VERMONT Part 25

The court also looks at all of the requesting spouse’s financial resources, such as income, earning potential, and any property this spouse will have after divorce. Typically, the court orders spousal maintenance after dividing both the marital and separate property between the spouses. That way, it knows the spouses' income and other assets, as well as the debt obligations that each must carry.

The court may, however, award spousal maintenance where a simple division of property between the spouses is not enough to reach an equitable result. For example, where a husband took on extra work to put the wife through law school, the court could order the wife to make maintenance payments to the husband to make up for the increase in the wife’s earning capacity at the husband’s expense. On the other hand, if the wife chose to stay home and raise the children instead, then the court could order the husband to pay maintenance to compensate the wife where an award of property alone does not fairly represent her contribution to the household.