-term alimony if their marriage lasted fewer than three years.
- Colorado’s guidelines for calculating alimony begin at the three-year mark.
What type of alimony can I get?
Depending on where you live, alimony may come in several different forms, including:
- Rehabilitative alimony
- Reimbursement alimony
- Transitional alimony
Alimony may also be temporary or permanent.
Rehabilitative alimony
Depending on the nature of a marriage relationship, one spouse might have a harder time than the other when trying to find a job that can support them after divorce. The purpose of rehabilitative alimony may be to help a spouse obtain a better earning capacity as a newly single person. This support may pay for:
- Training
- Work experience
- Education
If you receive this type of support, the court might require you to follow a specific rehabilitation plan (for example, enrolling in and completing school courses to build up your resume).
Transitional alimony
Transitional alimony (also called reorientation support or bridge-the-gap alimony) may be ordered in some states to help a spouse get used to their new life as a single person. This type of alimony might be paid for only a short amount of time.
Reimbursement alimony
Reimbursement alimony is exactly how it sounds. If one spouse supported the other spouse during the marriage to help them obtain an education and a higher earning capacity, the court might order the supported spouse to pay reimbursement alimony.
What is alimony pendente lite?
Alimony pendente lite is a term for temporary alimony that a spouse may receive before they get their divorce decree. A court might award this type of alimony if it believes that the requesting spouse requires financial assistance during the divorce process.
To establish that you have a right to this type of temporary alimony, the court might consider the same factors it considers when determining your right to alimony and the amount you should receive after your divorce is final. We discuss these factors in the next section.
How much alimony should I get?
Like the answer to many other legal questions, the answer to how much alimony you may receive is that it depends. Courts examine the unique facts of your case to calculate the amount of alimony you should receive.
In many states, the factors the courts use for their calculations may include:
- The amount of marital property each spouse will receive in the divorce
- The financial needs the requesting spouse established during the marriage
- The tax ramifications of an alimony award
- The duration of the marriage
- Each spouse’s gross income
- The contributions the requesting spouse made to the other spouse’s education or career
- The earning capacity of each spouse
- Any marital misconduct
- The age of each spouse
- Each spouse’s assets and liabilities
- The health of each spouse
- The education level of each spouse
- The contributions the requesting spouse made as a homemaker
- The requesting spouse’s ability to meet their financial needs
After the court reviews these factors, it might determine that your alimony should be monthly payments of hundreds or thousands of dollars, or the court might award a one-time lump sum.
How an attorney may help
You can typically choose to represent yourself in a divorce, but many people find the help of an attorney to be a boost. In a divorce case, an attorney can identify all factors that make you eligible for alimony and compile the evidence necessary to win an alimony award on your behalf. An attorney may also handle the difficult conversations you might have to have with your spouse about your post-divorce needs and rights.
