There's a moment in many of my first meetings when I watch someone's face change. We've been talking about the children, the house, the practical things, and then I explain that in Poland a court can decide who was to blame for the marriage ending. And that this can mean paying maintenance to your former husband or wife.
If you come from a country where divorce is simply "no-fault," this lands hard. I understand why. So let me take the fear out of it the way I would if you were sitting with me, slowly, honestly, and with the reassurance that this is far more predictable than it first feels.
The truth in one breath: in Poland, a spouse found solely at fault can be ordered to support an innocent ex, but this is not alimony for life, and there are clear, lawful ways it ends.
First, the part nobody warns you about: Poland still has fault divorce
In most Polish divorces, the court rules on blame. The findings are simple: no-one at fault, both at fault, or one spouse solely at fault.
That last one carries a price. Under the Family Code:
- Article 60 § 1 lets an ex-spouse who is genuinely in need claim support. This path requires real hardship.
- Article 60 § 2 is the one that catches people out. If you are found solely at fault, your innocent spouse can claim maintenance on a much gentler condition, not poverty, but a "substantial deterioration" in their financial situation caused by the divorce.
And here's the piece I most want you to understand, because it changes everything: the court doesn't measure that deterioration against your life before the marriage. It measures it against the life your spouse would have had if the marriage had simply carried on, two incomes, one home, a shared standard of living. That is the yardstick.
So if you are the higher earner and you're found solely at fault, you may owe ongoing monthly support to your ex, whichever country either of you calls home.
A 2026 ruling: the guilty spouse pays, and the court sees straight through "creative" income
In a 2026 case, a husband found solely at fault was ordered to pay his ex-wife PLN 1,600 a month. Three things from that judgment I see play out again and again, and they matter especially across borders:
Every part of your income counts. He argued his "real" income was lower, leaving out a 13th salary, bonuses and a car allowance. The court counted all of it, and noticed he'd happily included those same elements when describing her earnings. I'll be candid with you: trying to shrink your own income while inflating your spouse's is one of the fastest ways to lose a judge's trust.
An illness that appears after the divorce can open a fresh claim. The wife's health worsened later and needed costly treatment. The court treated that as a new, legitimate ground, and confirmed something important: the fact that no maintenance was ordered in the divorce itself does not close the door. An innocent ex can return later, as long as they haven't remarried.
Your duty to your former spouse comes before your new partner. He pointed to loans taken on with a new partner and a recently bought plot of land. The court's reply was firm and clear: you have no legal duty to support a partner, but you do have one to your ex, and buying property shows you can pay, not that you should pay less.
Now the part you most need to hear: this is not support for life
This is where I see relief arrive, because Polish law is genuinely fair here.
Remarriage ends it. Under Article 60 § 3, the obligation to support a divorced spouse ends the moment that spouse remarries.
And it can end even without remarriage. In another 2026 ruling, a court ended a guilty husband's support to his ex-wife (PLN 700 a month) even though she hadn't remarried, because she was in a stable relationship and had a child with her new partner.
The court didn't pretend that living together is the same as marriage. It reasoned honestly, in two steps:
- Needs shrink. A partner who shares the home and the bills reduces the ex-spouse's justified needs, and maintenance only ever covers justified needs.
- Fairness has a limit. Keeping a financial tie to a former spouse who has plainly built a new family runs against basic fairness (Article 5 of the Civil Code). And a child born into that new relationship makes the whole "what if the marriage had continued" comparison meaningless, she had, as the court put it, rebuilt her life.
Her wider finances confirmed it, a substantial sum from the property settlement, a sizeable deposit, savings. One asset alone might be treated as neutral, but assets plus a supporting partner together showed she no longer needed support.
If you're the one paying: you are not necessarily bound forever. Your ex's documented, stable new life, especially a new partner and child, is a real, lawful route to ending the obligation, through a court application based on a material change of circumstances (Article 138).
What this means when one of you lives abroad
The principles don't change; the evidence needs more care:
- "I barely earn anything abroad." Polish courts look at earning capacity, not just a convenient foreign payslip. A healthy, employable spouse will be judged on what they could realistically earn.
- Income across borders. Foreign tax returns, contracts and benefit statements are routinely used, openness helps you, selective disclosure hurts you.
- A new life elsewhere. If the spouse receiving support moves abroad, remarries, or starts a new family there, that can be the basis to reduce or end the obligation, exactly as above.
- Enforcement works both ways. Within the EU, maintenance decisions are made to be recognised and enforced across borders, it doesn't simply stop at a frontier.
Which country decides, and whose law applies, is governed by EU rules and treaties and depends on your facts, and it's one of the first things I'd want us to settle, before anything is filed.
Questions I'm asked almost every week
Does Poland really make you support an ex-spouse? Sometimes, usually where there's genuine need, or where you were found solely at fault and the divorce substantially worsened your ex's situation.
Is it forever? No. It ends automatically on your ex's remarriage, and a court can end it where circumstances change materially, including a stable new partnership with a child, or a real improvement in your ex's finances.
My ex moved abroad and says they're broke. Am I stuck? Not necessarily. Courts look at earning capacity and at your ex's real new circumstances, both are arguable, with the right evidence.
Can I claim support if I wasn't at fault and my standard of living dropped? Possibly, under Article 60 § 2, the test is a substantial deterioration compared with the life you'd have had if the marriage continued, not whether you're in poverty.
A steady word to end on
Maintenance after a Polish divorce frightens people more than almost anything, and more than it needs to. It is rarely the open-ended sentence people imagine, and it almost always turns on two things: honest evidence, and knowing exactly which rule fits your facts.
You don't have to work that out alone, at night, in a second language. That's mine to carry. When you're ready, in English or in Polish, come and sit down with me, and we'll look at your real position before a single document is filed.
This article explains principles drawn from recent (2026) Polish court rulings, anonymised in the public case database. It is general information, not legal advice, and every case turns on its own facts. For advice on your situation, please contact the firm.