Alimony, also known as spousal support, is one of the more contentious issues in many divorces. Many spouses who are being supported feel that they are owed for their contributions to the marriage, while many supporting spouses do not relish the idea of having to continue to support someone they are no longer married to. While recent changes to divorce law in Illinois will make awarding alimony a more streamlined process, it can still be beneficial to understand the different types of alimony and the theories behind them. Spousal support can be broken down into two groups based on whether it is expected to be a temporary arrangement or a permanent one.

Time-Limited Alimony

Time-limited alimony is one that the court does not expect the supporting spouse to pay out forever. For instance, courts often award a temporary alimony during the divorce process. Divorces may take some time to finalize in court, so the court wants to ensure that both the spouses have the ability to meet expenses during the process. This type of alimony will eventually be replaced once the divorce is finalized.

One of the most important pieces of legislation passed in the last few years is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare. This legislation revamped the American healthcare system in a variety of ways. Many of these changes have important ramifications regarding divorce and the Affordable Care Act. For instance, the Act subsidizes healthcare premiums for certain individuals based on their income level, but the particular income level changes based on whether a person is married or single. Additionally, some people fear filing for divorce because they rely on their spouse's health insurance. The law provides other options to people looking for health coverage.

The Open Enrollment Period

The Affordable Care Act created insurance exchanges that allow people to sign up for health insurance policies. To take advantage of these marketplaces, a person has to sign up during the open enrollment period. The next open enrollment period, which is good for coverage beginning in 2015, runs from November 15th, 2014 to February 15th, 2015. One of the main benefits of these exchanges is that people can qualify for subsidies and tax credits to reduce the cost of their health insurance. These subsidies are based on income level, and the requisite income level changes based on a person's tax filing status, whether they are single, married, or head of household. Because a person's eligibility for cheaper healthcare changes depending on their marital status, it may benefit people who are considering both getting a divorce and getting health insurance to coordinate their divorce so that they can try to qualify for better subsidies on the exchanges by getting a divorce before the end of the next open enrollment period.

Given the expense and difficulty that can be associated with traditional divorce litigation, many people have begun seeking out alternative divorce strategies. Consequently, other techniques like divorce mediation and collaborative divorce have become more common over the past few decades. This has led to some confusion among people seeking divorces about whether these are different techniques and what the differences might be. The techniques are similar in that they both seek to avoid a long, drawn-out court battle, but there are key differences between mediation and collaborative divorce that may make each of them a better fit for different couples.

Divorce Mediation

The most important feature of divorce mediation is the existence of the mediator. A mediator is a neutral party who participates in discussions with the spouses, and helps them reach agreements on the contested issues like a divorce. While mediators share some similarities with judges, they are private parties, and they have no power to make any decisions in the case. All they can do is talk to the parties and try to help bring them together. The issue of representation is also a key feature of divorce mediation. The spouses are allowed to hire attorneys to advise them, but there is no obligation to do so. These features tend to help keep costs down, and they make mediation a good option for a couple that can still talk civilly and possibly reach a resolution without needing to employ more drastic measures. The downside to mediation is that there is no way to force an agreement, so if the couple cannot come together on an issue, they may find themselves starting all over again in court.

Relationships that began online are a growing trend today, especially among divorcees, but there are pitfalls that people entering into these relationships should be aware of. A new joint study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Stanford reveals that relationships that begin online are more likely to end in divorce than comparable relationships that began traditionally. This new research, which is being published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, contradicts older research that was done on the subject at the University of Chicago, which was sponsored by the online matchmaking service eHarmony.

What the Study Found

The study examined the love lives of over 4,000 people over a two-year period. Of the people surveyed, almost 3,000 were either married or in a romantic relationship. Of those, almost 10 percent had met online. The participants were surveyed over the course of the study as well as at its beginning and end. The researchers compared the relationship statuses of those couples during the duration of the study. Over the first year, the couples that began online were 28 percent more likely to end the relationship than those that began using more traditional methods. As for divorce, by the end of the two-year study, eight percent of married couples who had met online had divorced. By comparison, only two percent of offline marriages had ended.

American culture emphasizes the importance of spending time with one's family during the holidays. This can make the holidays a particularly difficult season after a divorce. It can often be made tougher by the long wait for them to roll around because statistically speaking, divorces are most common just after the start of the new year. This means that there can be a big gap between when the divorce starts and the next holiday season. Fortunately, there are many strategies people can use to make the holidays run more smoothly after a divorce.

Plan Ahead

Planning ahead for the holiday season can make everyone involved happier. Children are likely going to need to be shuttled between different celebrations for different parts of their extended families. That means that the two ex-spouses are going to need to work together to coordinate how pickups and drop offs work and who is going to be where and when. Alternatively, if the custody schedule creates holidays that alternate by year, then it is important to plan early for which parent is responsible for the kids during the holidays and to develop a system that works well for everyone involved. It can also be helpful to bring the kids themselves in on the planning. Accommodating their thoughts on how they want to spend the holidays, to the extent possible, can help improve everyone's mood during the season.