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Divorce and Illegal Income

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Scott Shadle threatened to divorce his wife if she stopped turning over money from their prostitution business – which they ran from their apartment. Scott and Rebecca’s prostitution business raises a question: what do you do with an illegal marital business and illegal income?

A Marital Prostitution Business

Police say Scott Shadle had posted online ads charging for sex with his wife, Rebecca Shadle, 38. The alleged sex-for-cash business took place at Eastmont Estates apartments in Greensburg, Pa.

According to TribLive.com, police have text messages detailing discussions between the pair over how much money to charge for sex and how much of the proceeds Rebecca Shadle would then turn over to her husband.

The texts also document a martial spat between the couple that grew out of the alleged home-operated prostitution business.

When Rebecca Shadle threatened to cut off the money, her husband texted “that he would file divorce papers and call her caseworker,” court documents state.

Rebecca Shadle, 38, of Greensburg, Pa., is also accused of charging her male sex customers extra to touch a 7-year-old-girl entrusted to her car. She faces charges of trafficking of a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.

She allegedly was charging her male customers extra to touch a 7-year-old-girl entrusted to her care. She faces charges of trafficking of a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.

Florida and Illegal Income

The article from Pennsylvania does not indicate how much illegal income the couple made from their prostitution business. But, the question still remains: can the value of the business, and the illegal income generated from prostitution, be used to calculate alimony or child support?

In short, no. I’ve written on the subject of alimony and support before. The problem is that a Florida court cannot base a future award of alimony or child support on a future illegal income from a career consisting of vice and criminality.

Generally, it is against public policy to base a court order of support upon the assumption that a husband or a wife will violate the law in order to acquire the necessary funds to pay for support.

It makes sense, and there’s a simple reason for this public policy. If we were to base an order of support or alimony on anticipated unlawful conduct, and illegal income, the courts would not only be recognizing illegal activity, but also encouraging the future violation of the law by spouses.

The Shadle Family Business

Police say Rebecca has acknowledged being a prostitute and letting two men inappropriately touch the girl. Her husband, Scott Shadle, faces three counts related to promotion of prostitution. A pair of alleged customers face sex charges in the case related to their alleged contact with the 7-year-old girl.

The Fox News article is here.

 

Temporary Alimony

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Grammy Award winner, Mary J. Blige, is the only artist with Grammy Awards in R&B, Rap, Gospel, and Pop. She was just ordered to pay her husband, Martin Isaacs, $30,000 month in temporary alimony. For someone who sang the famous: “No More Drama” song, her divorce is anything but.

Dirty Tricks

Mary and her husband Martin married back in 2003. The divorce cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. The couple has no children together. Mary asked the judge to deny Martin’s ability to get spousal support.

I have written about their divorce before, when she accused Martin of having spent $420,000 of the parties’ marital funds. Martin was Mary’s manager. So, it could be that much of the money allegedly spent on himself or a girlfriend can be chalked it up as “travel charges.” However, Mary alleges the $420,000 in expenses were not business-related.

While the issue of waste remains unsettled, the issue of paying temporary alimony to Martin is not.

Alimony

Generally, Florida Statutes provide that in any proceeding for dissolution of marriage, the trial court can grant alimony to either party. There are many types of alimony in Florida a judge has discretion to award, including: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent.

Also pursuant to Florida law, temporary alimony can be awarded to either spouse if a spouse requests it during a dissolution of marriage action.

The standard for awarding temporary alimony is the same as when the trial court considers a request for permanent alimony, namely, the parties’ standard of living along with the need of the petitioning spouse and the ability of the other spouse to pay.

Sometimes the spouse asking for temporary alimony has significant assets to live on. In cases in which people have significant cash in the bank to support themselves while the suit is pending, courts should not always award temporary alimony, even if the other spouse is able to pay it.

However, if the spouse asking for a temporary alimony has a net worth four times that of the other spouse, especially if their annual income is more, it is unlikely that the spouse would be entitled to an award of temporary alimony. Temporary alimony might not be awarded if the temporary financial award exceeds or nearly exhausts the paying party’s income.

Drama

While Blige and Isaacs have no biological children together, the significant temporary alimony award was designed to accommodate the “style of living” Isaacs was accustomed to while he was married to Blige.

“My success as an entertainer has nothing to do with [Isaacs]. I was successful when I met him and have continued to enjoy success, although there have certainly been ups and downs,” Blige claimed, per E!.

