Tag: alimony lawyer

Calculating Alimony with De Niro’s Dinero

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Calculating alimony with Robert DeNiro’s dinero is what is turning up the heat in his divorce. His wife, Grace Hightower, is seeking temporary alimony and has asked for an emergency order to raise her monthly credit card limit from $50,000 to $100,000 – which De Niro halved.

Alimony Calculation

Raging Bull?

In their response, De Niro’s lawyers claimed that the actor’s financial status had been significantly damaged by Covid-19 after restaurants Nobu and Greenwich Hotel, which he owns stakes in, were forced to close.

The judge was told that, as well as sushi restaurant Nobu losing $4.87m between April and May, De Niro had been forced to borrow from business partners to pay investors ($500,000) because “he doesn’t have the cash”.

The actor’s lawyers said: “He is going to be lucky if he makes $7.5m this year,” adding that he would likely make $2.5m in 2020 and 2021!

Addressing Hightower, they said: “These people, in spite of his robust earnings, have always spent more than he has earned so this 76-year-old robust man couldn’t retire even if he wanted to because he can’t afford to keep up with his lifestyle expense”.

Hightower’s lawyer is calling it raging bull: “I’m not a believer that a man who has an admitted worth of $500m and makes $30m a year, all of a sudden in March he needs to cut down by 50% and ban her from the house.

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about subject of alimony in Florida. In every Florida dissolution of marriage case, the court can grant alimony to either party – husband or wife.

Not many people realize there are several types of alimony in Florida: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent alimony.

Florida courts can also award a combination of alimony types in a divorce. Alimony awards are normally paid in periodic payments, but sometimes the payments can be in a lump sum or both lump sum and periodic payments.

In determining whether to award alimony or not, the court has to first make a determination as to whether a wife or a husband, has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other party has the ability to pay alimony.

As DeNiro’s wife is discovering, proving the ability to pay is one of the central issues in her divorce right now because DeNiro’s income, it is claimed, dropped significantly due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Typically, courts consider any type of earned income or compensation — that is, income resulting from employment or other efforts — along with recurring passive income, such as dividends on your investments, in establishing the amount of support you will be responsible to pay.

In Florida, once a court determines there is a need and the income available to pay alimony – sometimes referred to as the ability to pay alimony – it has to decide the proper type and amount of alimony. In doing so, the court considers several factors, some of which can include:

  • The standard of living established during the marriage.
  • The duration of the marriage.
  • The age and the physical and emotional condition of each party.
  • The financial resources of each party, including the nonmarital and the marital assets and liabilities distributed to each.
  • The earning capacities, educational levels, vocational skills, and employability of the parties and, when applicable, the time necessary for either party to acquire sufficient education or training to enable such party to find appropriate.

But, after establishing Hightower’s need for alimony, how much dinero is there to determine De Niro’s ability to pay?

Analyze This…

The Supreme Court justice ruled that De Niro should keep the lower credit card limit while paying Hightower $75,000 to find a summer home for their children. De Niro filed from divorce from Hightower in 2018.

Robert De Niro’s attorneys said that the actor’s finances have taken a huge hit over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The actor is battling a divorce case against Grace Hightower, his ex-wife who he was with for 21 years, in Manhattan Supreme Court.

De Niro appeared via Skype at an emergency hearing, which was called after De Niro cut Hightower’s American Express credit card limit from $100,000 to $50,000 a month.

According to the Daily Mail, Hightower’s lawyer told the judge that she and her two children with De Niro, Harvey (8) and Elliot (21), had been banned from his New York compound, which is where De Niro has been staying during the pandemic.

However, De Niro’s lawyer, Caroline Krauss, reportedly told the judge that De Niro was forced to make this cut to Hightower’s credit card limit because his finances have been so badly affected by the pandemic.

Krauss told the judge that Nobu and The Greenwich Hotel, the restaurant chain and hotel that De Niro owns, have both been badly hit by the pandemic as they have been closed or partially closed for months with next to no income.

Krauss said that the 2004 prenuptial agreement between De Niro and Hightower means that De Niro is only required to pay $1 million a year to Hightower as long as he is making at least $15 million a year. The terms, Krauss said, state that if his income falls, hers will proportionately fall too.

Krauss said that the money De Niro has earned from last year’s “The Irishman” has largely already been paid out, meaning he will only receive $2.5 million this year.

“These people, in spite of his robust earnings, have always spent more than he has earned so this 76-year-old robust man couldn’t retire even if he wanted to because he can’t afford to keep up with his lifestyle expense.

In response, Page Six reported that Hightower’s lawyer, Kevin McDonough, told the judge: “Mr. De Niro has used the COVID pandemic, my words would be, to stick it to his wife financially.

