Confused About Spousal Support in Oregon? Start Here!

Spousal support in Oregon sounds simple until you’re the one trying to predict what a judge will do and what a “fair” monthly number really means. We sit down with Pacific Cascade Legal's Founding Attorney, Lewis Landerholm, to clear up the confusion by breaking spousal support into the three categories Oregon courts actually use: maintenance support, transitional support, and compensatory support. Along the way, we explain why compensatory support is rare, why transitional support is often paired with maintenance, and how the facts of your marriage shape both the amount and the duration.

We also get practical about timing and real-life pressure points. We talk about temporary spousal support during the divorce process, what “indefinite” support usually means (and why it does not automatically mean forever), and how retirement can trigger a reanalysis. Since Oregon doesn’t use a spousal support calculator, we dig into the judge’s discretion, how income disparities are evaluated, and why “income” can mean potential income if someone is underemployed. For complex cases, we touch on vocational and occupational experts who can help estimate earning capacity after years out of the workforce.

To round it out, we cover the post-2019 tax treatment of spousal support, how spousal support interacts with Oregon child support calculations, and negotiation strategies like a lump-sum buyout or trading support for assets. If you’re facing a divorce, considering a settlement, or worried you’re leaving money on the table, this conversation gives you a clearer map of the spousal support landscape. Subscribe, share with someone who needs this, and leave a review, then tell us: would you prefer a monthly payment or a clean buyout?

If you would like to speak with one of our attorneys, please call our office at (503) 227-0200, or visit our website at https://www.pacificcascadelegal.com.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this communication is intended to provide legal advice nor does it constitute a client-attorney relationship, therefore you should not interpret the contents as such.

Transcript

Welcome And Host Intro

Intro/Outro 0:01

Welcome to Modern Family Matters, a podcast devoted to exploring family law topics that matter most to you, covering a wide range of legal, personal, and family law matters with expert analysis from skilled attorneys and professional guests. We hope that our podcast provides answers, clarity, and guidance towards a better tomorrow for you and your family. Here's your host, Steve Altishin.

Steve Altishin 0:31

Hi everyone. Hey Lewis, how are you doing today?

The Three Types Of Spousal Support

Lewis Landerholm 0:48

I'm doing great. How are you, Steve?

Steve Altishin 0:50

I'm doing well. So this one's kind of interesting because I think it can be confusing for people. They they they don't they just think of spousal support as the old-fashioned thing. But there are there are, aren't there? There aren't there three different kinds of spousal support. Does a judge just decide which one to hand? Or is it is it something that the attorneys ask for?

Lewis Landerholm 1:15

Yeah, so there are three different types. Uh we have uh the traditional, what most people think of spousal support from a maintenance standpoint. Maintenance is is typically the most common form of spousal support. Uh then we have transitional uh spousal support. Transitional is meant for basically a time when somebody has to transition either back into the workforce or has to get new training or new education. And then there's compensatory. Uh, compensatory is the least common ordered type of spousal support. So there's specific factual analysis that goes into a compensatory case. Generally, yes, when we ask for spousal, we plead all three, but the facts really dictate what types of spousal because each has their own individual like pros and cons. But yeah, I mean, as we're going through and working up a case, then we start talking about the three different types of spousal support and which ones makes make the most sense to uh uh to put a case on for.

Steve Altishin 2:22

Yeah. Quick question, a 101 question. Can you get more than one?

Lewis Landerholm 2:27

Yes, you can get all of them potentially. Um, normally the the two that are the most common that are put together are transitional and maintenance. So generally, what we see is there would be like say a two-year period for transitional. It's a common sort of transition time for either a stay-at-home parent who has to transition back into the workforce or you know, get new education, and then maintenance continues throughout the course of the case. And so a lot of it is common to see like a couple years of transitional on top of a longer maintenance award.

How Long Support Can Last

Steve Altishin 3:08

Which answered my next question was when do they stop? So transitional can actually go beyond the decree.

