A.R.S. § 25-319 — Spousal Maintenance (Alimony)

Step one: eligibility

The court may award maintenance only to a spouse who meets at least one statutory ground: they lack sufficient property to provide for their reasonable needs; they cannot be self-sufficient through appropriate employment, or care for a young child whose condition makes work inappropriate, or lack earning ability adequate for self-sufficiency; they contributed to the other spouse’s education, training, or earning ability; the marriage was long and their age may preclude gaining adequate employment; or they significantly reduced their own income or career opportunities for the other spouse’s benefit.

Step two: amount and duration

Once eligibility is found, the spousal maintenance guidelines adopted under the statute produce a presumptive amount and duration, oriented toward a defined transition: maintenance is to be for a period sufficient to allow the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient. Deviations require findings. The guidelines narrowed what used to be wide judicial discretion — but the inputs to the calculation, above all each spouse’s realistic income, remain very much litigated.

Modification and agreements

Maintenance is modifiable on a substantial and continuing change of circumstances — and terminates on remarriage of the recipient or death of either party — unless the spouses agree in the decree that it is non-modifiable, an option the statute expressly allows and one worth deliberate thought before accepting. Maintenance also interacts with the property division: a spouse who receives more income-producing property may qualify for less support. Both are negotiated together, which is how our divorce practice approaches them.