“I’m not a believer that a man who has an admitted worth of $500 million and makes $30 million a year, all of a sudden in March he needs to cut down [spousal support] by 50 percent and ban her from the house.”

McDonough said that “the idea that Mr. De Niro is tightening his belt is nonsense.” The judge issued a temporary ruling that the credit card limit is kept at $50,000 a month, but that De Niro pays Hightower a $75,000 lump sum so she can find a summer home for her and their two children, while De Niro stays in his compound with his other three children.

De Niro and Hightower were married in 1997 but filed for divorce two years later. However, their divorce never finalized, and they patched things up and renewed their vows in 2004. They officially separated in 2018.

The Insider article is here.

Photo credit: David Shankbone – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Proving Income for Alimony in the Big Apple

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Former New York City Mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, filed for divorce and set off a rancorous battle, in part, over how much income the former Mayor actually makes. Proving his income is important for determining her alimony and can be a tough question in the Big Apple.

income divorce big apple

It’s up to you New York

In caustic legal proceedings the couple has battled over many things like kitchen renovations, splurges of $7,131 on fountain pens and $12,012 on cigars. But the primary issue is Mr. Giuliani’s current income.

His wife believes that Mr. Giuliani left his law firm, Greenberg Traurig, in 2018, a month after the divorce was filed, and chose to work for President Trump pro bono in order to reduce any future alimony.

Mr. Giuliani earned $7.9 million in 2016 and $9.5 million in 2017, funding the couple’s roughly $230,000 a month lifestyle. In 2018, the year he began working for the president, Mr. Giuliani’s earnings dipped to $6.8 million, and he has suggested that this year’s income will be well below that.

Mr. Giuliani now gives his wife $42,000 a month, as well as covering other bills, including the carrying costs for their properties, as ordered by Judge Katz in February. Mrs. Giuliani must pay for the landscaping at their home in Southampton.

Mrs. Giuliani says she had no choice but to take him to court, to prove what he is actually worth financially and to get what she believes she is fairly entitled to.

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about the very public circus-like Giuliani divorce before, and on the subject of alimony in Florida. In every Florida dissolution of marriage case, the court can grant alimony to either party – husband or wife.

Not many people realize there are several types of alimony in Florida: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent alimony.

Florida courts can also award a combination of alimony types in a divorce. Alimony awards are normally paid in periodic payments, but sometimes the payments can be in a lump sum or both lump sum and periodic payments.

In determining whether to award alimony or not, the court has to first make a determination as to whether a wife or a husband, has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other party has the ability to pay alimony.

Proving the ability to pay is one of the central issues in the Giuliani divorce right now because his income dropped right before he filed for divorce. Typically, courts consider any type of earned income or compensation — that is, income resulting from employment or other efforts — along with recurring passive income, such as dividends on your investments, in establishing the amount of support you will be responsible to pay.

In Florida, once a court determines there is a need and the income available to pay alimony – sometimes referred to as the ability to pay alimony – it has to decide the proper type and amount of alimony. In doing so, the court considers several factors, some of which can include:

  • The standard of living established during the marriage.
  • The duration of the marriage.
  • The age and the physical and emotional condition of each party.
  • The financial resources of each party, including the nonmarital and the marital assets and liabilities distributed to each.
  • The earning capacities, educational levels, vocational skills, and employability of the parties and, when applicable, the time necessary for either party to acquire sufficient education or training to enable such party to find appropriate.

But, after establishing a need for alimony, how much income is there to determine ability to pay?

Life in the Big Apple

Mrs. Giuliani said in an interview.

“I feel betrayed by a man that I supported in every way for more than 20 years, I’m sad to know that the hero of 9/11 has become a liar.”

But to hear Mr. Giuliani’s circle and his legal team tell it, Mrs. Giuliani’s endgame tactics are merely an extension of her personality, which they have not and do not describe kindly.

They portray her as being a social climber through marriage, someone who rose from her background as a nurse by marrying twice, before meeting the mayor of New York City.

And once she found her third husband, Mrs. Giuliani was accused of pushing her new husband’s children and many of his nearest friends away in an effort to control him.

“She has put 20 years into this relationship,” said her friend Andrea Ackerman, a real estate agent from whom she has purchased six homes. “She is not folding. Not this time, uh-uh.”

If there is one regret for Mr. Giuliani as his life once again upends in public, it is that his personal problems end up ensnaring the people around him, he said in an interview:

“Everybody’s life around you is being disrupted. You get the pain of that, but also you get the satisfaction of what it means to be in public office — they don’t. There is a certain amount of guilt in that.”

The New York Times article is here.

 

Short Term Alimony for a Three-Minute Marriage

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

In Kuwait, a newly married woman demanded a divorce within three minutes of signing her marriage contract. The Kuwaiti marriage is one of the shortest on record. But here’s an interesting question: what if she asked for short term alimony?

