Florida may ban permanent alimony

Attorney Tom Olsen: Last week, the Florida Senate passed the bill to ban permanent alimony and this is not the first time the Florida Senate has done this. In fact, it got done twice before Senator or former Governor Scott. He vetoed it. It's been passed once in vetoed by Governor DeSantis and now is going to Governor DeSantis again, unknown whether or not he's going to sign that bill and bring it into law with no permanent alimony. The theory is that the former husband should be able to quit paying alimony when he is ready to retire, whatever age that might be, 66, 68, and not have to pay alimony for the rest of his life.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Yes. Thank you, Tom. It's interesting, am I right? One area of family law that really has been in, like you said, for quite some time, this has been in the works and has never made it to law, and now who knows? Like you said, we don't know one way or another but it really is something that, again, has been out there for a long time and that's unusual.

Tom: I don't really know what the former Governor Scott or Governor DeSantis, I don't know what they're thinking when they deny this permanent alimony.

Chris: I don't know either.

Tom: I don't know--

Chris: I have not read enough about the behind-the-scenes because I know they're good about putting notes in and out about what was discussed as part of the bill and all of the behind but I have not read that detailed information about it.

Tom: Let's just say that this is probably one of those few times when there's no lobbyists up there in Tallahassee. They're trying to get the ear of our legislators and our governor, so there's no lobbyists that got skin in the game, so it's not all that important to our government officials other than the people that are sponsoring this bill. I would say this, that if you're out there listening right now and you're thinking about getting divorced, you can always go into the divorce proceedings with the understanding that you're not going to pay permanent alimony. You're just not going to do it and make that part of the guidelines of your settlement and state it another way.

If you're getting divorced and they're asking you to pay alimony, do not agree to pay lifetime alimony. That's just that simple. Judges don't have to grant it. As far as child support is concerned here in the state of Florida, it's all courtified. Florida statutes lay out exactly how much child support's supposed to be paid and for how long but for statutes don't cover how much alimony is to be paid, how long it's to be paid. That has to do with what judge you happen to get that day, and whether he or she is in a good mood or a bad mood.

Chris: Right, exactly. Where the flip side, child support is mandatory, and then the amount is codified.

Tom: Exactly. Even though it's not courtified in the state of Florida that you are obligated to pay or not obligated to pay lifetime alimony, if you're just going into a divorce proceeding, just say from the get-go, "I'm not going to do it." Black and White, "I'm not going to do it." I think a lot of men, and I talk about men paying alimony but there are certain circumstances out there where women are paying alimony. A lot of men just say, "Okay, I'll pay a lifetime alimony, I'll pay alimony for the rest of my life," not knowing any better and not thinking about down the road someday when they want to retire. How are they going to do that if they're still paying that kind of alimony?

Chris: Exactly. Correct.

Tom: It'd be interesting to see what happens then.

Chris: We'll keep you posted.

[00:03:45] [END OF AUDIO]