Application for maintenance — Family Proceedings Act 1980, ss 62-66 & 82 — Ropiha v Ropiha [1979] 2 NZLR 245 (CA) — Dalrymple v Dalrymple [2019] NZHC 637 — Tsoi v Hua [2006] NZFLR 560, (2006) 25 FRNZ 930 (HC) — L v T [spousal maintenance] [2008] NZFLR 975 (HC). The applicant applied to the Court for past, interim, and future maintenance pursuant to s 82 of the Family Proceedings Act ("FPA"). The parties had been married some 13 years and had three children together. The parties had had a traditional marriage in the sense that the respondent had worked full-time on his own business, and the applicant cared full-time for the children but had also worked sometimes for the business and had had several other jobs from which she had been made redundant. In assessing an application for interim maintenance a court should take the following principles into consideration: the protection of the position of an applicant who may have inadequate means to meet their current needs, pending outcome of substantive proceedings; the unfettered jurisdiction a court has as to whether to make an award and the amount awarded; the reasonable needs of the applicant over the time the order will be in place, and the applicant's means to meet those needs; standard of living while the parties were together; "means" has a broad meaning; and interim maintenance should not be ordered unless proper weight has been given to the applicant's ability to meet the needs. In an application for final maintenance, the principles in FPA, ss 62-63 should be taken into consideration. The decision here was as to interim maintenance. The Judge considered that in the three years since the parties had separated, the applicant should have been able find full-time employment and there was insufficient evidence of the applicant's inability to earn a higher income. The applicant could also not show why she applied for significant monthly legal costs. The Judge declined to make an award of interim maintenance. Judgment Date: 29 July 2020. * * * Note: names have been changed to comply with legal requirements. * * *