Short Term Alimony

Sands of Time

What lead to such an abrupt change of mind about nuptials? According to Kuwaiti news sources, the newly married woman tripped before exiting the courthouse with her husband after the judge married them.

Her newly minted husband made the “classic” new husband mistake: he started laughing at her for tripping and then called her “stupid”.

The bride became so infuriated with her new husband’s naïve mistake, she returned to the courthouse and demanded a divorce from the judge who just married them.

The Kuwaiti judge agreed and served an annulment just three-minutes after he originally married them. The couple, who live in Kuwait, never even left the courthouse as husband and wife.

So, is she entitled to any form of alimony?

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about divorce and the length of a marriage before. Florida Statutes actually define what the length of your marriage means. For example, in order to determine alimony, there is a rebuttable presumption in Florida that a short-term marriage is a marriage having a duration of less than 7 years.

Florida Statutes define a moderate-term marriage as a marriage having a duration of greater than 7 years but less than 17 years. And, a long-term marriage is a marriage having a duration of 17 years or greater.

How do you measure the marriage term? In Florida, the length of your marriage is the period of time measured from the date of your marriage until the date of filing of an action to dissolve your marriage.

In the Kuwaiti case, a three-minute marriage would be considered “short-term” under Florida law. Is there short term alimony for a short term marriage? The Length of the marriage is very important when it comes to determining the kind of duration of alimony payments. For example, permanent alimony is generally for longer term marriages if the statutory criteria are met. In shorter term marriages and for moderate term marriages, permanent alimony may be considered, but the burden of proof is much higher.

Conversely, bridge-the-gap alimony is generally awarded to allow a person to transition from being married to being single. So, bridge-the-gap alimony is designed for short-term needs. In fact, the length of an award bridge-the-gap alimony may not exceed 2 years.

Durational alimony helps provide a person with economic help for a set period of time after short or moderate length marriages or following a marriage of long duration if there is no ongoing need for support on a permanent basis.

The length of your marriage also factors in to property divisions. When a court divides the marital assets and debts, the court begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal. One of the factors a court can look to in justifying an unequal distribution includes the duration of the marriage.

Are congratulations in order?

Many on the internet who heard about the case responded in support of her choice, lauding her decision because, as one put it, “If this is how he acts in the beginning of their lives together, then its best she leaves now.”

Another responded, “Marriage without respect is a failed one from the start.”

A Twitter user commented: “This woman is a queen” In another case a bride who insulted her husband-to-be when she arrived at the altar and demanded the groom change his outfit. It’s believed to be the shortest marriage in Kuwait’s history.

The Khaleej Times article is here.

 

Divorce and Short Term Marriages

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Baretta action star, Robert Blake, has filed for divorce from his third wife, Pamela Hudak, just a year after the two strolled into Beverly Hills City Hall to obtain their marriage license. What is the impact of such a short-term marriage on divorce?

divorce alimony

And that’s the name of that tune!

According TMZ, actor Robert Blake filed docs in Los Angeles Friday to call the relationship quits. The 85-year-old married Pamela Hudak in Spring of 2017. The couple had known each other for decades and even dated years ago. Blake was previously married to Sondra Kerry from 1961 to 1983.

Florida Divorce

I’ve written about divorce and the length of a marriage before. Florida Statutes actually define what the length of your marriage means. For example, in order to determine alimony, there is a rebuttable presumption in Florida that a short-term marriage is a marriage having a duration of less than 7 years.

Florida Statutes define a moderate-term marriage as a marriage having a duration of greater than 7 years but less than 17 years. And, a long-term marriage is a marriage having a duration of 17 years or greater.

How do you measure the marriage term? In Florida, the length of your marriage is the period of time measured from the date of your marriage until the date of filing of an action to dissolve your marriage.

The Length of your marriage is very important when it comes to determining the kind of duration of alimony payments. For example, permanent alimony is generally for longer term marriages if the statutory criteria are met.

In shorter term marriages and for moderate term marriages, permanent alimony may be considered, but the burden of proof is much higher.

Conversely, bridge-the-gap alimony is generally awarded to allow a person to transition from being married to being single. So, bridge-the-gap alimony is designed for short-term needs. In fact, the length of an award bridge-the-gap alimony may not exceed 2 years.

Durational alimony helps provide a person with economic help for a set period of time after short or moderate length marriages or following a marriage of long duration if there is no ongoing need for support on a permanent basis.

The length of your marriage also factors in to property divisions. When a court divides the marital assets and debts, the court begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal. One of the factors a court can look to in justifying an unequal distribution includes the duration of the marriage.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Blake was accused of murdering his second wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. Blake was her tenth husband. Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake’s parked car outside a Los Angeles-area restaurant in May 2001.

