James Van Der Beek Heather Ann McComb Divorce Settlement

Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek and his wife of seven years, actress Heather Ann McComb, will officially be divorced June 3rd. While the Mrs. will walk away with quite a hefty settlement, the Mr. will part ways with a lot less money every month.

Van Dr Beek was ordered to pay his estranged wife nearly $8,000 for spousal support, every month until the end of 2012 (approximately $240,000). But the actor is leaving totally empty handed – he gets to keep the couple’s house as well as all residuals from his acting jobs, screenplays, and stories written during the marriage.

Eight grand may seem like a lot of money to you, but James Van Der Beek supposedly rakes in about $35,000 a month, so it’s really a drop in the bucket for him.

He’s lucky he got away as easily as he did – they must have had a pre-nup.

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james van der beek costly divorce
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Is there ever a requirement of fault for spousal support to be awarded?

At one time there was this requirement. If the recipient was guilty of marital fault of some sort – the most common being adultery – then spousal support was barred or automatically awarded depending upon which spouse was guilty. The law changed in all states to holding fault as a factor only if the fault led to the marital breakdown. For example, if the marriage broke down because of adultery. Often adultery or other marital faults are a reaction to the breakdown of the marriage, rather than the cause.

With the rise in no-fault divorce, the fault requirement has almost faded completely. A practical matter, in many divorces, even if traditional fault grounds such as adultery are present, the divorcing spouses may opt for a no-fault divorce, in order to avoid the added time, stress, and financial burden of a contested based divorce.

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