Divorce

There are five types of alimony in Maine: interim, general, transitional, reimbursement, and nominal.

1) The judge may award you interim support to help you during your pending divorce action.¹

2) You may receive general support to help you financially if you make substantially less money and have less potential to make money than your spouse. The purpose of this type of support is to let you have a reasonable standard of living after your divorce.

The length of your marriage affects whether you will get general support. The judge will assume that s/he should not grant general support if the marriage lasted less than ten years, but you can present evidence to change the judge’s mind. For marriages that last between ten and 20 years, the judge will assume that alimony should last for no longer than half of the length of the marriage, but you can present evidence to change the judge’s mind. If the judge decides the spousal support award based on these considerations would be unjust, s/he can make a different decision.²

3) You may receive transitional support to help you adjust to life after divorce. Your transitional needs may include:

• short-term financial needs due to divorce; or
• help to reenter or advance in the workforce, including physical or emotional rehabilitation services to address disabilities or barriers to employment, vocational training, and education.³

4) You may receive reimbursement support to help make your and your spouse’s finances become equal if there are “exceptional circumstances,” which include but are not limited to:

• economic misconduct by your spouse;
• your substantial contribution to your spouse’s education, training, or advancement in the workplace during the marriage; and
• economic abuse by a spouse, as defined in Maine Statutes, title 19-A, section 4002, subsection 3-B.⁴

The judge will only consider reimbursement support if your financial situation does not allow the judge to order a fair and equitable financial outcome through dividing marital property.⁴

5) The judge may grant you nominal support, which means a very small amount, so that s/he has the ability to grant you support in the future. In other words, granting nominal support allows the judge the right to revisit the question of spousal support later.⁵

¹ ME ST T. 19-A § 951-A(2)(E)
² ME ST T. 19-A § 951-A(2)(A)
³ ME ST T. 19-A § 951-A(2)(B)
⁴ ME ST T. 19-A § 951-A(2)(C)
⁵ ME ST T. 19-A § 951-A(2)(D)