Terminate jurisdiction of Maria Schriver's spousal support?

Arnold Schwarzenegger filed his Response to Maria Schriver’s Petition for Dissolution of Marriage on Wednesday stating he wanted the court to terminate jurisdiction to award spousal support and deny attorney’s fees to Maria.

While this may sound harsh, it is common in responding to a Petition for divorce for the responding party to check the boxes on the forms requesting the court to terminate jurisdiction to award spousal support to the other party and to ask the court to make the other party pay their attorney’s fees. This doesn’t mean it will happen however. It only means that the issue is now in play.

What are is chances for success? Since the couple had been married since 1986 and they had no premarital agreement, all of the proceeds from Arnold’s movies are community property and will be equally divided.

If it turns out that Maria has equal assets to Arnold’s and they both have the ability on their own to support themselves in the same manner as they did when married. It is likely the court would not order spousal support to Maria.

This is also true for each parties’ attorneys. Child support however, is a different matter. That will be determined by each parties’ income and the amount of time they each spend with their children.

Since Arnold just announced he will be returning to acting and has landed the role in the upcoming movie “Last Stand,” his income from that film will be used in determining his support obligation. Until the children are 18, even the “Governator” can’t be the “Terminator” of child support.