Negotiating with Your Ex-spouse Could Help You Out
Video Transcribed: Hello, I am Oklahoma men’s attorney Jason Lile. I wanted to answer a much-dreaded question in family law, especially for fathers and men. How do I get out of paying alimony?
I don’t know what it is about that topic, it just makes my male clients bristle. Obviously, the emotion attached to paying somebody money to support them after you are done with the relationship is very difficult. So the answer to the question, How do I get out of paying alimony? Well, the best answer is don’t get ordered to pay alimony in the first place. You really need a family law lawyer who is used to and has experience in litigating alimony claims. There are some very valid defenses against alimony claims that your lawyer needs to be aware of. The most significant of which is, can you afford it?
That kind of analysis and a good presentation of the evidence as to whether you can afford alimony is very important. But after the alimony order comes down, if you’re already to the point where you have an alimony award against you and you need to be paying it, there are only a couple of ways to undo that. It can be appealed if the order is still pretty new, less than 30 days old.
The other thing is, is that if the other litigant gets remarried many times, most types of alimony cease at that point. And the third thing is, is that you can, if the order’s already in place, those are basically the only two ways, either they expire, or you pay the entire amount. You can offer somebody to whom you owe alimony a cash payout.
Let’s say that you’re supposed to be paying $500 for five years every month. Okay. Obviously that if my math is correct, is about $30,000. That might be wrong, but whatever the amount is, if you offer a cash payout, say you owe 30,000 total if you added up the entire award, and if you said if I give you 15,000 in cash right now, can we make an agreement? The judge has the power to cut that alimony award off by agreement.
The third thing is, if we’re up to three things, that during the middle of a divorce, you can also offer the other spouse property in lieu of alimony. So you really need an attorney that’s used to litigating alimony issues and negotiating alimony issues.
If you need to consult about that or any other family law matter, my name is Jason Lyle. I’m a Tulsa alimony lawyer. You can find my contact information at tulsafathersrights.lawyer or Dads.Law and I would be happy to consult with you.
