During the past couple of months, we have written on the possibility that the Florida Legislature could modify our state's alimony laws. Recent progress on the bills has been made, as the Senate Judiciary Committee revised the original bill that was written in the Senate.

Both chambers of the Legislature drafted initial bills that, broadly speaking, would have imposed bright-line rules in alimony cases. These rules would have diminished the amount of alimony an ex-spouse would have to pay and decreased the period of time over which alimony was paid. The rules would also have eased the termination of alimony when the paying ex-spouse reached retirement or the receiving ex-spouse entered into a new relationship. In addition, adulterous conduct that depleted marital assets could not be considered when fashioning alimony awards.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's revision of the bill, however, removed many of these strict rules and replaced them with flexible guidelines. The rewritten bill gives judges the discretion to consider certain facts when awarding alimony instead of being bound by unyielding mandates. For example, the Senate version now includes the paying ex-spouse's retirement only as a factor for judges to examine when awarding, altering or ending alimony. In addition, the judge can consider evidence that a spouse's infidelity diminished the couple's assets.

The House's version of the bill remains unchanged, however. And this has led to some uncertainty over which changes and reforms will finally be enacted into law. An engaged man is putting off his marriage to his fiancée until he knows how the new law may affect his current alimony payments to his ex-wife. The House and Senate versions now differ on whether a court could take his fiancée's income into account if his ex-wife requested an increase in alimony.

We will provide updates on the progress of this important legislation.

Source: Orlando Sentinel, "Senate committee waters down divorce-law rewrite," Kathleen Haughney, Feb. 9, 2012.