The Grammy-winning singer also explained that she was in debt as she made no money from the European leg of her recent tour.

Worse still for the singer, Blige also has to pay her husband alimony retroactively – dating back to September – as well as account for his attorney fees for a total of $235,000.

The Yahoo article is here.

 

Florida Alimony Reform: R.I.P.

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Alimony reform in Florida will have to wait. With 35 days left in the Legislative session, the bills are not getting a hearing in either the House or the Senate, meaning the alimony reform bills will likely die in committee.

Florida Alimony

In Florida, alimony is awarded to a spouse when there is a need for it, and the other spouse has the ability to pay for alimony. Alimony can take various forms.

For example, alimony can be awarded to “bridge the gap” between married and single life. This is usually a short term form of alimony, and in fact, can’t exceed two years.

Alimony can also be rehabilitative – to help a party in establishing the capacity for self-support by developing skills or credentials; or acquiring education, training, or work experience. The underlying goal is to get you into a position where you can take care of expenses without assistance.

Durational Alimony is awarded when permanent periodic alimony is inappropriate. The purpose of durational alimony is to provide you with economic assistance for a time after a short or moderate term marriage, or even long marriages, if there is no ongoing need for support on a permanent basis.

Permanent Alimony is awarded to provide for your needs and necessities of life as they were established during your marriage, if you lack the financial ability to meet your needs and necessities of life following a divorce. However, a court has to find that there is no other form of alimony that would be fair and reasonable.

Although people often think of alimony as paid on a monthly basis, it can be awarded in a lump sum or be a combination of the two. In making a determination of whether or not to award alimony, the court may consider non-monetary factors.

Alimony Reform

Alimony reform is a nationwide phenomenon. A few states have already limited alimony, especially in cases where the marriage is less than 20 years.

Florida is not alone in moving for alimony reform. Currently, there are two bills in Florida trying to be passed to amend our alimony statute. However, many state bills, like Florida’s, are in progress, or are constantly evolving.

Unlike child support, which is common when a divorcing couple has kids, alimony awards have always been very rare, going from about 25% of cases in the 1960s to about 10% today. In one study of Wisconsin cases, it was only 8.6%.

Florida’s Alimony Reform Bill

This year’s bills would have provided judges with a set of guidelines for calculating alimony, and would also have provided judges and lawyers reasons to deviate from the proposed alimony guidelines in special cases.

I wrote about the failure of the alimony reform bills before. First, in 2015, when the Florida House of Representatives made a surprising end of their session, killing all bills.

Last year, Governor Scott vetoed a similar bill, but last year’s bill had a major difference. Last year’s bill added a provision that made equal timesharing a presumption in every case. Because of the equal timesharing presumption, the governor vetoed last year’s bill.

Withering on the Vine

For people who oppose alimony reform, there is good news: the bills are dead for the year. Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, the Naples Republican who’s carrying the Senate version (SB 412), this week said the chair of its first committee of reference refused to hear the alimony bill.

“Chairman Garcia determined that he was not interested in hearing it and I respect that decision,” Passidomo said. “I don’t think leadership weighed in on it.”

Sen. Passidomo also noted that the House version of the bill (HB 283), sponsored by Lakeland Republican state Rep. Colleen Burton, has also not gotten a hearing. Given that the House subcommittees are wrapping up work this week, that virtually dooms the legislation there.

The Florida Politics article is available here.

 

Alimony & Short Marriages

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Married at First Sight’s Sonia Granados and Nick Pendergrast are filing for divorce “after almost a year of marriage.” The length of your marriage may impact the amount and length of alimony.

Married at First Sight

According to US Magazine, the could reports:

“We are sad to share that after almost a year of marriage we have decided to separate and file for divorce. Thank you in advance for your love and support through this difficult time! We look forward to growing and continuing to learn about ourselves from what we still consider to be a meaningful experience with MAFS.”

Florida Alimony

Alimony is governed in Florida by a statute. The alimony statute requires judges to consider several factors, including the duration of the marriage.

For purposes of determining alimony, there is a rebuttable presumption that a short-term marriage is a marriage having a duration of less than 7 years.

Florida Alimony Reform

However, Florida has been struggling in an alimony reform battle for years. I have been reporting on the alimony reform movement for years. This year, the Legislature is considering a bill that sets out a formula for judges to use when deciding alimony payments.

