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.

By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Friday, May 1, 2015.

As I boldly predicted in March, the Florida House would end session early, leave while the Senate was in session, and kill the alimony reform bill. OK, I didn’t predict this at all, but what does this mean for alimony reform?

As the Palm Beach Post reports in an excellent article which I quote lengthy from:

after a year of wheeling-and-dealing by lawyers, lawmakers and others, the alimony proposal died when the Senate refused to take up the House’s version of the bill.

I’ve written about the differences between the bills before. The House proposal didn’t go as far as Senator Lee wanted. Lee said language about child sharing in the House bill was “poorly drafted” and “designed to create confusion in the courts.”

House Rules Chairman Ritch Workman accused Lee of being a “bully” and “hijacking” the bill for his own reasons.

The Family Law Section of The Florida Bar supported the alimony overhaul but strongly opposed the Senate’s 50-50 timesharing provisions, one of the reasons Scott gave for his veto of the 2013 version.

“Workman accused Lee of having a personal grudge about the issue because of Lee’s own child custody dispute.

“What he cares about is getting back at the judge that didn’t give him 50-50 time share 15 years ago or whenever he got divorced,” he said.

Lee said his views had nothing to do with his own situation.

“I actually have 50-50 custody of my children. So, nice try.”

Lee said the bill was doomed because the House left before he could work out his objections to the time-sharing guidelines.

The truth is he He killed his own bill because he made commitments to an organization [the Florida Bar Family Law Section ed.] that didn’t need a bill.”

Workman accused the Lee of “extortion”. “Don’t come back now and cry me a river over a problem that he created for himself early on in the process. Hopefully there’s a lot of learning that comes out of this,” he said.

Lee said he intends to file the bill again next year if Stargel is not involved. “If she isn’t, it will be Senate Bill 2. I will file it and if they don’t want to move it next year then we’ll move it in 2017 when he’s no longer a member of the Florida Legislature,” Lee said of Workman.

The excellent review in the Palm Beach Post is available here.

On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, November 18, 2013.

Reform is in the air. Florida legislators are already speaking about a new bill to modify alimony. But it is not just Florida reviewing its alimony laws, other states are in various stages of reviewing and amending their state laws too.

The most recent change is Colorado, where couples will face dramatic changes in the way alimony is considered after a new state law goes into effect on January 1st. According to the Denver Post:

“It’s groundbreaking legislation,” said Heidi Culbertson, director of client development at the Harris Law Firm, which specializes in family law. “For the first time, Colorado will have a formula for maintenance.”

It is part of a national alimony reform movement, with many state legislatures seeking to either limit or standardize spousal maintenance payments. In particular, the focus has been on the lack of consistency in maintenance orders, which resulted in perceptions of unfairness and the inability to predict outcomes.

Along with Florida, a number of states – like Maine, Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and New Jersey – have considered introducing alimony guidelines to calculate alimony the way all states use child support guidelines to calculate child support payments.

The Colorado law provides a formula for the calculation of alimony. Alimony is equal to 40% of the higher income party’s monthly adjusted gross income less 50% of the lower income party’s monthly adjusted gross income. There are exceptions, and there is a cap.

The new statute does not apply to families with joint income over $300,000. For those cases, courts will continue to weigh a number of discretionary factors, including the parties’ unique financial circumstances and the length of the marriage.

Interestingly, Colorado’s alimony guidelines are only advisory to the courts, a sort of starting point in deciding how much and for how long an alimony award should be. The judges still maintain discretion. This is very unlike child support, where the discretion of a trial court is mostly removed.

On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Tuesday, September 24, 2013.

Way, way, back in May of ’13, the Florida Legislature passed a major alimony overhaul bill, which was surprisingly vetoed by Governor Scott in a midnight session. Once again, the threat is returning. Another attempt is being made by Florida legislators to rewrite the state’s comprehensive divorce law.

Some other key changes being considered are:

• Seeking a reduction in payments when divorcees retire.
• Automatic payment cuts if an ex-spouse loses a job or takes a salary reduction.
• Changing the way child custody is awarded.
• How to calculate alimony.

As the Sun Sentinel reports

Though there have been minor changes over the years, critics say Florida law is antiquated and based on a time when most women stayed home to care for the family, giving up their earning potential. That has left some ex-spouses paying alimony for years and made it difficult for people to move on with their lives, plan for retirement and possibly re-marry.

The old and new bills addressed alimony and child custody:

In April, the Legislature passed legislation that would have ended permanent alimony, capped awards based on a person’s income and the length of the marriage, and let the ex-spouse petition to terminate or lower alimony payments upon retirement.

However, that bill had a crazy provision which allowed it to be applied retroactively to all prior judgments and agreements in Florida. While the law would have given relief for ex-spouses paying alimony – by allowing them to re-open their cases – every single contract and court order involving alimony could have been renegotiated or re-tried.

It would have been utter chaos.

Governor Scott vetoed that bill, saying the retroactivity provision “tampers with the settled economic expectations of many Floridians who have experienced divorce” and “could result in unfair, unanticipated results.”

This time around, legislators are removing the retroactivity clause from a revised bill that they expect lawmakers to consider in 2014:

while specifics are still being worked out, many of the vetoed bill’s other provisions to cap and otherwise limit future alimony payments likely will remain.

Last Spring’s vetoed legislation included language that automatically presumed timesharing would be split 50-50. That was a major problem for child advocates and family law attorneys.

Reformers says their main goals now are to end permanent alimony – basing duration of payments on the length of the marriage – and to make clear that if a paying spouse’s income drops in the years after a divorce settlement, the alimony payment should also be reduced.

On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Wednesday, April 17, 2013.

Today is ANOTHER big day for Florida alimony changes. Last week I posted about the Florida Senate passing Senate bill (SB 718), which fundamentally changes alimony in Florida.

Yesterday the House adopted the Senate version of the bill, SB 718. Today, the Florida House bill, HB 231, is scheduled for its third reading and possible House floor vote. It is on today’s Special Session, April 18, 2013 at 10:30. You can watch all the legislative action here.

Coincidentally, the Wall Street Journal has a timely article about the big changes to Florida’s alimony laws, and looks at how other states, like Massachusetts and Michigan, are changing their laws too. Floridians should take note that this is not a movement unique to our state, but reflects societal changes across the country.

Florida is one of a growing number of states where proponents of alimony-law changes are making an aggressive push. A similar measure took effect in Massachusetts last year, and comparable bills are pending in New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado and Oregon.

The proposals have triggered contentious debate, pitting payers who decry what they call unjust awards against family-law attorneys who say the measures are punitive to women.

Supporters say alimony laws in many states tether former spouses indefinitely and are outdated at a time when women make up 47% of the labor force. They also complain that judges have too much leeway to fashion awards, yielding wildly disparate judgments.

• Briefly, the House bill (HB 231) does the following:
• Revises factors to be considered in alimony awards;
• Automatically terminates alimony in certain circumstances;
• Requires the imputation of income in some cases;
• May allow an offset of or other consideration of alimony in determining equitable distribution or child support;
• Creates a presumption in favor of equal time-sharing by parents;
• Allows for attorney fees if obligee unnecessarily seeks modification or termination;
• Makes retirement age a reason to modify alimony.