Originally Posted by
mark negri
We were married 1 week short of 2 years when she moved out what is the time frame for support is it 50% of the length of marriage and is there a free site to access disomaster to figure support
You sound like you are in California if you are talking about using the DissoMaster.
First, the "half-the-length-of-the-marriage rule" is only a
guideline the court may use if it wants to. It's NOT a rule of law. And it does not apply to marriages over 10 years as you probably know.
Second, temporary spousal support (entered while the case is pending and before entry of final judgment) is NOT subject to the one-half--the-length-of-the-marriage rule and can go on as long as the case sits in the court system (which can be years). In other words, if you were married one day you might end of paying two years of temporary guideline support if it takes two years for your case to go to final judgment. When it comes to fixing long-term orders, however, judges usually give a credit against the duration of long term support for any period that a temporary order ran. In other words if it takes one year from your case to go to final judgment and the court were inclined to apply the half the length of the marriage rule to your case, you would get a credit off the one year's support the court might order for any time pre-judgment that a temporary ss order ran (if say 6 months, you might end up with only 6 months of long term support).
Finally, if you want to calculate long term (post-judgment) support, keep in mind the DissoMaster cannot be used for that purpose. The court is barred from relying on a computer-generated guideline spousal support calculation in making a long-term order and must consider the 4320 factors (Family Code section 4320) independently.
