Video: Can I get alimony in a Texas divorce?

I am often asked if you can get alimony in a Texas divorce. Technically, no, you can't because we don't even use the word alimony in Texas. Our legislature chooses to use a different word, the word maintenance. We have statutes that provide for maintenance in Texas, but it is very difficult to actually qualify for maintenance in the first place. At a minimum, you're going to have to be married ten years, with very few exceptions.

If you qualify based on being married ten years, you also have to establish that you need maintenance to meet your minimum reasonable needs, not the standard to which you've become accustomed. Your minimum reasonable needs. And by the way, the court has to first analyze whether the property that you get in the divorce, whether any job that you may be able to get will first meet those minimum reasonable needs. And if not, then you may qualify for enough alimony to bring you up maintenance to bring you up to that level.