Family Law Attorney: Alimony Reform Law Would Need Reworking Before Coming Up Again in Legislature

Zephyrhills, FL (Law Firm Newswire) April 19, 2012 – The Florida Legislature failed to act on highly controversial alimony reform bills this season. The bills would have changed alimony law and given rigid structure to how alimony is allocated in the Sunshine State.

Florida’s state house was poised to take on alimony reform in the footsteps of Massachusetts, which passed sweeping reform last year. But in a short session with other priorities like cutting the budget and redrawing the legislative districts, the lawmakers let alimony reform on the table this year.

“The bills were not going to be workable as they were originally written,” said Zephyrhills family law attorney Marcie Baker. “They were going to need a lot of work before they could have come up for a vote.”

Proponents of new alimony rules argue that permanent alimony is unfair and that there should be a scale in place that helps judges determine alimony, in large part, by the length of the marriage. People in favor of reform efforts also have said that giving family court judges some framework for alimony would help it be more evenly assessed.
Opponents to the legislation say neither of the two bills takes into account any of the thousands of variables that would make a specific amount for a specific number of years impractical.

“You have cases where there are children with special needs when one of the parents is going to have to be that child’s caregiver or cases where one of the divorcing spouses has been out of the workforce for more than 20 years,” Baker said. “Every case is unique and most cases will have factors that will make a locked-in system impractical.”
Alimony reform proponents have said they plan to bring the issue up again during the next legislative session.

Marcie Baker is a partner in the firm of Alston & Baker, P. A. To contact a Zephyrhills Social Security lawyer, Zephyrhills accident attorney, or Zephyrhills divorce lawyer, visit http://www.alstonbakerlaw.com.

Alston & Baker, P.A.
5518 Seventh Street
Zephyrhills, Florida 33542
Call: 813-779-8895
Toll-free: 1-888-500-5245

• Social Security Disability Advocates Respond to NPR Story
  A story recently aired on National Public Radio (NPR) has sparked a national conversation on a federal government benefit program, including passionate defenses and calls for its overhaul. The program is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and as the NPR series “Unfit For Work” described, its payroll, after sharp growth in recent years, now numbers [...]
• Factors Affecting Alimony in a Florida Divorce
  The Florida Statutes specify ten factors that may determine whether and how much alimony is awarded in a Florida divorce. The statute specifies that this is not an exhaustive list; other factors may be considered as well. But understanding the statute will allow you to know the vast majority of what determines alimony awards in [...]
• Oral Agreements Unreliable in Family Law
  A recent case in family court in New York illustrates the need for child support agreements to be made in writing and incorporated into a court order. The divorced parties in the case, Kristina Lynn B. v. Joseph T.M., were parents of 10- and 12-year-old boys. In 2012, the mother withdrew her older son from [...]

See other news sources publishing this article. BETA | Tags: Zephyrhills accident attorney, Zephyrhills accident lawyer, Zephyrhills divorce attorney, Zephyrhills divorce lawyer, Zephyrhills personal injury attorney, Zephyrhills personal injury lawyer, Zephyrhills social security attorney, Zephyrhills social security lawyer