In 2002, Robert Blake was charged with Bakley’s murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and special circumstance of lying in wait. In March 2005, a jury found Blake not guilty of the crimes.

Seven months later, Blake was found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against him by Bakley’s children. Officially, Bakley’s murder remains unsolved.

The TMZ article is here.

 

Alimony and The Parent Trap

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Actor Dennis Quaid and his former wife Kimberly Buffington-Quaid are Breaking Away and are officially divorced. However, reports show that the multi-millionaire actor may not be paying alimony to his former Enemy Mine. Why not?

The Big Easy

According to People, Buffington-Quaid, who filed for divorce in 2016, will receive $2 million in a lump sum payment, another million for property settlements, and $13,750 a month in child support.

According to further reports, her child support payment could increase if Quaid pulls in more than $1.3 million in a year. However, there are no reports that he is paying alimony, other than the cryptic reference to a “lump sum payment”.

The Quaids case may be one in which alimony is not needed.

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about alimony and alimony reform in Florida often. In every dissolution of marriage case, the court can grant alimony to either party – husband or wife.

There are several types of alimony in Florida: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent alimony. The court can also award a combination of alimony types.

Alimony awards are normally paid in periodic payments, but sometimes the payments of alimony can be in a lump sum or both lump sum and periodic payments.

In determining whether to award alimony or not, the court has to first make a determination as to whether a party, like Buffington-Quaid, has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other party has the ability to pay alimony.

Once a court determines there is a need and ability to pay alimony, it has to decide the proper type and amount of alimony. In doing so, the court considers several factors, some of which can include:

  • The standard of living established during the marriage.
  • The duration of the marriage.
  • The age and the physical and emotional condition of each party.
  • The financial resources of each party, including the nonmarital and the marital assets and liabilities distributed to each.
  • The earning capacities, educational levels, vocational skills, and employability of the parties and, when applicable, the time necessary for either party to acquire sufficient education or training to enable such party to find appropriate employment.

In the Quaid case, Buffington-Quaid seems to have been awarded a very handsome property settlement, in addition to over $13,000 per month in child support payments.

The Right Stuff

While the Quaids are sharing joint physical custody of their children, Buffington-Quaid was awarded 75% of their time.

From Quaid’s Vantage Point, he made out ok, and is reportedly keeping most of the cars — a 2007 Land Rover, 2012 Mercedes and 2013 Honda.

His ex-wife will also have Something to Talk About, she will keep her 2014 Mercedes. Additionally, the actor will keep their home in Austin, Texas, and they’ll split the sale price of their family home.

The People article is here.

 

Fast Break Alimony

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

According to various reports, former NBA lottery pick, Shelden Williams, may get a massive, lump sum, $400,000 alimony check from his WNBA star wife, Candace Parker. This post is about lump sum alimony.

Slam Dunk

That is the reported marital settlement agreement between Williams, and his wife, WNBA Los Angeles Sparks star, Candace Parker. Parker, one of the biggest stars in WNBA history, married Williams two years after he was selected 5th overall in the 2006 NBA Draft.

Despite the fact that her husband reportedly made more than $12m during his 6-year NBA career, Parker has apparently done better, and agreed to shell out the $400,000 alimony payment. In exchange, she won’t have to pay ongoing spousal support.

Florida Lump Sum Alimony

Lump sum alimony is not a form of alimony, but really a method of payment of alimony or equitable distribution.

I’ve written about various types of alimony before. Any form of alimony, durational, bridge the gap, etc., may be paid as lump sum alimony. Lump sum alimony can also be paid in installments.

Lump sum alimony is available where special circumstances exist to pay other forms of alimony in a lump sum. It may be comprised of real property too. A lump sum payment establishes a fixed monetary obligation which vests immediately, is non-modifiable, and does not terminate upon death or remarriage.

So, if the need for alimony exists, there must be some special circumstances to explain why non-modifiable award is appropriate.

Special circumstances may include a payor who has a history of non-payments. It may also be appropriate if the parties are of advanced age and close to retirement.

Full Court Press

Drafted No. 1 overall by the Sparks in 2008, Parker led the franchise to a championship during the 2016 season and was named MVP of the WNBA Finals. She has also played overseas for professional teams in Europe and China.

Williams was the fifth overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. The former Duke star played six seasons in the NBA before playing in France and China until 2015.

Parker and Williams married in 2008. They also have an 8-year-old daughter. According to reports, the couple agreed to joint legal and physical custody over their daughter. Child support is also interesting. According to reports, neither party will pay child support to the other. Instead, they both agreed to equally fund her education and split any major costs associated with her care.

The Bleacher Report article is here.