Alabama

All states

Luck of the Draw score: 90 out of 100

Alabama judges divide marital property with no equal-split starting point, may weigh adultery and other fault in both property and alimony, and decide attorney fees freely. The main statutory limit is on alimony duration: rehabilitative alimony is capped at five years and periodic alimony at the length of a marriage under 20 years, unless the judge finds grounds to deviate. On the book’s scale, 0 is a contract you can read and 100 is one that mostly says “ask the judge.” Alabama ranks 42 of 51, counting from the state that leaves the least to the judge. How the index works, and every state’s score.

Part	Score	The rule, and where it comes from
Property	15 / 20	The marital estate is divided equitably with no presumption of equal shares, and the judge may not consider property a spouse owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance unless it or its income was used regularly for the couple’s common benefit during the marriage. Ala. Code § 30-2-51(a), (b)(1); Ex parte Drummond, 785 So. 2d 358 (Ala. 2000)
Alimony	15 / 20	The amount of rehabilitative or periodic alimony is set from a list of factors aimed at preserving the marital standard of living, but rehabilitative alimony may not exceed five years absent extraordinary circumstances, and periodic alimony may not last longer than the marriage (for marriages under 20 years) unless the court finds that a longer term is equitably required. Ala. Code § 30-2-57(b), (d)-(g) (Act 2017-164)
Fault	20 / 20	The judge may weigh marital misconduct in dividing property and in setting alimony, and the alimony statute lists the relative fault of the parties for the breakdown of the marriage as a factor. Ala. Code § 30-2-52; Ala. Code § 30-2-57(f)(3); Ex parte Drummond, 785 So. 2d 358 (Ala. 2000) (approving Myrick v. Myrick, 714 So. 2d 311, 315 (Ala. Civ. App. 1998): fault is a property-division factor even in an incompatibility divorce)
Lawyers’ fees	20 / 20	Whether to order one spouse to pay the other’s attorney fee is within the trial court’s discretion, considering the parties’ financial circumstances, their conduct, the results of the litigation and the value of the services. K.D.H. v. T.L.H. III, 3 So. 3d 894, 901 (Ala. Civ. App. 2008) (quoting Glover v. Glover, 678 So. 2d 174, 176 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996)); Ala. Code § 30-2-54 (fees in contempt proceedings only)
Second opinion	20 / 20	No Alabama statute or rule was found that lets a divorce litigant remove the assigned judge without cause or demand a jury on property division or alimony. Ala. R. Civ. P. 38 (jury right only as preserved by constitution or statute); full-text search of the Code of Alabama found no divorce jury provision (not yet checked against the source)

Getting in

No waiting period. Alabama abolished marriage licenses in 2019. Each person signs a notarized affidavit on the state form, and the couple records it with a county probate judge within 30 days of the last signature. The marriage is valid from the date both have signed. No waiting period applies.
Ala. Code §§ 12-19-90(b)(32), 22-9A-17, 30-1-9.1, 30-6-11

Who can marry you. Alabama requires no officiant, ceremony, or witness; a notary takes each person’s affidavit. A couple may choose any officiant or none, and that choice has no effect on whether the marriage is valid. Online ordination therefore makes no legal difference, and the statute does not address it. No one needs authorization to preside.
Ala. Code §§ 30-1-7, 30-1-9.1(b), (d), (g)

Common-law marriage: Closed to new couples. No common-law marriage can be formed in Alabama on or after January 1, 2017. One validly formed before that date remains valid. The statute does not address a common-law marriage formed in another state.
Ala. Code § 30-1-20

Chapter 5 of the book covers getting in, and whether you are in at all.

The property system

Alabama is one of forty-one equitable distribution jurisdictions. Equitable distribution. Each of you owns what’s in your own name during the marriage. At a divorce a judge divides the marital property as the judge finds equitable, which is not a promise of half. Chapter 11 of the book covers what that means, and Chapter 22 covers what happens to it when you move.

What counts as marital. The court divides the marital estate equitably. Property owned before marriage, inheritances, and gifts stay out unless the property or its income was used regularly for the family’s common benefit. Retirement earned during the marriage is marital, with the other spouse’s share capped at 50 percent. No statute sets a separation or filing cutoff, so the court decides.
Ala. Code § 30-2-51(a)-(b); Culver v. Culver, 199 So. 3d 772 (Ala. Civ. App. 2016)

An inheritance that touches a joint account

It stays separate unless it was used regularly for the family. Inherited money stays out of the division unless it or its income was used regularly for the family’s common benefit. A single use is not regular. Periodic transfers to a joint account for taxes, the mortgage, and household items were enough in Bushnell. In Beck, inheritance commingled in joint accounts and used for both spouses for over 20 years was marital.
Ala. Code § 30-2-51(a); Bushnell v. Bushnell, 713 So. 2d 962 (Ala. Civ. App. 1997); Hull v. Hull, 887 So. 2d 904 (Ala. Civ. App. 2003); Beck v. Beck, 564 So. 2d 979 (Ala. Civ. App. 1990)

Chapter 12 explains how mine becomes ours.