The House Alimony Bill, which would take effect October 1st if passed, would set guidelines for judges to set alimony based on the duration of marriages and the incomes of the parties. If a judge deviates from the guidelines they would have to explain why in writing.

The bill replaces permanent alimony with new formulas based on the length of the marriage, and the spouses’ incomes. Those formulas help set the amount and duration of the payments.

Also, the alimony reform bill re-defines marriages for purposes of alimony. Marriage would be divided into “low end” and “high end” marriages based on the length of the marriage.

Under the proposed alimony reform bill, in marriages of 2 years or less, there is a rebuttable presumption that no alimony shall be awarded.

For purposes of calculating the presumptive alimony amount range, 20 years of marriage or less shall be used in calculating the low end and high end for marriages of 20 years or more.

Short Marriages & Alimony

The former stars of Married at first Sight, Granados and Pendergrast were married for less than 1 year, and under the alimony reform bill would not be entitled to alimony.

The pair met on season 4 of the television series, and struggled early on in their relationship. Granados was scared of dogs (he owned one), and felt that he wasn’t physically attracted to her and that he lacked emotion.

The US Magazine article is here.

Alimony Reform . . . Chicago Style

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, December 5, 2016.

When it comes to divorce, the adage: “for richer or for poorer” may determine how much alimony gets paid. Illinois recently revamped its family laws, including reforming alimony, and switched to the no-fault system.

In a Chicago divorce, the multimillionaire founder of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, are battling over whether the wife needs more than $400,000 a month for her living expenses.

As the Chicago Tribune reports, while the superrich duke it out over a standard of living most people will never experience, a shift in Illinois divorce law aims to reduce conflicts in dissolving marriages and establish better equity for former spouses with more modest incomes.

The policy changes are driven by attempts to correct past injustices that often left ex-wives with little money and no viable way to support themselves after years of raising children, divorce attorneys said. They mark the first major revamp of Illinois divorce law in almost 40 years.

The first comprehensive change in alimony law in Chicago took effect this year and reflect other cultural shifts. The biggest change is that the old grounds for divorce – like adultery, bigamy and cruelty – have largely been eliminated, moving Illinois to a no-fault divorce system.

The new law also eliminated the words “custody” and “visitation,” replacing them with “parental responsibilities” and “parenting time.” That means parents must propose and accept an agreement on who will have the kids when, and how the parents will jointly make decisions about their children’s education, religion, health and extracurricular activities.

In addition, for the first time, Illinois’ divorce laws have set a formula for determining alimony. Additionally, the duration of maintenance, which was left to the judge’s discretion before; now depends on the length of the marriage.

Wealthy spouses fighting over riches attract media attention, but it’s far more common for poor couples to wrestle with the increased expense of maintaining two households instead of one.

In Florida, I’ve written about past legislative efforts to modify our custody and alimony laws. Last year, Governor Scott vetoes a bill that would have modified custody and alimony.

The bill was emotionally divisive, but had broad support in the Legislature, passing the House by a comfortable 74-38 margin and the Senate by a 24-14 vote in March 2016.

The Chicago Tribune article is here.

Florida Alimony Reform 2016: R.I.P.

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, April 18, 2016.

Governor Scott vetoed the single most contentious bill from the 2016 Legislature last week: the alimony and equal time-sharing reform bill. What’s it mean?

As the Miami Herald reports, Scott’s veto ended weeks of suspense and intense lobbying campaigns on both sides during which more than 11,000 calls and e-mails bombarded his office, with supporters ahead by a 4-1 margin.

I wrote about the failure of the alimony reform bill and equal timesharing provision last year, when the Florida House of Representatives made a surprising end of their session, killing all bills. This year, the surprise came from the Governor’s office!

Scott, who like many of his constituents have experienced divorce in his own family, delivered a veto message with an unusually personal tone.

“As a husband, father and grandfather, I understand the importance of family and the sensitivity and passion that comes with the subject of family law,” Scott’s veto message said. “As such, we should be judicious and carefully consider the long-term and real-life repercussions on Florida families.”

He said he was troubled by a provision in the bill (SB 668) that would require judges to begin divorce proceedings with a premise that both parents are entitled to approximately equal time with their children.

Scott said that would put “the wants of a parent before the child’s best interest by creating a premise of equal time-sharing,” a decision that he said should be left to judges.

Though emotionally divisive, the bill had broad support in the Legislature, passing the House by a comfortable 74-38 margin and the Senate by a 24-14 vote in March.

