Melissa Ross
Family law attorneys are blasting a sweeping overhaul of Florida’s divorce laws, saying they hope Gov. Rick Scott will veto SB 668.
The measure does away with lifetime alimony in the state. Instead, the amount and duration of alimony would be determined by a formula.
“It’s really going to affect women in a negative way,” said Jacksonville family law attorney Heather Quick.
“It will be financially detrimental to so many women who’ve been in a long-term marriage. Say they’ve been married over 20 years, and the wife has stayed at home and supported her husband, now, they’ll be in a situation where they won’t receive permanent alimony even though the husband may still be working and receiving substantial income,” Quick told WJCT.
In addition to the alimony flap, the piece of legislation that’s generated the most controversy is the component that would now require family law judges to begin with a “premise” that children split time equally between both parents.
The chairwoman of The Florida Bar’s Family Law section, Maria Gonzalez, has urged opponents of the time-sharing portion of SB 668 to contact Scott. She posted this on Facebook:
“Yesterday, late amendments were made to pending legislation relating to a ’50/50′ timesharing bill which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Family Law Section continues to oppose SB 668 because it contains a presumption that a 50/50 timesharing schedule is in the best interests of every child. The bill also requires detailed findings of fact in every case absent an agreement of the parents and violates the Section’s standing positions and public policy. I have attached a copy of the bill for your reference – please read it. Despite the Section’s efforts to work with sponsors of this bill and provide compromise language, we believe the current proposed language (or similar presumptive language) may nevertheless be approved by the House and thereafter proceed to the Governor in short order.”
Quick echoed those sentiments:
“The system we have now considers the best interest of the children, and that’s what it should be. This completely removes that from the law. We need judges to look at all the evidence and consider what’s in the best interest of the child on a case-by-case basis.”
However, the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, said this week that the legislation “will make circumstances a little bit easier during a really emotional and trying time for families.”
Scott vetoed a similar measure two years ago.
40 comments
John
March 10, 2016 at 4:08 pm
JOIN FREE: Federal Class Action for U.S. Child Custody Victims –
Friends, I just joined CAPRA as one of the lead plaintiffs in an upcoming landmark federal class action lawsuit against all 50 States and the Federal Government, because I qualify as: (1) a biological parent whose child custody was unconstitutionally removed without due process; and, (2) I have been directly impacted by that during the last four years, i.e., within the statute of limitations. This class action is on behalf of *both* types of “family court” — for wrongful victims of divorce-and-similar-with-kids *and* for wrongful victims of child protection services — and includes suing on behalf of ANY parent affected by either “family court” type.
It’s totally free to join, and the federal court relief being demanded includes the full restoral of my child custody rights under law, plus a nice share of the large amount in civil damages expected. Check it out!
It just requires entering someone’s referral Code to join, so PLEASE use mine – 42085JL619 – in the CAPRA registration form, located on the bottom of the homepage at http://parentalrightsclassaction.com
Plus, check out their power-packed Legal Tips page for all parents fighting family court, too — Wow!!
Thanks!!
Mike
March 11, 2016 at 12:42 am
Of course family law attorneys are going to speak out against this bill. Many do not know that they are a big part of the problem as they profit by perpetuating adversity between the parties instead of common sense …Family law thinks its ok for two adults to raise kids but only if their married? C’mon everyone is smarter than that.
jamel
March 11, 2016 at 12:44 am
How about not staying out of the work force for 20 years. Why someone would make a decision like that is beyond me but nonetheless people need to be responsible for their own choices. Also, as a father I find the opposition to the presumption that parents are on equal footing in a custody battle troubling. Lawyers or these judges couldn’t care less about children. They only care about money. Judicial discretion is the problem.
Terrance Power
March 11, 2016 at 5:19 am
Senate Bill 668 will have zero impact on any existing alimony or custody cases.
Zero.
The only people fighting this excellent legislation are the predatory litigating divorce attorneys who make a great living preying on families in crisis. It’s shameful and it needs to end.
Governor Scott, please sign this excellent legislation into law.
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 12:30 pm
If you lie enough, do you really start to believe the lies?
Diona
March 11, 2016 at 8:10 am
I strongly support SB668!
Even the successful couples have to make lifestyle adjustments once they retire or when there are other changes in live. Nobody that is married has a “guaranteed lifestyle”! Why should an ex spouse be entitled to that, while the paying spouse is suffering and working two jobs to survive!?! I pray that the governor will sign this bill into law!
