Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Blog
Florida law allows for a court to grant various types of alimony awards. The types of alimony in Florida are lump sum, durational, temporary, rehabilitative, bridge the gap, and permanent. Naturally most people who would qualify as the recipients desire permanent alimony. But, simply desiring permanent spousal support is not alone sufficient grounds to be awarded permanent spousal support. The Florida courts consider a variety of factors prior to the entering of an alimony award. While there are a myriad of factors that contribute to the calculation of an alimony award, I typically begin my assessment of the possibility of alimony by asking my clients a few key questions.
I begin my assessment of the alimony possibility in a case by first looking at the needs of the possible recipient spouse, the ability of the obligated spouse to pay, and the length of the marriage. While permanent alimony can be granted by agreement of the parties in dissolution cases of short term, moderate term, or long term, the court tends to limit permanent alimony awards to marriages of long term. Florida marriages under seven (7) years are considered short term marriages, marriages seventeen (17) years and over are considered long term and the marriages that fall in the middle are considered either “gray area” or moderate marriages Fla. Stat. 61.08. While a marriage may fall into the moderate term may not be automatically open to the permanent alimony award, the court will consider the permanent alimony award in a moderate term marriage if the court has compelling reason to do so based on the factors used when considering an alimony award.
Permanent does not actually mean permanent. While some alimony awards are deemed non-modifiable a permanent alimony award does not always come with that level of protection. Some parties can choose to contract into a permanent non-modifiable alimony award, but if I had a client who was interested in agreeing to a permanent non-modifiable alimony award I would strongly suggest a reconsideration of that decision. Life changes, circumstances change, and those changes are often unpredictable. Due to the unpredictable nature of life the statutes allow for modifications of some alimony awards. While a permanent alimony award would secure the receiving spouse alimony until they marry, die, or cohabitate in a supportive relationship, it can also be modified in some circumstances. While that court may modify the permanent alimony award the court will take into consideration if the award was granted by a judge or entered into voluntarily by agreement by the parties. Florida case law, in some districts, supports the notion that modification of alimony that was entered into by agreement of the parties, rather than by a decision of the court, has a greater difficulty overcoming the burden of proving a substantial change in circumstances that was not contemplated at the time of the setting of the alimony.