Articles Posted in Alimony

by Whitney R. Lonker, Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.
wlonker@woodatter.com

Recently I represented a woman in a divorce action in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, in a 13 year marriage. The woman did not work throughout the marriage but she did have a college degree and had worked prior to the marriage. She was a candidate for alimony but what type? Florida has basically 3 types of alimony that are permanent, rehabilitative and bridge the gap. Florida deems 13 years in a marriage a “gray area” marriage where the court COULD award permanent alimony depending on many other factors. Normally the duration of rehabilitative alimony is 3 to 5 years at the most and bridge the gap alimony is for bridging the gap between married life and single life. We were able to get our client an award of rehabilitative alimony for a duration of ten (10) years which is an excellent result for protecting our client’s financial future post divorce. If you need help with a divorce or with protecting your financial future after divorce, please call our firm for expert advice and help.

When people are in the process of divorce, a lot of times there is a question as to which bills get paid and by whom. If, during the pendency of the divorce, the Husband has possession of the marital home and is paying the mortgage on the home, the courts have said that the Husband should get credits for servicing the mortgage during the parties’ separation before the divorce was final. In Parks v. Parks, heard in January 2009, the Second District Court of Appeal upheld this notion and ruled that reimbursements or credits for a party’s payment of marital property-related expenses during the separation can be considered for credits by the court. So, if a party uses a marital asset out of necessity, such as taking out a loan on a joint home equity line of credit, during the separation, should that party be punished? It appears that absent a finding of misconduct and if the asset is used for reasonable living expenses, that it will not be held against the party using the asset at the final divorce proceeding. Is this fair and equitable? Let me hear from you. If you have a question about temporary support credits, please call our firm at 904-355-8888.

Presently, when dealing with alimony and support in a divorce in these tough economic times, the husband and wife can both be in a difficult place financially when going through the divorce process. Since alimony in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida and all counties in Florida are based on need and ability to pay, it has become more common to have the usual bread-winning spouse (the Husband) earning significantly less or being unemployed altogether. This makes the second prong of alimony, the ability to pay, unrealized. Thus, the Wife gets no alimony. However, there is now a caveat to that assumption. The Florida Second District Court of Appeal in its decision in Eisemann v. Eisemann in March 2009, says that if the Wife wants to take a shot at more alimony after the divorce proceedings are final, and the Husband has gotten back on his feet and is earning more income, she can if she puts in the final judgment of the divorce that the Wife had greater needs which the husband could not meet at the time of the final judgment AND that the Wife was thus awarded a lower alimony amount. If this sentence is in the final divorce decree then the Wie can possibly get more alimony later even without meeting the usual requirement of having significantly greater needs. If you have an alimony question, please call our firm at 904-355-8888. We look forward to helping you.