Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Depending on how much your husband earns, you are more than likely entitled to spousal maintenance for a long period of time. The specific facts of your case are what the issue of spousal maintenance turns on. For example, facts that are important are your ages, how many children you have, whether you forsook an education to help his career, whether you walked away from an established career to support his career, whether you are able to return to your former career and if so, in what amount of time, what his future job and income prospects look like, what assets does your marital community own and would a disproportionate award of those to you supplant the need for spousal maintenance, and the list goes on and on.

My best advice to you is to call an attorney, spend the money on a consultation, and learn your what your rights and obligations are over an hour long consultation. Only then can make informed decisions on how to proceed with an idea of the likely outcomes of your situation. At my firm, we credit the cost of a consultation up to one hour, if you hire us after the consultation.

That said, to answer your specific question, about what happens if you move out, the short answer is "yes." The longer, more nuanced answer is, "it depends." It depends on many of the factors I discussed above, and by law, the legal standard is your need versus your husband's ability to pay support on a temporary basis. Both the need and the ability to pay must exist, otherwise, there will be no award. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but this is why the facts of your case matter, and once you sit down and go over all that with an attorney, they can give you a much better idea of what your likelihood of getting maintenance will be, as well as how much, and for how long.