Attorney Fees Versus Spousal Support

Lewis Landerholm 3:17

I mean, all of them go after into the future. So the train, but transitional, you know, there's no right or wrong rule. I mean, it could be six months, it could be a year, it could be two years. It's it's just typically a couple years is is normal. Um, it doesn't mean that that's that has to be the way it is in every single case. You know, there could be facts that that mean that that make it that transitional should last longer. It's really just a very factual analysis. Um, maintenance then goes on typically longer, depending on the length of the marriage. Um, maintenance is in Oregon, kind of the rule of thumb is half the number of years of marriage until we get into 20 plus, and then we potentially can see longer awards up to uh indefinite support awards. So, and we can get into what indefinite means, it doesn't mean forever, but it is a common uh misunderstood sort of phrase when it comes to spouses.

Steve Altishin 4:14

Yeah. I know the judge can order attorney fees, but that doesn't really fall into the support kind of bucket, or does it?

Lewis Landerholm 4:24

Uh no, I mean, that would be a separate issue. So, like at the end of a case, if if we felt like we prevailed that we got essentially what we had been asking for throughout the case, then at that point, then you can go and ask for attorney fees to recoup the some of the costs that um you know that it it costs the client to get to that point. Um, but that's a separate analysis and a separate award from a spousal support award.

Temporary Support During Divorce

Steve Altishin 4:54

And is there any such thing as like temporary spousal support or something during the divorce process? If someone really just doesn't even have the money to you know prosecute the case.

How Oregon Judges Calculate Support

Lewis Landerholm 5:07

Yeah, absolutely. So um in a divorce case, so spousal is only available in divorces, not in like uh unmarried parents or or an unregistered domestic partnership case. So in a divorce case, at the beginning of at the start of the filing, we can ask for a temporary hearing. In that temporary hearing, we can plead for temporary support, both child support if there are kids, and temporary spouse support. A lot of times, judges will rule and make a ruling for temporary family support and kind of put them all, put all of the support into one bucket and reserve the right to define what that looks like. But that's that is available and and happens often.

Steve Altishin 5:57

Does the judge I think a lot of people think, well, okay, it's it's about the spouse that's getting support. You know, it's about that person's situation. But does the judge take in both spouses' situation when trying to come up with a support order?

Lewis Landerholm 6:17

Yeah, absolutely. We don't have a calculator in Oregon. It is an analysis by the judge. The judge has a lot of discretion when it comes to support. Um, the the basic analysis is we look at the the higher wage earner's uh income and then compare that to the lower wage earner's income. And um another piece that's important is the definition for income is not actual income, it's potential income. And so that takes into consideration if somebody say was underemployed or could be making more money but chose not to. Um, the the case we can, you know, we can ask that that their income be imputed at a higher amount, both for child and for spousal. But specifically with spousal, it's going to be a comparison between, and these are all gross numbers. We don't, you know, we do net calculations as well, but just in general, you know, we're we work off of gross numbers and compare, you know, the what somebody is paid by their employer compared to what somebody else is paid. And then that disparity between the incomes is used to help to calculate a um a support number. It's typically not a 50-50 division. There's going to be a percentage in there. Uh spousal support is is not taxed. It's a it's a post-tax payment at this point. Um, and so you know that means that um it's going to be, you know, money that comes directly to them and they're they're not having to take additional taxes out of them.

Steve Altishin 7:55

So the wild card, it sounds like, on these sports is compensatory sport. And and whenever I hear that phrase, it I I always think about something like you know, one of the spouses took a job and maybe took an extra job so that the other spouse could go to medical school, law school, or whatever, and and sort of put his or her uh abilities to earn money aside or to advance aside. Is that sort of the compensatory, kind of where that might fit? Is it kind of for what they had done and trying to make things fair?

