CookiWafer said:
What is the name of your state? Texas
I am in a marriage that is quite stagnant ... unfortunately, I could get more affection from a telephone pole. No physical contact in about two years. Won't live like this. Thus, thinking of a divorce, however, very apprehensive because I broke my back several years ago, ongoing care, and am on disability. We've been married for 14 years, no children. He has a very stable job making about $200K annually. What happens? Will I be supported? And for how long? How does this work? I am so lost here.
Texas is a community property state. As such, each spouse owns a one-half undivided interest in all the community property. All property upon dissolution of the marriage is presumed to be community property. The one claiming that the property is separate property has the burden to trace and clearly prove that the property was acquired prior to marriage, was acquired by gift, devise or descent after marriage or was the recovery for personal injuries sustained by the spouse during marriage, except any recovery for loss of earning capacity during marriage.
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Now if your question is can I get alimony in Texas and how much and for how long. It depends. A clue as to just how little alimony is favored in Texas is that it is called maintenance not alimony.
§ 8.051. Eligibility for Maintenance; Court Order
. . . .
(2) the duration of the marriage was 10 years or longer, the spouse seeking maintenance lacks sufficient property, including property distributed to the spouse under this code, to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs, as limited by Section 8.054, and the spouse seeking maintenance:
(A) is unable to support himself or herself through appropriate employment because of an incapacitating physical or mental disability;
. . . .
C) clearly lacks earning ability in the labor market adequate to provide support for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs, as limited by Section 8.054.
§ 8.055. Amount of Maintenance
(a) A court may not order maintenance that requires an obligor to pay monthly more than the lesser of:
(1) $2,500; or
(2) 20 percent of the spouse's average monthly gross income.
(b) The court shall set the amount that an obligor is required to pay in a maintenance order to provide for the minimum reasonable needs of the obligee, considering employment or property received in the dissolution of the marriage or otherwise owned by the obligee that contributes to the minimum reasonable needs of the obligee.
(c) Department of Veterans Affairs service-connected disability compensation, social security benefits and disability benefits, and workers' compensation benefits are excluded from maintenance.
Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 7, § 1, eff. April 17, 1997.
Renumbered from § 8.006 and amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 807, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
