I wanted to follow-up with my initial post to let everyone know what has transpired since. My wife and I have now been almost seperated for 1 year now (living separately). The courts did grant my wife "temporary" spousal and child support based upon my two jobs. In fact, the judge told me that if I had quit one job or do quit 1 job that I would still have to pay my wife the court ordered amount regardless (transputed income). So, I'm literally an indentured servent, more like a slave to the "Entitled One" (my endearing term for my soon to be Ex-wife). Go figure, I live in the Confederate capital of the CSA during the civil war (Richmond VA). During my child custody hearing (which was heard in a separate court case) my lawyer did try to get that judge to allow me to go to one job in order to spend more time with my kids etc. This was still Family courts. That case lasted 3 hours as we poured over court cases. The judge denied my motion based upon a court in in 1992 (1993?) Cochran vs Cochran in which the VA supreme court ordered the man to continue working two full time jobs. I can appeal the case with the Circuit courts. So, when my lawyer and family and everyone else who knows me says that "No judge will ever court order a person to work two full time jobs" then think again. They will and do...at least in VA. Part of the problem with VA law is that VA courts have not defined what "full potential" means. Some states, and even the country of France states that full potential is a 40 hour work week. Because I had been and was working 80 hours per week, then the courts viewed that was my full potential. Crock of crap if you ask me. Logically that is crazy thinking because everyone can work 2 or 3 jobs if forced to. Not once did the courts look at what my wifes full potential was or could be. Anyway, I will try to follow-up to this posting as the "contested" divorce proceeds.
The court is not actually ordering you to work two jobs. They're simply saying that you will have to pay alimony based on the amount you earned. It's not quite the same thing.
As someone suggested, if there are medical reasons why you are unable to work two jobs, that might be relevant. Also, if there is some CHILD-BASED reason for you to be able to spend more time with your kids, that will be relevant. That is, you should not be arguing that YOU want to spend more time with the kids. Rather, you should be arguing that it's in the children's best interests - based on numerous studies that show that kids of divorce do much better with both parents in their lives.
There is one error in your post - stating that the court will not consider income from her. That is not correct. Courts will almost always impute income to one spouse even if they're not working. If she has any sellable skills, that might be a significant number. If she doesn't, then they might only impute minimum wage, but they will usually impute something if you wish.
You didn't respond to my comment about this not going on forever. What is your attorney telling you for how long you're going to be paying alimony? It doesn't usually go on forever unless there's some unusual circumstance. Specifically, how long were you married?
You might consider an appeal, but it's likely to be a waste of money. Judges have a great deal of discretion and unless they're clearly violating the law, it's hard to win an appeal on a case like this. Better to focus on reasons why the judge should use his discretion differently than he is.
The one small silver lining is that court-ordered alimony is deductible on your taxes.