Lewis Landerholm 8:36

Yeah, compensatory, like I said earlier, is is a the least common form that gets ordered because it's a very factual analysis. Like you you have to talk to an attorney to figure out exactly what your claim for compensatory and if you do have a claim. But in the word compensatory, it's to compensate for doing something, right? You you basically did something so the other party um could go earn a certain amount of money. And um, but again, it is the it's it's a much more factually based spousal support analysis. And so it really depends on what the facts are. And you know, a lot of times the easier to ask for maintenance, there are advantages if you can get compensatory um from a standpoint of whether it can be modified or not. But the maintenance analysis in case is is a much more straightforward analysis. And so that's typically why people choose to go down that road as opposed to a compensatory case.

Steve Altishin 9:39

Yeah, let's talk about maintenance a little bit. What are some of the factors that you see a lot or generally that tend to drive it? I know, you know, is it the age of the the parties, is it their their income, is it their health? Is there what kind of things did the judge look at?

Indefinite Support Retirement And Remarriage

Tax Changes After 2019

Lewis Landerholm 9:58

Yeah, I mean, all of those things can come into play. Uh, age, health of parties, uh, their uh income, history, their potential to make, to earn um, you know, their education level. There's a lot of things that can go into it. The the sort of, you know, everybody hears about the lifestyle that each party enjoyed during the marriage. Um, the practical analysis is generally like what I described before, is really a one party earns X dollars, the other party earns Y dollars. What is the difference between that? The more interesting cases or the more complex cases are the ones where somebody either hasn't been in the workforce for a long period of time, or um, you know, there were decisions within the within the marriage that one party was going to say work part-time versus full-time. And what does that look like for an income level? So those are the ones that require more more work, where we potentially have to go get a somebody to do analysis, uh, an occupational expert that would come in and say this person could make this amount of dollars within this amount of time. And that helps to uh drive the um you know the amount of support. The duration is more impacted on the by the length of the marriage, and then also age of parties uh impacts a lot of things. Uh, going back to the conversation about indefinite, the closer people are to say retirement, you know, if you've been married for 15 to 20 years and you know the parties are in their you know mid-50s, a lot of times the judge will say, I'm gonna order indefinite. Indefinite doesn't necessarily mean forever, it just means when until one of the parties retires, and then we know what that income level is, then we have to do a reanalysis and modify the support amount. So that's really what indefinite means. In Oregon, spousal support is only terminated by operation of law by death of either party. Remarriage doesn't automatically do anything to support unless you have an agreement. Otherwise, um, you are required to go back and try to modify in the courts.

Steve Altishin 12:12

Does and I know that that in the past several years there have been some tax changes. So does the tax impact of a spousal of a spousal support award really factor in?

Lewis Landerholm 12:27

I mean, not at this point. We've had enough time. You know, it's uh it changed in, I believe, 2019. Uh, before that time, it was taxable to the recipient and it was a tax break to the pay or at this point. It's tax neutral, it's post-tax dollars that are paid from one party. When that change happened, we saw the percentages drop because obviously we're talking about post-tax dollars versus pre-tax, but it's settled in for the last, you know, the last number of years. And so we have a good feel for how judges have made that adjustment based off of that tax change. So now it's just like child support and the fact that it's it's all post-tax dollars, and so it just becomes a one is ordered to pay, and then that money just comes either out of the AOR's uh paycheck or directly to the person. So that's how it works.

Steve Altishin 13:19

Does it kind of a weird question? Does child support factor in? Um I'm just thinking myself of someone who's paying child support and spouse support, and then child support ends. I mean, is any does somehow child support figure into maintenance, especially?

Lewis Landerholm 13:40

So child support doesn't directly factor into spousal, spousal factors into child support. So in the Oregon child support calculator, there is a field for if you receive or pay spousal support to anybody, because essentially what it is is it's an income, you know, it's an income equalized, not equalizer, but it's creating factors based off the income. So it looks at total income from all sources. So if you're paying for spousal, that goes into the child support calculator that then will reduce your child support obligation, or vice versa. So that way when child support ends, then spousal is just moving by itself, you know, then child support would go away. Or vice versa, if child support was factored into the child support calculator, then you would need to go back and modify the child support once spousal support ends, because then that income shouldn't either be counted or the you know the obligation shouldn't hit the calculator. So they do impact each other, yeah.