Diana
March 11, 2016 at 8:14 am
The bill is NOT retroactive! People that will get married can make decisions based on th the new law!
The new bill STILL allows to decide what is in the best interest of the child! How can someone be against that!??
Only greedy lawyers!
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 12:25 pm
Explain how this bill is NOT retroactive aka modifiable with a 10% trigger on the receiver ONLY. 2 amendments were refused making sure this legislation NOT retroactive…WHY if this is NOT retroactive in the current bill?
Diona
March 11, 2016 at 8:25 am
The wife (no children) leaves the husband and files for divorce! He was not cheating, he was not violent. She just didn’t love him anymore. Fair enough! But now she is “entitled” to keep her lifestyle for the rest of her life (40 – 50 years!!)… Twice as long as than the marriage had lasted! He has to fight in court if his income changes, and is doomed to work way past his retirement age to be actually able to retire. He COULD NOT keep his lifestyle! How can this be fair? It will not help my husband since the bill isn’t retro active. But please don’t let his happen to future generations! I pray that Governor Scott will sign this bill into law!
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 12:27 pm
Lifestyle? That’s what you’re worried about lifestyle when people will be impoverished.
Janice Thomson
March 11, 2016 at 8:59 am
Can we separate Alimony and Custody already? All you need to do is abolish permanent alimony.
I’m divorced, get NO alimony, yet somehow am making it. Barely, but it does get better over time. I was married for 25 years and was a full-time teacher for the last 10 years of marriage. Since moving back home to Florida, I’ve been relegated to teaching part-time and subbing because of the “surplus teacher” policy in this state. My home state.
But damn if I don’t take every opportunity that comes my way including tutoring and now selling real estate.
It makes me sick to hear women whining about their past lives and what the men owe them for staying home with the kids. Hey, news flash! For five years, I stayed home with my children– until the younger child entered kindergarten. Then I started substitute teaching and worked toward full certification. It was hard work at the time. Perhaps my work ethic is paying off now that I have to survive on my own.
I have no sympathy for women who want to be connected and supported forever when they should have a divorced mindset. As Ann Landers used to say:
Kwichurbitchen and smell the coffee cookin’.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 7:32 pm
I agree with Janice.
Permanent alimony is an abomination to the human spirit, and it would be a boon to see it vanish. But I have become increasingly uneasy as every Tom, Dick, and Harry has seen fit to burden this bill with unwise solutions to their own particular grievances. The 10% trigger will be an embarrassment to our state when its inevitable results–already poor women made frighteningly poor–makes this a NYT or WashPo front page story in about two years.
Can’t we have permanent alimony in Florida in a sane, respectable, and aboveboard way?
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 7:34 pm
*that was “can’t we have permanent alimony REFORM in a sane…”
Betty
March 11, 2016 at 11:02 am
Of course the family law attorneys are against any changes to the law. They won’t be able to gouge the people over extremely long litigation years. Permanent alimony needs to be STOPPED. period!! When child support is finished, there is NO need for a man to keep paying money to an EX. It is just slavery.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 1:27 pm
I support the permanent alimony part of SB 668 and the guidelines and formulas therein.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 1:59 pm
The 10% trigger sounds great until you consider the lower-end of the income scale. Should Juanita, who is cleaning the dining area of Burger King for minimum wage, be thrown into a coronary because her teenage manager wants to give her a minuscule raise? To be humane, we need a floor for that trigger: ie. it doesn’t come into effect until the recipient is making at least equivalent to the county’s established living wage.
It would be sage of the governor to strike that part of the bill, and approve the perm alimony portions.
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 4:53 pm
Now you’re getting it Stephanie.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 7:54 pm
Is this going to be “our” joke from now on?
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 5:09 pm
Unfortunately the bill is all or nothing. That is what the legislative session was for…to amend and strike, but it didn’t work out that way. So, the majority of impoverished people are going to get screwed or the taxpayers will when we’re all asking for government funding so we can pay rent and feed our kids.
The supporters of this bill have everyone snowed!
That retirement and vacation is so much more important.