Your spouse’s medical bills (Article 5)

Generally, you don’t owe your spouse’s bills. Neither spouse is liable for the other’s medical or other necessary bills because of the marriage. The Alabama Supreme Court held the husband-only doctrine of necessaries unconstitutional, declined to extend it to wives, and left any change to the legislature; the statute says a husband is not liable for his wife’s debts.
Emanuel v. McGriff, 596 So. 2d 578 (Ala. 1992); Ala. Code § 30-4-7

Chapter 8 of the book explains the three ways states handle this.

If one of you dies (Article 9)

The surviving spouse may elect the lesser of (1) the whole estate reduced by the value of the survivor’s own separate estate or (2) one-third of the estate. The survivor’s separate estate counts property the survivor owns outright plus life insurance, trust and employer-plan benefits received because of the death. The share is computed on the decedent’s estate; there is no augmented estate that pulls in the decedent’s non-probate transfers to others.
Ala. Code § 43-8-70

Chapter 9 covers what a will can and can’t take away from a spouse.

Prenups and postnups (Article 12)

One look, under case law only (Barnhill test); no premarital agreement statute. The spouse enforcing the agreement must show either that the consideration was adequate and the whole transaction was fair, just and equitable from the other spouse’s point of view, or that the other spouse signed freely and voluntarily with competent independent advice and full knowledge of the estate and its approximate value. Postnuptial agreements are valid and are judged by the same standard.
Barnhill v. Barnhill, 386 So. 2d 749 (Ala. Civ. App. 1980); Tibbs v. Anderson, 580 So. 2d 1337 (Ala. 1991); Northington v. Northington, No. 2160352 (Ala. Civ. App. Nov. 9, 2017); Ala. Code § 30-4-9

What an agreement needs. An agreement made in consideration of marriage must be in writing and signed by the party to be charged; no statute requires notarization, witnesses, a waiting period or a lawyer, though independent advice is one of the two ways to satisfy the Barnhill test. A waiver of the elective share and other death rights must be in writing and signed by the waiving spouse after fair disclosure.
Ala. Code § 8-9-2(4); Ala. Code § 43-8-72; Barnhill v. Barnhill, 386 So. 2d 749 (Ala. Civ. App. 1980)

Chapter 29 explains one look and two, and what makes agreements stick.

Children (Article 8)

Child support: income shares. Alabama uses an income shares guideline, and support runs to the age of majority, which is 19. Since 2013 a court cannot order a parent to pay college support for a child over 19. Parents can agree to it, and that agreement can be enforced. College costs before age 19 can justify departing from the guideline.
Ala. R. Jud. Admin. 32; Ala. Code § 26-1-1; Ex parte Christopher, 145 So. 3d 60 (Ala. 2013); Hill v. Hill, 209 So. 3d 1128 (Ala. Civ. App. 2016)

Moving away with a child. A parent must send certified-mail notice at least 45 days before moving the child. The other parent has 30 days to object. A court presumes the move is not in the child’s best interest; the moving parent has the initial burden, then the burden shifts to the other parent. Moves within Alabama of 60 miles or less are exempt from these objection rules.
Ala. Code §§ 30-3-162(b), 30-3-165, 30-3-169, 30-3-169.1, 30-3-169.4

Chapter 17 covers the children.

Getting out (Article 2)

How long you must live here before filing: six months. A spouse suing a spouse who lives outside Alabama must have been a good-faith Alabama resident for six months before filing. The statute sets no period when the defendant lives in Alabama. It does not depend on where the couple married or where the grounds arose. Other sections set where to file but add no county period.
Ala. Code §§ 30-2-4, 30-2-5

How long it takes. Either spouse can get a divorce without proving fault, on irretrievable breakdown or incompatibility of temperament. No separation period is required. A court cannot enter a final judgment until 30 days after the summons and complaint are filed, though it can issue temporary orders sooner.
Ala. Code §§ 30-2-1(a)(7), (a)(9), 30-2-8.1

The legal minimum for a spouse who moves here alone and files as soon as allowed, with no minor children and the other spouse objecting, is about 210 days from arrival to a final decree (180 days of residence + 30-day wait after filing). Courts often take longer.

Chapter 22 covers what changes when you move.

Each entry on this page comes from the statute, rule or case it cites, read in September or November 2026, except where the entry says it has not been checked. A rule can change after that, and a rule on paper can play out differently in a particular courthouse. No lawyer reviews these pages.

If you practice family law in Alabama and would like to correct or contribute to this page, write to me.

Meanwhile

• The default contract, with the options states choose among. Read it with a Alabama lawyer, or paste it into a chatbot along with “I live in Alabama” and treat what comes back as a list of questions, not answers.
• Three contracts you could sign instead.
• A worksheet for reading it together, and every state’s Luck of the Draw score.
• Corrections, including changes in the law since the book went to press.
• About the book.