“The sad thing is that this man who doesn't get out of bed is paying a woman who works,” says Linda Morgan, 61, of Lehigh Acres, Florida.
Linda Morgan is part of a growing movement pushing for changes to child support laws in several states.
Massachusetts led the way, revising its law last fall. The new alimony law provides for several types of alimony with varying durations, depending on the length of the marriage and the financial situation of both spouses. The law also allows alimony payers to change the terms later and provides that payments will stop when the recipient has a common-law partner or, in most cases, when the payer reaches retirement age.
In Florida, a similar bill is currently being considered in legislative committees. In New Jersey, a senator introduced a bill this month to review alimony law. In Connecticut, advocates of changing the law have hired a lawyer to draft a bill. And activists in Virginia, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina are organizing online.
“I see this wave spreading across the country,” says Steve Hitner, who initiated Massachusetts' alimony reform in 2006 and advises on other state initiatives. “Most people who have to pay these outrageously high alimony payments think they have a bad reputation, but in reality it was a bad law.”
In the states affected, the alimony laws are decades old. They were written at a time when divorce was rare and most women did not work outside the home and faced impoverishment after a divorce.
Women's participation in the labor force has increased from 50.9 percent in 1979 to about 59 percent, and their median income has risen steadily, from about $35,000 a year earlier. inflation -adjusted $26,500 in 1979, according to the Labor Department.
Supporters of changing alimony law argue that it needs to be updated to reflect 21st-century marriages. They say judges have too much discretion in divorce settlements and often order higher-income spouses to pay lifetime alimony to their former spouses who are able to support themselves.
“There needs to be a limit on how long alimony can last and a cap on the amount you have to pay,” says Tom Leustek, 53, chairman of New Jersey Alimony Reform. “You could be married at 25, divorced at 35 and spend the next 50 years paying alimony. There should be uniform treatment across the board where you can predict what's going to happen based on the law, not the arbitrary decision of a judge.”
Opponents of alimony reform say laws like the new one in Massachusetts limit judges' ability to consider the individual circumstances of a marriage.
“It's really an unnecessary attempt to control the decisions of judges,” says Kenneth Altshuler, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a divorce attorney in Portland, Maine. “There's really no reason for the legislature to tell judges that there shouldn't be lifetime alimony in certain situations.”
While Altshuler added that creating alimony guidelines could be helpful, he fears that activists “could come back and limit judges' discretion even further and continue to pursue the original goal, which I believe was to eliminate permanent alimony altogether.”
Others believe the laws could harm former spouses financially because they do not provide enough support.
“I worry about unintended consequences,” says Jeffrey Landers, a New York divorce finance strategist who advises women. “I think there will be a lot of women ending up in poverty and needing welfare and Medicaid .”
He says he is most concerned about women over 50 who have little professional experience or training and who may receive less maintenance because the maintenance obligation ends when their ex-husband reaches retirement age.
Wendy Murphy, a lawyer and professor at New England Law Boston, says some spouses may feel pressured to stay in abusive relationships longer to earn more support. The law creates “arbitrary limits that treat everyone the same,” she says. “When it comes to families, where every single case is different, judges need discretion.”
Linda Morgan says her husband has been paying alimony since he separated from his first wife in 1992. Michael Morgan was married to his first wife for 36 years and twice chose mediation rather than trial to determine the amount of his alimony.
From 2002 to 2006, as his Alzheimer's disease worsened, he and his new wife tried five times in court to reduce or stop child support, but judges ruled that he must continue paying, court records show. Judge James Thompson also ordered Michael Morgan to pay legal fees because he and his ex-wife have different incomes.
Linda Morgan says they could afford the payments, but if alimony was suspended, she could hire more help for her husband. Now she has part-time workers who allow her to leave the house for a few hours a week.
Morgan's ex-wife, Marilyn Morgan, declined to comment.
In Massachusetts, Hitner founded his group after he was ordered to pay his ex-wife $45,000 a year in alimony. When his printing business ran into trouble, he could no longer afford the payments.
Hitner says he was unable to convince the judges that a modification was necessary, even though he has filed for bankruptcy and is now awaiting a decision on whether his house will be foreclosed on.
His efforts were fruitless for two years. Then a 2008 Boston Globe op-ed by Elizabeth Benedict, a freelance journalist in New York who is married to a man who has been paying her ongoing alimony, drew attention to Hitner's efforts and sparked a conversation, he says.
“In states where alimony is paid for life, there seems to be a presumption that the person receiving alimony is never obligated to support themselves – even if they are educated and working,” Benedict says.
Linda Zampino, 51, of Sparta, New Jersey, agrees. “Women and men are taking advantage of the system,” says Zampino, a manager at a pharmaceutical company. “What incentive do they have to go back to work and continue their education?”
She says she had to refinance her mortgage several times to pay her ex-husband $36,000 a year in child support and spent an estimated $125,000 contesting the child support order in court.
In September, Massachusetts Democratic Governor Deval Patrick signed the child support changes, which will take effect in March.
“This is the definition of alimony in the 21st century,” says state Senator Gale Candaras, a Democrat who co-chaired a working group that drafted the law.
Elsewhere
In 2010, the state passed an alimony law that limited payments for short-term marriages and set guidelines for the amount of compensation. Activists say the law did not go far enough.
The state House Judiciary Committee is considering a child support reform bill similar to one in Massachusetts.
Alan Frisher, a financial adviser and co-director of Florida Alimony Reform, says the group has been lobbying lawmakers for two years. “You should be able to move on with your life,” he says. “The way it is now is absolutely wrong.”
Republican Senator Sean Kean introduced a bill last week to create a commission to study alimony law after hearing from constituents, including some in their 70s and 80s, who said they could not retire because of their alimony payments, he says.
He hopes to introduce a bill to change the law based on the panel's findings. “We want to look at what other states have done,” Kean says.
Attorney Ryan Barry says he is working on a bill similar to the Massachusetts measure for Connecticut's alimony reform members.
David Conway, co-founder of the group, said they plan to present the bill to state lawmakers later this month and are considering hiring a lobbyist.
In Virginia, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina, efforts are still in their early stages.
Kevin Baker, 47, a Navy contractor in Suffolk, Virginia, has set up a Facebook page called “Virginia Alimony Reform,” exchanges emails with other alimony payers and contacts lawmakers in his state.
Baker was married for nine years and has been paying alimony for 12 years, which now stands at $1,200 a month. He is preparing for a fight.
“Many lawyers don't want the law to change,” he says. “It would cost them a lot of money.”
This story first appeared in USA Today.
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