Child Support

Virginia grants the petitioning spouse the right to petition the court for spousal support. The court looks at the comparative incomes between the parties and the length of marriage between the parties in making a determination as to how much support should be awarded and the length of time that the support should be awarded for. At times the courts in Northern Virginia award 50 percent of the length of the parties’ marriage or, in certain other instances where the marriage has been long, they can award lifetime spousal support. On this particular issue either spouse can have income attributed to them if the court finds from independent evidence such as a vocational rehabilitation expert that the petitioning spouse or the other spouse is not earning as much as they could be earning considering their educational background and job opportunities available to them. This needs to be discussed in great detail with Mr. Kaydouh to see whether or not it is necessary to hire a Vocational Rehabilitation expert to review all of these issues and to see whether or not it would be helpful to the parties’ case to hire such an expert.