I just received a change complaint from my ex to end alimony. He says he has reached the deadline for his commitment because of the new maintenance laws. I read that he still has to pay when you have a 20 year marriage. We were married for almost 20 years. He gave me the divorce papers the day before our anniversary and announced that he would marry his secretary.
I depend on this maintenance and have structured my life in such a way that I can cover my expenses, but I have no savings. I only have a modest house and can collect my teacher’s pension in a few years, but I haven’t worked full-time since our children were born – I have a share of the job with another teacher. Our daughter had special needs and I needed to be available. When she died two years ago, I had no real reason to change the proportion of the job I’ve had for over a decade.
Can he just end the maintenance?
These are very interesting facts that probably only affect a handful of people. Before the Maintenance Reform Act, we looked at length of marriage to determine the division of property. The estate of the marriage is divided at the time of divorce, so your marriage length has been assumed to be based on the date of marriage to the date of divorce. This still applies to the division of real estate. According to the Maintenance Reform Act, however, the duration of the marriage is calculated for the purposes of maintenance from the date of marriage to the date on which the divorce-related summons is served.
People whose maintenance regulations were created before the reform have encountered a number of unexpected situations that the legislature did not anticipate. To do your justice, the law at the time of your divorce should apply to the calculation of the length of the marriage, which would bring you past the 20 year mark and would mean he cannot change his maintenance until he actually retires he must show why he can stop his livelihood. Reading Google versus Pierce versus Pierce will give you some information on what it would have to show to end the maintenance.
He wants to apply this new definition to your 20-year, one-day marriage to save a few dollars. I think you have a strong argument to use the old definition, but nothing is foolproof and the judges have discretion. You could spend years and a lot of money litigating this point. Given that you are each nearing retirement, I suggest that you try to negotiate a maintenance purchase. If you litigate now and win, he won’t be back for round two for a few years. Find out the number that you can live with right now and move on.
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