How Quickly Can I Get Financial Support From My Spouse

When a marriage is breaking up, or if people who have a child together are breaking up, they are often concerned about how to get support from the other party. If the separation happens suddenly, one party could be left with no income at all or insufficient income to pay the rent and/or buy groceries. In a divorce case, alimony is available. When the parties have a child or children together, then child support is available regardless of whether they were married or not. However the Court system is complicated, and getting support can be difficult. If you don’t do the right things, you could find your case delayed or even denied, and you could be left without support. Attorney Kevin L. Hoffkins can get an action initiated quickly and get you an order for support.

A full case for support can take a long time and often divorce cases can take a year. That is of course way too long to go without support. The Courts recognize this, and they have a procedure for getting people support on a temporary basis while the case is pending. This is also known as pendent lite alimony or pendent lite child support. In divorce cases involving children you can get both pendent lite alimony and child support. But getting into Court and having a motion heard before a judge requires a party to observe very specific steps. If these steps are not followed, then the motion may not be scheduled for a hearing, or a judge could refuse to hear the motion.

Typically, once a case is filed, a motion for support is also filed quickly thereafter. Once the motion is filed it, the Courts system should assign a date for its hearing. The rules regarding the initiation of a case require that the papers be served twelve days before the return date. The return date is date that is set in the original papers as the date when the other party is supposed to file a appearance with the Court. Therefore, you must assume that you will not even be in Court for at least twelve days after the original action papers are drawn up.

Once the return date has passed, you must look to get your case on the Court’s calendar. Beginning in 2024, the Courts are required by statute to schedule your hearing for support within sixty days of filing your motion. Normally, motions for support are heard well before sixty days. However, there can be issues that delay a matter. A typical reason is that the other party files a motion for continuance which delays the hearing of the motion. The reasons for a continuance could be that the other party needs time to hire an attorney, or needs time to get financial records together. Many family Courts in Connecticut have full caseloads, and once a continuance is requested, the Court has limited availability to hear a case, and the hearing gets put off for weeks.

The new statute that requires your motion for support to be heard within sixty days has some requirements. First, you must attach an affidavit stating that 1). The moving party has insufficient funds to meet his or her reasonable needs, 2). That the moving party has a reasonable belief that the other has sufficient means or earning capacity to provide those funds. In addition, you will have to have prepared a financial affidavit that shows your income assets and debts.

With all of these requirements, you can easily see how difficult it can be to make sure your motions or alimony or child support is promptly heard. Attorney Kevin L. Hoffkins has filed many divorce actions and obtained prompt hearings for support to be heard. When you need support it pays to have the help of someone like Attorney Kevin L. Hoffkins to make sure your case is promptly heard, and that you put forward a proper case so that you will get the support that you deserve.