DeSantis signs landmark law banning permanent alimony
Tiana Lowe Doescher
EXCLUSIVE — After more than a decade of thwarted attempts to reform alimony in the state of Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is signing a landmark bill banning permanent alimony.
The Republican presidential candidate had previously vetoed an iteration of the law that some said would make the provision retroactive to prior alimony agreements. He thought that provision was unconstitutional. But a senior DeSantis administration official said the governor is satisfied that this latest version would not apply retroactively, thus passing state constitutional muster.
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“This bill is hopefully going to reduce litigation costs because it’s going to standardize the process, as opposed to there being too much subjectivity in deciding which ways alimony goes,” the DeSantis official said.
The bill will also provide legal recourse for those still paying alimony to an ex-spouse who has entered a common law marriage with a new partner. The reform limits “rehabilitative alimony” — that is, temporary alimony granted while the unemployed spouse finds a job — to five years and mandates the assumption that both parties will have a lower standard of living as a result of reneging on their marriage. The law also better scales durational alimony, banning it in cases of marriages shorter than three years. A previous bill signed earlier this week will crucially demand that judges begin family court cases with the assumption that both spouses gain equal custody of minor children
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Previous law rendered Florida a national outlier. It was only one of seven states that allowed permanent alimony. Critics of permanent alimony point out that it does not only hamper the labor force participation rate but also penalizes the paying spouse in no-fault divorces.