In the past, Florida has taken on alimony reform. What does that mean when it comes to your divorce? Your attorney can walk you through the process of seeking alimony, but changes to the law will affect you.
What is alimony for? It essentially covers your needs as a financially supported spouse who is now going through a divorce. You may have given up work to stay at home with your children. You might have been supportive of your partner working, taking on lesser-paying jobs or different hours to support the home environment as well as the needs of your significant other.
After being out of work for so long during a time when you were being supported by your spouse, it can be hard to get back into the workforce. This isn’t the case for the working spouse; instead, he or she may be at the height of his or her career, even though his or her spouse is finding it hard to get back into the workforce.
Without alimony, even a 50-50 split of your assets would mean that one person, who continues to earn, can replace those assets, while the other, who is unemployable or finding it difficult to be employed, will need to liquidate assets to survive.
Alimony provides you with the chance to live a lifestyle that is similar to the one you already lived with your spouse. This may only be continued until you can find a job that pays well or until you remarry, but it could also be continued for many years. Florida does require you to prove that you need alimony, but with the right argument and these facts, you should be able to build a compelling argument.
Source: Forbes, “What Divorcing Women Need To Know About Alimony ‘Reform’,” accessed Oct. 08, 2015
