A number of years ago, Maricopa County adopted a set of spousal maintenance guidelines. This may have been done in response to a demand from lawyers and divorce litigants for some predictability and uniformity in spousal maintenance calculations in divorce cases. The Arizona child support guidelines created a formula for calculating child support. Why not a formula for spousal maintenance calculations as well? The spousal maintenance guidelines set up a formula that was somewhat confusing to divorcing parties and even to some attorneys. There are several things the guidelines clearly did not do, including the following:
1. The guidelines did not determine whether a person qualified for spousal maintenance. Judges have always been required to determine entitlement to spousal maintenance under A.R.S. § 25-319.A.;
2. The spousal maintenance guidelines did not purport to provide any assistance in determining the amount and duration of spousal maintenance in the cases of marriages of less than 5 years in duration; and
3. The spousal maintenance guidelines were never intended to relieve trial judges of their responsibility to review the factors set forth in A.R.S. § 25-319.B. and to make appropriate findings supporting their decisions as to the amount and duration of spousal maintenance.
For several years, the spousal maintenance guidelines provided some assistance to lawyers and parties in reaching settlements. The guidelines were, I believe, helpful in advising clients as to possible amounts and durations for spousal maintenance in the event the trial judge determined spousal maintenance was warranted. Use of the guidelines in Court, however, proved more difficult. Ultimately, the Maricopa County Judges voted in 2010 that, as a group, they would not use the spousal maintenance guidelines in making spousal maintenance decisions. Many attorneys, however, continue to use the guidelines in providing general advice to clients, and it is likely that, although trial judges do not issue written spousal maintenance decisions based on spousal maintenance guideline calculations, it is likely that many judges refer to some degree to the spousal maintenance guidelines in formulating their final rulings on these difficult issues.
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