Ellen
March 11, 2016 at 3:46 pm
This is actually the first bill I have seen coming out of Tallahassee in the past five years that I support. Times have changed and more women are educated, do have careers and are able to support themselves. I am hoping this bill will encourage spouses to work on saving their marriage instead of it being so easy to just leave, knowing you’ve got an alimony gravy train to rely on. I’ve seen way too women now that get pregnant, get married, cheat on their spouse and then walk away from the marriage only a couple years later and the poor guy ends up losing half of everything he owns, paying child support and alimony for the rest of his life for that mistake, while she’s living with another man and using that money to support the new boyfriend and his children, as well. I’m all for anything that will make people think twice about leaving a marriage and working on trying to make it work so that more children will know what it is like to grow up in a home with both of their parents. I realize that some type of men do act like scumbags, trading in the loyal spouse for a younger model, just look at Presidential candidate, Donald Trump,but women that choose these types of men know they are taking a risk when they choose them. Shared custody is absolutely best for the child, unless it is proven that the other parent is unfit. We all need as many people in our lives to love us and that we can love back, as possible.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 6:33 pm
I was under the impression that the governor had line-item veto authority?
Carey
March 11, 2016 at 6:42 pm
Because abuse should ALWAYS be tolerated for the sake of the marriage. You seem to not understand the dynamics of many marriages. Enjoy your ivory tower where only the “love” runs out.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 10:55 pm
Ms. Carey,
You must allow for the existence of some halcyon souls: not everyone has the cage fight mentality.
Carey
March 12, 2016 at 1:11 am
Stephanie, do you mean like Nannette? I and others have had to deal with the ramifications of her and others deceit for a long time within your movement. Now, others can have a front row view of the slander, harassment and hate. It’s pretty twisted to personally attack people because they disagree with a legislative bill. I’m now defending myself after a year of the nastiness.
I don’t have a problem with people who fight in what they believe in, I do have a problem when those people attack my family and cause havoc in mine and my children’s lives.
I appreciate you taking the time to discuss the issue as it should be.
Stephanie
March 12, 2016 at 5:32 pm
Thank you. Your mercurial shifts in humor keep the debate lively, and I appreciate that.
Stephanie
March 11, 2016 at 10:53 pm
Amen to your last sentence.
Anne
March 12, 2016 at 10:13 am
50 50 is in the best interest of the child in most cases and that’s where it should start
Permanent alimony hurts the payor when a job is lost and the payee is not held accountable for themselves
Family Law
March 17, 2016 at 7:20 am
If you had some way of rating posts I would for sure give you a high rating my friend!
http://www.arnolddgoldstein.com
William and Pam Reuben
March 18, 2016 at 8:47 pm
My son was court ordered to pay $530 per month and started out in the minus due to the slowness of the court and speed of his ex GIRLFRIEND, not wife to quickly race to the courts for support. She left him when he was making the most money he ever made. Since her leaving she tried to get her future husband to adopt my son’s daughter without EVER informing him. The judge of course thankfully through it out of court. His ex got married had another child and moved out of state to GA. All without ever informing him OR child suppor. My son lost his daughter home, vehicle, business, fell off a roof, his business was framing…..his ex never contacted him or said a word until she was going through her first divorce. He had not seen his daughter nor paid support in 7 years…he had no drivers license nor car to even look for a job. He called child support and begged them for help all to NO avail. It seems in Florida there is NO free help for men only women. Three years ago after he lost everything he moved in with me, he was living in the woods. I petitioned the courts for a modification, it took 2 years for the court to reduce his support by $70. When I filled out the paperwork he had just got a construction job paying $17 an hour. As soon as child support contacted them he was let go, so the paperwork was actually invalid. I wish we could get some legal help, but we tried contacting an attorney and they want $6500.00 ! He has never spent christmas with his child since she was 2, we haven’t seen her 8n 3 years when her mother got her divorce and another child support check. Why do men have to show income and women don’t??? We know for a fact she is making about 49k a year. My son made $3200 and now child support is deducting from that even though we have NOT missed a payment in 3 years and we just got ANOTHER letter threatening to suspend his license because we have deducted the amount they have garnished from his wages off his court other ed $460 a month payment. 8f we have to pay why is his ex in charge 9f visitation? WE do not understand…can someone please help us. I was in the hospital with heart problems brought on by stress, I am almost 70 and would like to see my grand daughter. Her mother is currently living with someone 18 yrs older then her who has 2 DUI’S….PLEASE help us and pass this bill I am 70 and loosing hope.
Comments are closed.