Gov. DeSantis signs alimony reform measure
Sen. Joe Gruters
Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, has been pushing for support reform for years but admits he wanted nothing to do with it when the measure first landed on his desk. In his main job as an accountant, however, he regularly deals with divorces.
When the Florida Senate voted 34-6 to approve SB 1416 on April 19, Gruters told his peers, “As a professional who studies divorce all the time, you can see how difficult it is for families to resolve this.” process to go through.”
That year, Gov. Ron DeSantis agreed by signing the measure on June 30, which offers divorcing couples more predictability and consistency by setting clear, final parameters for the courts when it comes to the amount and length of alimony. The bill went into effect on July 1.
SB 1416 was Gruters’ third attempt to pass maintenance reform. In 2021, he unexpectedly withdrew his measure ten days before the end of the session after a heated debate over the child sharing provision of the bill.
Last year, Gruters filed SB 1796, which passed both chambers but was later rejected by the governor.
Gruters said after last year’s veto he managed to get all the groups together, come up with a plan for all these issues and got all sides to agree top to bottom. He said he was determined to bring the process to a conclusion.
After the governor signed, Gruters said the move was long overdue.
“I appreciate that the governor signed the SB 1416 bill into law,” Gruters said. “It’s a win for families in Florida.”
The bill provides guidelines for the court to decide whether to reduce or stop alimony payments due to a payer’s retirement. The guidelines codify the existing case law that followed the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Pimm v. Pimm goes back to 1992.
Gruters said the new law shortens the timeline for divorces and makes them more predictable by giving family judges the leeway they need to make decisions.
One of the groups that brought Gruters to the table was the Florida Bar’s family law division, which rejected many of the other proposed reforms over issues of retroactivity.
That year, the Section, along with the Florida Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, staunchly supported the measure.
In a statement after the bill was signed, Section Chair Sarah Kay and former Chair Phillip Wartenberg said the new law would make sensible changes to child support payments.
“We thank Governor DeSantis for signing the law into law,” Kay and Wartenberg said. “Importantly, the Section was grateful to have worked with supporters of this legislation during the 2023 session to ensure it does not negatively impact existing child support payments or otherwise harm Florida families.”
The advance was one of the main reasons House sponsor Rep. John Paul Temple, R-Wildwood, took up the legislation. Temple said the abolition of perpetual alimony and replacing it with perpetual alimony is critical to the process.
“An award made for a specified period of time rather than indefinitely allows the parties to properly plan their finances and future and lends much-needed finality to the proceedings,” Temple told the House Civil Judiciary Committee March 27.
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