Figuring out the answer to that question is why you have a lawyer.
When it comes to child support, as long as we know what the custody and parenting situation and the income of the parties, it’s pretty easy to get an accurate idea of how much child support will be. Alimony is a little trickier; it varies depending upon the judge, the length of the marriage, the amount of debt each party is carrying, which party makes more money and other factors that are used to determine the true level of need of the party seeking alimony.
In other words, the judge will factor in whether they have other sources of income, such as family support or a trust fund or things like that. It’s harder to figure out an alimony figure, but we can use software programs to give you an idea what the starting point of negotiations will be and where it may end up. You need the help of your attorney to estimate all that.
