Alimony is a court ruled payment provided by a former spouse after divorce to the other apartner. It is basically intended to offer financial support to the spouse who previously depended on her partner to fulfill financial needs. The state laws on alimony vary from location to location. However, it is generally paid in any of the following three ways:
- In form of lump sum amount
- Regular payments with no fixed ending date or
- As per an interim arrangement
There is some unfortunate news for divorcing or divorced women. The recent reforms on alimony are designed to go against their interests to an extent. Alimony holds great significance for women due to more reasons than one. She quit her earning strength and lucrative career to invest time in the family and its wellbeing. It allowed the man to focus on his full time career and increasing his own earning power. After a long duration, he is earning in a large scale while she remains unemployed for missing opportunities. Although the property is divided by 50-50, his earning strength lets him increase his assets.
Florida legislature has passed the latest alimony bill with the reforms. According to this bill, permanent alimony would be banned. There is an encouragement to temporary alimony in minimal amount possible for shortest possible period. It redefines the total number of years constituting long term, short term and midterm marriages. For instance, it marks short term marriages as those constituting 11 years or below. Default provision in this won’t involve any court ruled payment. Cases with exceptions should be proved in the court.
In case of child custody, a half way 50-50 arrangement of time share is best suited to children, states the bill. In many instances, women shoulder above half the responsibilities of child care. Florida bill ensures they’ll do it with unfair financial support. It may seem fair to many that a women involved in long term marriage and is out of work or with less income than spouse should get alimony. The new Florida Bill states that such payments would depend on payor’s ability and payee’s need and also the term should be based on marriage term itself. Women with low income or nil income usually end up with few advocates at state legislature dominated by men.
Florida’s new bill states women to prove their reasons for alimony and their husband’s affordability to provide. It says that provided the wife was employed previously, a portion of her past net income is imputed and reduces alimony amount which is to be given. There isn’t a though spared for if the coupe together agreed upon her to bring up children and free husband to maximize earning strength putting her own career on a hold. In case she is physically or mentally disabled, she should provide evidence of meeting SSA’s definition of being disabled. Women should only hire those divorce law professionals who can analyze the implications for their economical future with an in depth knowledge of latest updates.
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