“At this point, it is unclear what future family law reform legislation the governor may find acceptable,” Lee said in a statement. “[The] veto message is vague and does nothing to further illuminate the governor’s concerns … [It)]focuses exclusively on potential outcomes without giving reasons for how the legislation could actually result in those outcomes.”

The Representative most responsible for merging the alimony and timesharing provisions was Representative Ritch Workman. On Friday he admitted that his decision to merge alimony and child custody provisions in one bill was the wrong strategy.

“The governor’s message is clear,” Workman said. “We must tackle each issue in family law separately rather than lumping them all together.”

The Miami Herald article is here.

Alimony Reform Update: The Case of Massachusetts

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, February 29, 2016.

Four years after Massachusetts passed alimony reform, a corrective alimony bill was filed to address three Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rulings which limited the law.

The Massachusetts Alimony Reform Act of 2011 went into effect on March 1, 2012. The new law limited when alimony can be paid, added cohabitation language, an end date for alimony – such as retirement and cohabitation – and created new types of alimony.

However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in three 2015 decisions, held that the retirement provisions only apply prospectively, they did not apply retroactively, and that cohabitation was not a material change of circumstances that warrants modification of alimony.

I’ve been discussing legislative changes in Florida for a while. As the Legislature is in session, they are debating HB 0455, a bill relating to alimony.

Similar to Massachusetts’ attempt at alimony reform, Florida’s alimony reform bill will also involve retirement and cohabitation provisions. For instance, it will:

– Provide that a payor’s retirement after reaching the retirement age for social security or the obligor’s profession, constitutes a substantial change in circumstances for purposes of modifying or terminating an alimony award.

– Revise the criteria to determine cohabitation for purposes of modifying or terminating an alimony award

– Create a rebuttable presumption that modification or termination of an alimony award is retroactive to the date of the petition for relief.

In addition, the HB 0455 will:

– Provide factors to assist a court in awarding temporary alimony during dissolution proceedings.

– Repeal the current categorization of post-dissolution alimony awards as bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent and creates one form of post-dissolution alimony.

– Establish a formula to determine a presumptive range for the amount and duration of the award, effectively ending permanent alimony.

– Provide factors to assist a court in determining a post-dissolution alimony award within the presumptive range.

– Authorize a court to deviate from the presumptive range if the resulting alimony award would be inappropriate or inequitable.

If the bill becomes law, it will be effective October 1, 2016. The Florida legislative session ends March 11th. Until then, there are a lot of bills pending which will significantly impact family law in Florida.

The Fox News Boston article and video are here.

Alimony and Domestic Violence

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Sunday, January 10, 2016.

Divorce is not always bad. A woman divorced her husband after he raped her. But she works and he’s unemployed. Should she pay him alimony? A New York court just decided that case.

A Brooklyn man, who’s serving a 40-year prison sentence for raping his abused wife, just lost his request to get alimony payments from her.

The Ex-Husband, claimed he supported his wife throughout the marriage, when she went to school, and paid for the tuition with “hustled cigarettes” and by collecting public assistance.

A Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice found the Husband hadn’t even done that much. Worse, the judge found that the Husband had beat up his wife so many times during their marriage, that she wound up losing her job because of her excessive absences:

He “engaged in extreme acts of physical and sexual violence” against his wife throughout the marriage, and was arrested twice for attacking her.

The judge held:

“To award any portion of plaintiff’s retirement account to defendant, under the facts and circumstances here, would be contrary to the interest of justice.”

I’ve written about alimony a few times, especially now that a bill to amend our alimony laws is at issue. Our statutes currently provide for alimony to be paid under certain circumstances.

In Florida, the court may grant alimony to either party. There are several types of alimony: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent, and any combination of these forms of alimony can be awarded.

Florida courts may even consider the adultery of either spouse and the circumstances in determining the amount of alimony, if any, to be awarded.

Before determining whether to award alimony, Florida courts first make a specific factual determination as to whether a spouse has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other spouse has the ability to pay alimony.

If so, the court has to consider a variety of factors to determine an alimony award. This can include any factor necessary to do equity and justice between the parties.

That appears to be what the New York judge considered when denying alimony to the rapist husband.

The article can be found here.

Florida Alimony Reform & Working Women

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, December 7, 2015.

