One of the questions that most spouses tend to find answers when divorcing is on spousal support. In most marriages, you will find one partner being financially stable than the other. It is common to find one spouse working in a high paying job while the other is taking care of the children back at home. The source of wealth could be from a family or from wealthy relatives. It is a common thing to find the less earning spouse asking the court during a divorce case to order the higher earning spouse to pay the other monthly support. When you want to understand more on family law; you should consider reading this article to the end since it discusses whether a spouse can waive their right to spousal support in Washington state.
Unlike in other states, in Washington, spouses are required to split the marital estate fairly between every partner. By marital property we mean assets that includes all income earned by a husband or wife during the marriage, all property acquired with a spouse’s income during the marriage, and any property acquired with joint or marital funds during the marriage.
Also, during a divorce case, the judge may order one spouse to pay the other spousal maintenance. Though the spousal maintenance is similar to child support payments, the former is paid to cater for the needs of a spouse while the latter aims at meeting the needs of a child. According to family law, a spouse can agree to give up their right to receive spousal maintenance payments.
When you want to waive your right to get spousal support, you need to begin by creating pre and post-nuptial agreements. The beauty about the pre-and post-nuptial agreements is that they clearly define the percentage of the wealth each spouse is entitled to in the event that the marriage should end. In most divorce cases, the court will generally allow a spouse to waive his or her right to support so long as the waiver is made knowingly, willingly, and without duress or intimidation. However, for the waiver to be valid, it needs to be in writing, and must be signed by both parties. For the waiver to be valid, you also need to have a lawyer who will explain the agreement to the person signing up his or her rights, and the waiver should include a listing of each of the parties’ assets, debts, and income.
For the waiver to be passed, it needs to be fair and reasonable to both parties. The beauty about solving the spousal support cases in a court of law is that the court will not allow a person to be left with nothing.