In some instances, those who fail to make court-ordered alimony payments in New Jersey can end up in jail. Take the recent case of a man in Hunterdon County who was taken into custody last month because he was not meeting his $8,000 per month obligation. According to one of the man’s supporters, he lost his old job and was not able to earn enough money to cover the alimony cost once he regained employment.

That supporter was joined by two others outside the Hunterdon County Courthouse, where the trio gathered on Oct. 26 to protest the man’s incarceration. At the time of the protest, the man had already spent 9 days in jail. During the course of the demonstration, a passerby stopped to tell a similar story. He said that a lack of a full-time job caused him to fall behind on child support payments, whereupon he was sentenced to two weeks in jail.

According to the incarcerated man’s girlfriend, who was one of the demonstrators, the current alimony payments are beyond his financial means. This is not the first time the man has been jailed for non-payment of alimony. He spent 10 days in custody in 2010 after failing to pay $25,000 in spousal support, and he was ordered to spend two months in jail last year because he could not pay $53,000 in support payments to his former wife.

Alimony payments can be modified after a divorce if either party experiences a substantial change in financial circumstances. Paying spouses who have lost their jobs or have endured a significant drop in income should investigate their legal rights to have the amount of alimony tailored to their current earnings.

Source: Hunterdon County Democrat, “At Hunterdon Courthouse, women protest jailing people for not paying alimony,” Terry Wright, Oct. 29, 2012

• Alimony is not granted in every divorce case. When it is, however, a financial analysis is conducted to determine an amount of support that is fair to both sides. You can learn more by visiting our Kingston alimony page.