TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – By a vote of 74-42, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would eliminate permanent alimony payments in the state. It's a move that was praised by some and led others to call on Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the bill.
“What is changing is that the different types of alimony that exist in Florida now have strict limits on how long they last,” said Jeffrey Swartz, a law professor at WMU Cooley Law School’s Tampa campus.
What you need to know
- SB 1796 passed the Florida House on Wednesday
- If enacted, the bill would change the way alimony is paid
- The group Florida Family Fairness says the bill would make the process fairer and more predictable for everyone
- The Florida Bar's Family Law Section is calling on the governor to veto the bill
- READ THE BILL: SB 1796
The bill states: “Long-term maintenance may be 50 percent of the duration of a marriage that lasts between three and ten years, 60 percent of the duration of a marriage that lasts between 10 and 20 years, and 75 percent of the duration of a marriage that lasts between 10 and 20 years, not to exceed 20 years or longer.” In certain circumstances, the period can be extended, for example if the person applying for maintenance is disabled and cannot care for themselves.
“The second thing is that there are now strict guidelines for calculating alimony,” Swartz said. “The changes will be significant as they also address the issues of a supportive relationship after marriage and during alimony.”
Swartz said that if the person receiving alimony is financially supported by another person, the former spouse paying the alimony can request that the payments be stopped.
“Now we are guided by needs and not by the idea of maintaining a certain standard of living,” Swartz said.
The group Florida Family Fairness praised the move, saying in a statement the bill would “modernize Florida's child support law by making the process fairer and more predictable for all parties.”
The vote in the House of Representatives also sparked strong reactions from opponents of the bill.
“The biggest potential impact is that the contracts that these people have in place, the alimony payments that they were counting on, the budgets that they built based on those existing alimony payments are in great jeopardy,” Andrea Reid said , member of both the Florida Law Section of the Executive Council and the Legislative Committee of the Florida Bar.
Reid said the law would apply retroactively, meaning existing alimony agreements could be eliminated or significantly reduced. Of particular concern is a part of the bill that states that if the person paying the maintenance retires, maintenance payments may end before the end of the period established by the marriage.
“I think the conversation gets complicated because the proponents of the bill are saying, 'Yes, it's retroactive, but you could change it at any time based on retirement, so it doesn't do anything that isn't currently in the law,'” he told Reid . “But the reality of it is really important when you look at the surface. What this bill does is it removes existing alimony that people have contractually agreed to and marital settlement agreements or what they've been awarded by the courts and what it is.” What that means is that a whole new process is created for this becomes. The previous process included certain safeguards, e.g. B. Ensuring that retirement was proper and that retirement occurred at the right age does not raise this question.”
Reid said based on the Family Law Division's interpretation of this bill, if one member of a 65-year-old couple has been away from work for most of the marriage to work as a homemaker, and that couple retired and then divorced , the person who was that the housewife was not entitled to maintenance. The section is calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the bill.
The bill does much more, including introducing the assumption that children share their time equally. You can find more information about this and other details here:
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