Alimony reform is a nationwide phenomenon. If alimony reform comes to Florida, it may be too late for a 65-year-old woman ordered to pay her ex-husband $7,000 a month.

Currently, there are a few bills Florida has tried to pass to amend our alimony statute. I’ve written before about the previous attempts, including the current Senate Bill 250.

But Florida is not new. A few states have already limited alimony judgments, especially in cases where the marriage is less than 20 years. However, many state bills, like Florida’s, are in progress, or are constantly evolving.

As Time magazine explains:

Alimony, otherwise known as spousal support or maintenance, is an ongoing payment by the higher-earning spouse to the lower-earning one. It has changed and shifted over the 40 years since the Supreme Court ruled that it had to be applied equally to both genders.

Yet it is still heavily weighted toward men paying women. Only 3% of around 400,000 alimony recipients are male, according to the 2010 census, up 0.5% since 2000. Recipients claimed $9.2 million in payments in 2013 on their tax returns.

Unlike child support, which is common when divorcing couple has kids, alimony awards have always been very rare, going from about 25% of cases in the 1960s to about 10% today, said Judith McMullen, a professor of law at Marquette University. In one study of Wisconsin cases, she found it was only 8.6%.

A more recent phenomenon is the notion of women paying the ex-husbands alimony for life. Now that women are paying alimony more often, they are getting involved in advocating for change.

“It’s unfair for men to pay it, and unfair for women to pay it. But women are much more outraged by it,” said Ken Neumann, a founder of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators.

Tanya Williams, who has been sending a check to her ex-husband for 13 years, is among those who do not understand the concept of “permanent” alimony – when one spouse pays the other indefinitely – and has joined the cause against it.

“There’s no other contract where the liability continues after the contract ends,” said the 52-year-old dentist who got divorced in Florida but now lives in Florida. “You can’t leave your job and say, ‘I still have a need so you have to continue to pay me.’ “

A few states, Massachusetts, Texas and Kansas, limit alimony to helping lower-earning spouses get back on their feet or get further education. The general consensus is that everyone should work, and the only individuals likely to get a longer-term award are those who are disabled or are in retirement.

In New York, for instance, new rules go into effect in January 2016 which further limit alimony based on the duration of the marriage. The rules also restrict the way you can project the future earnings of professionals like doctors.

The Time magazine article is here.

Alimony Reform & Equal Timesharing . . . Again

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Friday, October 9, 2015.

I’m becoming a broken record. Equal timesharing and alimony reform are hot political issues in Florida. . . again. The Senate has proposed a new bill, a lot earlier this year. What’s inside?

I’ve written about the Legislature’s past attempts to reform alimony many times. Senate Bill 250 is the latest attempt to do away with permanent alimony, and create a set of guidelines to automatically calculate the amount of alimony awardable, and the term for how many years alimony would last.

With respect to alimony amounts, the bill establishes alimony guidelines, and presumptive alimony ranges. The presumptive amounts are determined by formulas based on the difference between the parties’ gross incomes and the length of the marriage. The bill also limits the duration of alimony to 25% or 75 % of the length of the marriage.

New Senate bill 250 adds something to timesharing too: equal timesharing for moms and dads:

Approximately equal time-sharing with a minor child by both parents is presumed to be in the best interest of the child..

While the bill establishes a presumption that approximately equal timesharing with a child by both parents is in the child’s best interest, a court will still be able to order unequal timesharing if unequal timesharing is supported by written findings of fact.

Fifty-fifty timesharing between parents sounds like a great idea, and there are strong arguments for and against a presumption of equal timesharing. Here are some of the argument for and against a presumption in favor of equal timesharing:

Pro

Each year, cases are tied up in court to establish a right to see their children that they would automatically have if they were married.

An equal time presumption promote Florida’s existing policy of frequent contact after divorce.

Equal timesharing puts the burden on the parent opposing equal timesharing, changing the dynamics of custody litigation.

Equal timesharing is consistent with Florida’s existing no-fault concept.

Con

Requiring every family to have equal timesharing is like requiring every family to wear a size 4 shoe. Not every family fits.

The presumption creates a uniform rule where the flexibility of ‘the best interest of the child’ is needed.

Requires courts to focus on QUANTITY of time instead of QUALITY of time.

Requires courts to focus on what’s best for the parents instead of what’s in the child’s best interest.

With the 2016 Legislative set to begin early on January 12, 2016, this Legislative session promises to be an interesting one.

The text of SB 250 is available here.