If a spouse (husband or wife) is ordered by the court to pay alimony but then quits his/her job and then tries to claim “I can’t pay alimony because I am not employed” or even “I can’t pay alimony because I chose to *reduce* my hours at work to less than full-time” (this is known as self-impoverishing), that will not legally excuse your ex from having to pay alimony.
That stated, if your ex has no money because he/she has no job (whether through no fault of his/her own or due to self-impoverishment), you’re not going to be receiving alimony when there is no money with which to pay you.
Is there anything you can do in response to such a situation? Yes. If your ex self-impoverishes himself/herself, that can be punished by moving the court to hold your ex in contempt of court, but that won’t make money appear. However, contempt of court sanctions for a self-impoverishing spouse can include among other penalties (at least in the jurisdiction where I practice divorce and child custody law—Utah) jail time for violating court orders, and oftentimes an ex who hates paying alimony hates going to jail (or other sanctions a court can impose) even more, which often motivates some exes to pay alimony simply to avoid sanctions in contempt of court.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
