Senate moves alimony reform measure to House for final passage – The Florida Bar

The Senate is submitting a support reform measure to the House of Representatives for final passage

“As a professional who studies divorce all the time, you can see how difficult it is for families to go through this process.”

Sen. Joe Gruters

The measure to abolish perpetual alimony in Florida and replace it with perpetual alimony based on length of marriage passed the Senate on April 19 and is now open for hearing in the Florida House of Representatives.

The Bill, SB 1416, by the Republican Senator from Sarasota. Joe Gruters accepted by a vote of 34 to 6.

The proposed reforms offer divorcing couples more predictability and consistency by setting clear, final parameters for the courts when it comes to the amount and duration of alimony.

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 existing case law from the 1992 Florida Supreme Court decision in Pimm v. Pimm.

This is Gruters’ third attempt to pass alimony reform. In 2021, Gruters unexpectedly withdrew his measure ten days before the end of the session after a heated debate over the child sharing provision included in the bill.

Last year, Gruters filed SB 1796, which passed both chambers but was later rejected by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“As you know, it’s been a long journey,” Gruters said. “It’s been vetoed three times now and I think it’s increased 10 times in the last 15 years.”

The bill went through its second reading in the Senate on April 18 and faced fierce questions about retroactivity from Democratic senators. Of the six no votes, five came from Democrats, with Republican Senator Clay Yarborough the only member of his party in opposition.

“I want to be very clear,” said Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach. “If I had permanent alimony, would that be changeable under this new bill?”

Gruters assured Berman that the proposed legislation would not affect existing agreements on amendments.

“If you have an agreement that’s changeable and it says it’s changeable, whether we pass this law or not, it’s still going to be changeable,” Gruters said. “If it says it’s unchangeable and we pass this law, it’s still going to be unchangeable.”

Throughout the legislative process, the Family Law Division of the Florida Bar Association has staunchly supported the measure. In her speech to the House Judiciary Committee last week, Section Representative Trish Armstrong continued to emphasize Gruters’ assessment of retroactivity.

“This is something the family law department has been vocal about in the past,” Armstrong said. “If this were retrospectively unconstitutional and adversely affected existing agreements, the Section would not support it.”

Gruters told his colleagues that replacing perpetual alimony with perpetual alimony would give judges more leeway in decision-making.

“You think when you get divorced it’s 50/50, but the reality is it’s 50% professionals and 50% families,” Gruters said. “The entire goal of this bill is to limit the litigation and the games being played. We want to make sure families can keep as much money as possible.”

Democratic Chairwoman Senator Lauren Book, D-Davie, asked Gruters to explain exactly why this bill is not retroactive, citing previous public statements during the committee proceedings that claimed so.

Gruters said most public statements about retroactivity come from people currently in divorce proceedings.

“If you have a divorce that is pending, this new law will apply to your divorce at the time this law is passed,” Gruters said.

Berman and Book joined party colleagues Sen. Tracie Davis, Tina Polsky and Bobby Powell in opposing the measure.

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.

“The problem is how do we shorten the time [on divorce] and make it more predictable,” Gruters said. “We give the judges a lot of freedom to make decisions.”

Gruters said the measure was first presented to him four years ago and that he wanted nothing to do with it. However, in his job as an auditor, he regularly deals with divorces.

“As a professional who studies divorce all the time, you can see how difficult it is for families to go through this process,” Gruters said.

Gruters commended Senate Speaker Kathleen Passidomo’s leadership throughout the process and said he finally sat down and worked out every single item of this bill and presented a bill that had 95% of the popular vote.

“Madam President, I appreciate your willingness because I know when we met on this issue two years ago you said, ‘Get everyone in one room, get everyone to agree, and let’s get that out there,'” he said Gruters. “I really appreciate that we can come back this year under your leadership.”