How do the Maricopa County Superior Court Spousal Maintenance Guidelines Work?
The guidelines are not intended to determine if a spouse should receive spousal maintenance (although they do provide some helpful guidance). Basically, you take the total years of marriage multiplied by .015 and then take that sum and multiply it by the difference in the gross monthly incomes of the spouses. The duration of the award is a third to one-half the length of the marriage (unless the spouse seeking spousal maintenance is over 50 and the parties were married for more than 20 years, then the award is of an indefinite duration). For example, if you assume that at the time of the filing of the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage a husband and wife were married 17 years, the husband earns $10,000 per month and the wife earns $1,500 per month, the formula works like this: Complete Years of Marriage: 17 Multiplied by: .015 (this factor is the same in every calculation) Duration Factor: .255 (25.5%) Husband’s Gross Monthly Income: $10,000 per month Wife’s Gross Monthly Income: $1,