Steve Altishin 14:44

Yeah. The one I got one last question. What you know is is there negotiations that a that the parties can do to in effect substitute a spousal support for something else? I mean, can can they you know say, well, I'll give you this or have a judgment for that? I mean, is it have to always be spousal support to kind of make that fair?

Why Getting Legal Advice Matters

Lewis Landerholm 15:12

Uh no. So we do it's a it's available to do a buyout or negotiate anything. Judges typically they won't, you know, because they have to go through and say, this is the spouse support number, this is the asset debt division. But in negotiations, we negotiate either spouse support down or no spousal support in exchange for other assets potentially. So to do a buyout that way, it can be advantageous to both parties. If you know the the party who would need to rely on a spousal you know number going into the future can get a lump sum, that can be advantageous to them. And then to the person who wants to avoid paying the monthly um amount, then obviously they're incentivized to do that. So it happens all the time. We just have to, it the technical part is the drafting to make sure that it's very clear what's happening. But yeah, we do that all the time.

Steve Altishin 16:04

I mean, this is this is not cut and dry stuff. And it, like you said, it's a lot factual based and legal based. It seems like you really need to have an attorney who knows about this stuff and not try to do that yourself.

Lewis Landerholm 16:21

Spousal is one of the most complicated areas of a case for people to try to figure out outside of just being represented, um, because there's so many factors that come into it. Every, frankly, every county handles it a tiny bit differently. You know, certain judges are more pro-support, other judges are less, not anti-support, but less pro-support. And kind of knowing that and knowing what the numbers would potentially look like going to court is important. But not only that, but also what are the other options, you know, and duration. I mean, I've seen people negotiate on their own where they don't know and they they negotiate for way less support than they could have otherwise received because they didn't know. And so then, you know, they're struggling and you know, not able to pay bills or vice versa, or somebody, you know, negotiates way too high of support, and then they're paying so much more than they would otherwise. So there's there's so much money on the on the line. You know, people look at the monthly number, but if a if a support award, I mean, say it's a thousand dollars a month, but it goes on for 10 years, you're talking about uh $120,000 worth of support. You know, that's not chump change. You know, if it and if it goes up, it gets significantly more. And so getting proper advice, you know, is really important because you could spend you know a couple, a few thousand dollars up front to get the information to then potentially reduce or increase your support, and it has a dramatic effect over the over the course of time. You know, it could take a, you know, if you could take your support from a thousand to fifteen hundred, well, now you've just taken your $120,000 award to $180,000 award over the course of time. That's real money that then you can get by just being able to have a little information and a little advice along the way. So spousal is is the one place that, you know, I mean, there's a there's a lot of them, obviously, but spousal is the to me the most important place to really understand how it works and to get advice so that you're not trying to figure it out on your own.

Steve Altishin 18:37

Wow. Well, then this was great day to talk because I would absolutely recommend anyone you know talking to an attorney. And this is what we do. So thank you, Lewis, for sitting down again with us. Talk about all these great topics, including this one, again, kind of misunderstood, you know, the different types of spouse support in Oregon, when to do them, how long they last, and the negotiations around them. So thank you for joining us today.

Lewis Landerholm 19:05

Yeah, you're welcome.

Closing Thanks And How To Contact

Steve Altishin 19:06

It was great. Thank you, everyone else, for joining us today. And if anyone has any further questions, please feel free to contact our firm. We will get you connected with an attorney who can help you stay safe, stay happy, and be well.

Intro/Outro 19:20

This has been Modern Family Matters, a legal podcast focusing on providing real answers and direction for individuals and families. Our podcast is sponsored by Lander Home Family Law and Pacific Cascade Family Law, serving families in Oregon and Washington. If you are in need of legal counsel or have additional questions about family.com or Pacific Cascade Factor. You can also call our headquarters at 232722. Schedule Korea.