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Hi everyone, welcome to another Family Law Matters. I’m Dr. Michaell Mantel joining Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group. Hi Bonnie.

Hi Michael, how are you doing today? Doing wonderful. Wow, we are so blessed with great weather here in San Diego and Primus Family Law is right in the heart of San Diego, isn’t it? We are. We’re located in Mission Valley so that we can get to all the courthouses.

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Exactly right. So Bonnie, a question today for us to cover is when do spousal and child support payments stop? If you’re the payer, you think you want it to stop now. Right.

That’s not necessarily what happens. Child support is the easy one. When your children age out, they are 18 and they have graduated high school.

Yes, it’s and graduated high school. So if your kid turns 18 in February and graduates high school in June, the payor is still paying until June. It’s an and situation.

Let me interrupt the question because I wasn’t aware of that actually. And I imagine many people are not aware of that. That’s important that you bring that up.

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What if a child gets a GED and doesn’t actually graduate with his class or her class like in June, but it continues for months until they get that GED? How does that affect child payment? That’s a great question. It will go until the child gets that GED or until they turn 19, whichever is first. It doesn’t go forever.

So in other words, 18 and graduate high school and or the GED or if they still haven’t graduated or GED by the age of 19, it stops then. And they’re still living at home and they’re not self-supporting. Yes, it stops at 19 at the outside.

Okay. Now, wait, you just threw something else in. What if they are living out of the home and they are self-supporting? And it will stop.

Oh, regardless of whether they graduated. No, they have to be 18 and graduated high school, self-supporting if they are beyond 18 and have not graduated high school. Some people drop out, get a job.

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Yeah, right. They will win the lottery or whatever it may be. Right.

I would. Yes, that would probably play a factor. I imagine.

Now, what about spousal support? So, you know, spousal support, there are two things. There’s we have what is called a long-term marriage in California that is 10 years or more. And we have what is a short term, which is anything under 10.

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The reasonable standard is that if you’re married less than 10 years, spousal support will terminate at the outside half the length of the marriage. That doesn’t mean that you can’t agree to less. It doesn’t mean that a judge can’t order less or more, depending on the circumstances of the parties.

And if you’ve been married longer than 10 years, then we slip into what is called permanent land, where technically you pay support until the recipient remarries or somebody passes away. But I always tell people that there’s also a reality of life. You’re going to retire.

Circumstances are going to change. The recipient is on notice that they’re supposed to do something for themselves. So when those circumstances change, you’re entitled to ask the court for relief.

It’s not a forever situation. So if one person is paying support to a spouse and the spouse suddenly comes into tremendous sums of money that he or she didn’t have before, is that reason to go to court? Yes. Yes.

If there’s been a change in circumstances or the payor loses their job or they’re retiring and now they’re only going to live on their social security. I mean, these are all things that affect your living condition. And so what may have been reasonable when you were making $200,000 a year is no longer reasonable if you’re only making $80,000.

Right. Right. Right.

It’s just one of those math things. Well, this is not so simple or black and white. People have questions and I really encourage this clarity.

How can they be in touch with you? Well, they can reach me directly at 619-574-8000 or through our website at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com and there’s a live agent and somebody at the office. Either way, you’ll be put on one of our calendars for a free 30-minute phone Zoom consultation and we’ll see how we can help.