Divorce Attorney - Disproving Fault to Fight for Spousal Support in Louisiana

In Louisiana, when seeking an award for permanent spousal support, it can be imperative that you hire either a divorce attorney or a lawyer familiar with this type of law. In other words, counsel that knows the law and knows the clients, looking for specifics to apply your unique facts to the law. Fighting for permanent spousal support can often get contentious. In an action for spousal support, the claimant has the burden of proving insufficient means of support. In the Van Martin case, the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit reversed the trial court’s judgment denying the wife permanent spousal support. This article will review this case and address what a divorce attorney is required to prove in order to be awarded permanent spousal support. In this case, the husband and wife were married in 2004. Their marriage lasted until February 2008, at which time the husband filed to end it. The husband contended that wife was at fault for verbally abusing her step-daughter. The trial court denied the wife permanent spousal support since she was deemed to be at fault. In a Louisiana, a court may award final periodic spousal support to a party free from fault and who is need of support. In other words, the burden of proving freedom from fault is on the divorce attorney seeking spousal support for the client. Because the trial court found wife to be at fault, the civil code precluded her from being awarded final periodic spousal support. The wife appealed the trial court’s decision. In its review, the appellate court noted husband’s admission that wife did not abandon the marriage, commit adultery, or remain habitually intoxicated. The evidence shows that, to a divorce attorney, the fault was likely not sufficient. Husband believed wife treated his daughter poorly. Keep in mind that this is husband’s daughter from a previous marriage. Husband asked wife to say one thing nice about his daughter but she refused. Wife believed that husband’s daughter suffered from emotional problems. Thus, it was difficult for her to communicate with her step-daughter. She admitted disciplining the child with a belt. She stated she did so with her own children as well. However, she wanted the marriage to work and cared for her step-daughter’s welfare. She wanted her family to attend counseling, but husband refused. Taking this into account along with the husband’s testimony that he would have filed to end the marriage had there been no conflict between his daughter and wife, the appellate court found that the breakup was not caused by wife’s treatment of step-daughter. Hence, she was not at fault. As a result, she is now eligible to be awarded permanent spousal support. The court asserted that while the wife was not blameless in the marital dysfunction, the husband’s allegation’s of wife’s fault do not rise to a level sufficient to prelude an award of permanent spousal support. A divorce attorney may question then what does rise to a level sufficient to preclude an award of permanent spousal support? Fault necessary to preclude final spousal support is serious misconduct such as adultery, the commission of a felony, continued pattern of mental abuse, and/ or physical abuse of either a spouse or child. In this case, wife’s mere assertions to husband regarding her step-daughter were not serious misconduct. It would have been important for a divorce attorney to show, for instance, that wife attempted to stab her step-daughter so that surely she would be precluded from a permanent spousal support award. The above is simply information on the law, not legal advice. Will Beaumont is an attorney in New Orleans, La.