Divorce

While I am not a divorce attorney, I believe if you are married less than 10 years the support paid is generally 1/2 the length of the marriage.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER
Mr. Larkin is licensed to practice law in CA and is located in San Diego. His response here does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney/ client relationship. The response is in the form of legal education and is intended to provide general information about the matter in question. Many times the questioner may leave out details which would make the reply unsuitable. Mr. Larkin strongly advises the questioner to confer with an attorney in their own state to acquire more information about the specifics of their case.

The general rule is half of the marriage. The court will take all circumstances into consideration while making support orders so there is no "absolute" rule.

The prior answer which stated that there's no "hard and fast" rule is correct. Spousal support is based on a long list of factors, and while a court may make certain assumptions from certain facts, no one fact will automatically change the answer completely.

A marriage of ten years or more before separation is assumed to be a "long marriage" for purposes of support calculation; it will be assumed that after a "long marriage" the court should retain the power to award support indefinitely. It will also be assumed that for any marriage that is NOT a "long marriage" the supported spouse should be able to be self-supporting, and should receive spousal support for, approximately half the length of the marriage. All those assumptions are just that, and the court can be persuaded to move away from them if shown other facts.

Other facts which will be important:
if you were married eight years, and you're 50 now, for how many years before your marriage were you self-supporting?
What was the best-paying job you held before you were married?
Are you qualified to resume that job today, without substantial retraining?
Is that job, or a job like it, available?
Are you disabled in any way which would keep you from taking that job, or a similar job, if it was available?
If that job isn't available, what additional education and training would be needed for you to start in some other line of work, and how much would that education/retaining cost?
How much does your ex make?
How old is he, how's his health, and how long will he be working?