Divorce Rights for Men on Spousal Support

Divorce rights for men is a controversial subject we all think about but don’t speak about much. I am a family lawyer and I will be the first to say that divorce rights for men used to and sometimes continue to be jeopardized and compromised. Around 20-30 years ago, laws were created that could literally cripple the man, both with respect to his children and his finances. We had a surge of women’s divorce rights in our society and in our courts and it created inequality between men and women. These laws and precedents:

1. Gave more custody rights to women than men, specially when it came to young children – to read our article on custody rights for men, click here; and
2. Victimized women because of their role in the marriage and gave them a financial security that most men could not afford to pay for.

The effect of these laws kept the women as the primary care givers to children and in a way did not provide them with the motivation to go out there and work, become self sufficient and lead a life of independency. A lot of cases assumed that the woman could only earn minimum wage or work part time because she couldn’t grow during the marriage. But they didn’t give her a motivation to grow after separation. They kept her dependent on the man just like she was during the marriage. And that doesn’t make sense to me.

So in this blog, I am going to give the men some strategies or tips on spousal support and how to argue in a way to make the ex-wife want to grow as a person and not be dependent on the man’s monthly support. Because at the end of the day, what is in the past is in the past. And after separation, a new life starts and the sooner both you and your ex-wife adapt to it, the better both of you will be.

The goal should always be to achieve as much happiness as possible for both spouses’ future. And keeping the woman dependent on the man’s pay cheque for a life time does not make her or the man happy.

Divorce Rights for Men: Spousal Support and Imputation of Income

In order to reduce your spousal support obligations, you need to first prove to the judge that you wife has the ability to earn more than she thinks she does and therefore, income should be imputed to her. You do this by:

1. Looking at her education and seeing what reasonable or standard careers she could have. If she had a good job before marrying you but then stayed at home during the marriage, tell the judge that she is now capable of holding the same job and the same salary after separation. This is assuming she does not have to spend most of her time taking care of the kids after separation.
2. If she has no education and raised your children, it is better to pay for her schooling and whatever degree she needs in order to become independent in the future. Look at long term gain and not just short term pain. If she becomes educated and independent, that will benefit both you and her. So invest in her if you believe she will use the investment.
3. If she can work a better job or is underworked, you can argue that a higher income needs to be imputed to her. This is done by looking what type of job she could get given her education and how much that job would pay on a full time basis. So if she had a degree in marketing, look at the average salary for marketers in her line of work. Then show that evidence to the judge and argue that she should be earning that much.

Spousal Support Amount and Duration

Spousals support is directly related to:

1. The length of your cohabitation or marriage;
2. The difference in your incomes;
3. Who is taking care of the children most of the time; and
4. or whether you didn’t have any children together.

If the length of marriage was less than 5 years and there were no children, spousal support is much less and for a lessor duration.

On the other hand if you were married for 15 years and she is taking care of the children primarily, then spousal support is higher and is paid for much longer. In this situation, if you can, take 50% of custody of the children, offer to pay for a nanny and argue why she should be working full time to earn a higher wage. If you do not want to do that, you are exchanging less time with the children in return of paying her more spousal support. Hey, someone needs to care for the children and if it is not you, you can’t complain about why you need to pay spousal support to her.

Divorce Rights for Men: Less Spousal Support Because of High Debt

In some cases, if you give her more on the family assets and take over most of family debts, you can ask the judge to either order less spousal support or no spousal support at all. You would have to make some complicated legal arguments to do this and it is best to contact a spousal support lawyer to find out more about your rights.

Law is a complicated and intelligent thing and you need to use it to win your case. Google won’t help you that much because you need someone who is trained in the law to connect the law to your case properly. So if you want to approach your case in wisely, at least consult with a family lawyer to know your rights and the arguments you can make. You won’t find these arguments online because every case is different and Google will only provide general information.

YLaw is working on a case on obtaining the highest spousal support payable in British Columbia and is looking forward to setting precedent on the issue of spousal support. Our lawyers have major experience in this area. Call us at 604-974-9529 or email [email protected] for more information.