Pennsylvania alimony factors, duration, and changes

Pennsylvania has a formula for support before the divorce and nothing at all for alimony after it. Seventeen factors, a finding that alimony is "necessary," and a judge's discretion on both the amount and how long it lasts.

That vagueness is the point and also the problem. It is why alimony is the claim most often settled by agreement in Pennsylvania, and why the agreement's wording matters more than almost anything else in the file.

How is alimony decided in Pennsylvania?

In two steps, and the first one can end the inquiry. Under section 3701(a), where a divorce decree has been entered the court may allow alimony, as it deems reasonable, to either party only if it finds that alimony is necessary.

Necessary is the gate. If the court does not find it, there is no alimony no matter how long the marriage lasted or how far apart the incomes are.

Once through the gate, section 3701(b) sets seventeen factors the court considers in deciding whether alimony is necessary and in setting its nature, amount, duration and manner of payment:

1. The relative earnings and earning capacities of the parties

2. Their ages and physical, mental and emotional conditions

3. The sources of income of both parties, including medical, retirement, insurance or other benefits

4. The expectancies and inheritances of the parties

5. The duration of the marriage

6. The contribution by one party to the education, training or increased earning power of the other

7. The extent to which a party's earning power, expenses or financial obligations will be affected by serving as custodian of a minor child

8. The standard of living established during the marriage

9. The relative education of the parties, and the time needed for the party seeking alimony to acquire enough education or training to find appropriate employment

10. The relative assets and liabilities of the parties

11. The property brought to the marriage by either party

12. The contribution of a spouse as homemaker

13. The relative needs of the parties

14. The marital misconduct of either party during the marriage

15. The federal, state and local tax ramifications of the award

16. Whether the party seeking alimony lacks sufficient property, including property distributed in the divorce, to provide for their reasonable needs

17. Whether the party seeking alimony is incapable of self-support through appropriate employment

Factors 16 and 17 are the ones that connect alimony to the rest of the case. A generous property award can defeat an alimony claim outright, which is why the property division chapter and this one are really the same negotiation.

Is there an alimony formula in Pennsylvania?

No. The statewide guideline in section 4322 covers child support and spousal support, and alimony is neither of those. The formulas in the support rules produce spousal support before the divorce and alimony pendente lite during it, and both stop at the decree. The spousal support chapter works through the arithmetic that does exist.

What Pennsylvania gives you instead is a requirement that the judge explain. Under section 3701(d), an alimony order has to set forth the reason for the denial or the award and the amount. Some counties develop informal patterns around what a given marriage length tends to produce, but nothing about them is binding, and a number quoted to you as "the Pennsylvania rule" is not one.

How long does alimony last in Pennsylvania?

However long the court says. Section 3701(c) says the court determines the duration, which may be for a definite or an indefinite period of time that is reasonable under the circumstances.

There is no schedule of multipliers the way some states have, no automatic tie to the length of the marriage, and no point past which indefinite alimony becomes the default. Duration is one more thing the seventeen factors decide.

Does cheating affect alimony in Pennsylvania?

Yes, and this is the only place in a Pennsylvania divorce where it does. Marital misconduct during the marriage is factor fourteen.

The statute then draws a line at the separation date. Under section 3701(b)(14), misconduct from the date of final separation onward is not considered, with one exception written directly into the paragraph: the court shall consider the abuse of one party by the other, using the definition of abuse in the protection from abuse statute.

So a relationship that began after you separated is not a factor. One that began before it is. That is one more reason the separation date carries so much weight, and the grounds chapter covers how Pennsylvania fixes it.

Property is the contrast worth keeping in mind. Section 3502(a) tells the court to divide marital property without regard to marital misconduct, full stop. The same affair that shifts an alimony award moves nothing in the property column.

When does alimony end in Pennsylvania?

Three events end it and each works differently.

• Remarriage. Section 3701(e) says remarriage of the party receiving alimony terminates the award. No motion, no hearing.

• Cohabitation. Section 3706 bars alimony entirely where the person seeking it has, after the divorce, entered into cohabitation with a person of the opposite sex who is not a family member within the degrees of consanguinity. The bar is written as a disqualification rather than a change in circumstances.

• Death. Under section 3707, the right to receive alimony ends on the death of the payee. The obligation to pay ends on the death of the payor unless an agreement between the parties or an order of court says otherwise, which is why alimony agreements often carry a life insurance requirement.

Can alimony be modified in Pennsylvania?

By court order, yes. Under section 3701(e), an alimony order is subject to further order upon changed circumstances of either party of a substantial and continuing nature, and the court may modify, suspend, terminate or reinstitute it or make a new order. Any further order applies only to payments accruing after the petition for relief, so a delay in filing is money you do not get back.

By agreement, often no. Section 3105(c) says that in the absence of a specific provision to the contrary in the agreement, a provision regarding alimony, alimony pendente lite, counsel fees or expenses is not subject to modification by the court. The same goes for the disposition of existing property rights.

That single sentence is why a Pennsylvania alimony agreement should say out loud whether it can change. Silence means it cannot, whatever happens to either of your incomes afterward. The uncontested divorce chapter covers what else a settlement agreement should nail down.

How is alimony enforced in Pennsylvania?

Under section 3703, once a party is in arrears on alimony or alimony pendente lite the court may, after a hearing, do any of seven things:

• Enter judgment

• Authorize seizure of goods and chattels and collection of the rents and profits of the party's real estate

• Attach no more than 50% of the party's wages

• Award interest on unpaid installments

• Require security to insure future payments

• Issue attachment proceedings through the sheriff, and on a finding of willful failure to comply, hold the party in civil contempt and commit them to prison for up to six months

• Award counsel fees and costs

An agreement gets the same tools. Under section 3105(a), a party to an agreement on matters within the court's jurisdiction may use any remedy or sanction in the Divorce Code to enforce it, whether or not the agreement was merged into the decree, except as the agreement itself provides otherwise.

What if you never claimed alimony in Pennsylvania?

Then you do not have it, and there is no route back. Rule 1920.31(c) makes failure to claim alimony before the entry of a final decree a waiver, unless the court expressly provides otherwise in the decree.

This is the single most common self-inflicted injury in a Pennsylvania divorce, and it happens most often to people who filed their own papers on the mutual consent route, got the decree, and only worked out later that they needed support. The filing chapter covers what to put in the complaint so that the claim is alive when you need it.