Divorce and alimony: How much do you get?

With a new state law that took effect July 1, the state finally has laid down guidelines for alimony. Prior to that, judges relied on previous cases to determine how to handle alimony.

The law spells out exactly how long someone must be married to qualify for long-term alimony — and sets up different types of alimony for everyone else.

Here are the types of alimony spelled out by the law:

•Permanent alimony: In the past, even those married no more than 10 years might qualify for permanent alimony — depending on what part of the state they live in and the judges hearing their cases. But the new law says long-term alimony cannot be considered for anyone who was married less than 17 years.

Factors that may come into play, says DeWitt, include medical conditions that may make a person unable to work full-time, or a spouse who's been married for decades and gets divorced late in life — and now does not have any realistic prospects of getting a full-time job.

•Durational alimony: A new category of alimony, this is temporary alimony — awarded for "short" or "moderate" periods of time to ex-spouses who've been married from seven to 17 years.

What you need to know: This is still somewhat fuzzy and up to the discretion of judges, say lawyers. "The maximum that can be awarded is the length of the marriage," said Martinez. If, for instance, you've been married 13 years, you may be eligible for 13 years of alimony. But it's not clear if durational aliimony can be modified, which may be up to judges.

A case that might qualify for durational alimony, DeWitt said, would be a couple who have kids ages 10 to 12 — and who had an agreement that mom would stay home with the kids until they graduated from high school. "The idea is that the durational alimony would allow her to be home for the kids for five or six years, until they graduate and then she can enter the workforce," DeWitt said.

Expect lots of legal wrangling over durational alimony. "It used to be the big fight among litigants was whether a spouse deserved permanent alimony," DeWitt said. "Now the fight's going to be in durational alimony — how much does someone get and for how long?"

•Rehabilitative alimony: Traditionally used by lawyers for women (and men) who had been out of the workforce and needed education or training to support themselves or a family. Typically, this involved creating an education or retraining plan. Often, this type of alimony is limited to four years of support plus tuition expenses to pay for a former spouse to finish college.

•Bridge-the-gap alimony: In addition to durational alimony, the law creates a new, short-term type of alimony called "bridge-the-gap" alimony, which is designed to help a spouse get back on his or her feet after being out of the workforce for years. The maximum amount of time an ex-spouse can be supported under "bridge the gap" is two years, said Martinez.

Who might qualify for "bridge the gap"? "Let's say you haven't been married for seven years — and you don't have a concrete plan, like going back to school, but all you need is a little help," said DeWitt. "Maybe you're qualified to get a job, but you need some time to find a job. That's who this is designed for."

Divorce and money

•Although men accounted for 97 percent of the payers in alimony cases in 2008, according to the US Census, women have increasingly found themselves supporting former husbands.

•Americans paid $9.4 billion in alimony to former spouses in 2007, up from $5.6 billion 10 years earlier, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

•Women made up 46.8 percent of the work force in 2009, up from 41.2 percent in 1978, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

•The median weekly earnings of women who were full-time wage and salary workers was $657, or 80 percent of men's $819.