Virginia Code § 20-107.1 governs spousal support determinations. The statute requires courts to consider the circumstances and factors that contributed to the dissolution of the marriage, specifically including adultery, when deciding whether to award support. It then lists thirteen additional factors courts must weigh in determining the nature, amount, and duration of any support award. This is a genuinely fact-intensive analysis that produces different results in different cases based on the specific financial and marital circumstances presented.
What Are the Factors Courts Consider for Spousal Support in Virginia?
The thirteen factors under Virginia Code § 20-107.1 include the obligations, needs, and financial resources of both parties including pension and retirement income; the standard of living established during the marriage; the duration of the marriage; the age and physical and mental condition of both parties; the extent to which any child's circumstances would affect a party's ability to seek employment; the contributions, monetary and nonmonetary, of each party to the family's wellbeing; the property interests of the parties; the earning capacity of each party including education and training; the opportunity for a party to acquire education or training needed to enhance earning ability; the employment decisions made during the marriage and their effect on current earning potential; the extent to which either party contributed to the other's education or career; and such other factors as are necessary to consider the equities.
That's a comprehensive list, and the sheer number of factors reflects how individualized the spousal support determination is. A short marriage with both spouses working professional jobs looks nothing like a twenty-five-year marriage where one spouse sacrificed career advancement to raise children and support the other's career growth.
How Does the Length of Marriage Affect Spousal Support?
Duration of the marriage is explicitly one of the § 20-107.1 factors, and in practice it correlates significantly with both the availability and duration of support. Long marriages, generally considered to be those over fifteen to twenty years, are more likely to produce indefinite or long-duration support awards. Shorter marriages, particularly those under five years, tend to produce either no support or support for a defined, limited period tied to the recipient's transition back to financial independence.
The standard of living established during the marriage is related to duration. In a long marriage where one spouse's lifestyle was substantially dependent on the other's income, courts are more willing to award meaningful support to preserve a reasonable lifestyle standard for the economically dependent spouse.
Does Fault Affect Spousal Support Awards in Virginia?
Yes, significantly. Virginia Code § 20-107.1 expressly states that no permanent maintenance and support shall be awarded to a spouse if there exists in their partner's favor a ground of divorce based on adultery. A spouse who committed adultery may be completely barred from spousal support. The exception is a court finding of "manifest injustice" based on relative fault and economic circumstances, but that exception is narrow.
Conversely, a spouse who was the victim of a fault ground can use that conduct in support of a larger or longer support award. The statutory instruction to consider circumstances that contributed to the dissolution of the marriage gives judges authority to factor fault-based conduct into the support determination even beyond the adultery bar.
For anyone facing spousal support issues in a Virginia divorce, the resources and representation available through attorney Jason A. Weis of Curran Moher Weis in Fairfax provide the analytical depth these cases require.
Conclusion
Virginia spousal support determinations are genuinely discretionary, fact-intensive, and shaped by a comprehensive set of statutory factors. The absence of a formula makes these cases both more flexible and less predictable than child support proceedings. Understanding what factors courts actually weigh, and how fault conduct can dramatically affect support entitlement, is the foundation for any serious spousal support strategy in a Virginia divorce.