Legal Question in Family Law in Kentucky

Re: Kentucky law

There are no such thing as "maintenance requirments" in Kentucky. If the judge finds that one spouse cannot meet their reasonably necessary expenses on their own and with property they receive from the divorce, then the judge may award maintenance, either lifetime or for a specified term.

If that first "need" hurdle is met, then the judge looks at the lifestyle the couple had maintained in determining the amount of maintenance.

Even then, the spouse who would be paying maintenance has a chance to show that they are not able to pay the maintenance and still meet their own needs.

It is a very inexact formula and lifetime maintenance usually only occurs is the receiving spouse has some sort of infirmity or disability that would preclude them from every joining the workforce in a meaningful way.