There are important changes in Florida law that are taking effect on 1 July 2010 and 1 October 2010. These changes categorize marriages into three different sorts and may influence your divorce proceedings by changing alimony payments, alimony schedules, child support and time sharing. Read on for an outline of the changes that will be taking effect.

Alimony (for cases pending on, or filed after, July 1, 2010).

1. Separates terms of marriages into three categories: Short Term is marriages under 7 years; Moderate is marriages from 7 to 17 years; Long Term is marriages longer than 17 years.  The Court will measure from date of marriage to the date of filing the Petition for Dissolution (Divorce).
2. Four types of alimony:
   1. Bridge-the Gap (limited to 2 years and non-modifiable)
   2. Rehabilitative (based upon specific plan, modifiable and designed to help receiver become self-supportive)
   3. Durational (based upon number of years of marriage, awarded when permanent not appropriate and modifiable), and
   4. Permanent (looks at lifestyle during marriage and whether receiver can continue in same lifestyle on their own).
3. All alimony awards are subject to ending upon death or the payor or remarriage of payee.

Child Support (changes effective 10/1/2010)

1. Eliminated the 25% reduction for childcare costs so that now 100% are included in child support.
2. Requires a specific schedule on the termination of child support and, if there is more than one child, the modified amounts for child support as child support ends for each child.
3. Discusses extensively the concept of imputing income.
4. Appears to delete child support for the bottom three combined income levels in the old statute.
5. Removes the cliff effect that presently occurs for parenting plans that allow timesharing of 40% or more with the minority time parent and changes it to 20%. The change is designed to allow child support to flow to where the child goes.

As always, if you have any questions about anything that you see, please feel free to contact us or give us a call at 407.772.0000.

Tags: Alimony, Child Support, Divorce, Family Law, New Law, Time Sharing, William Orth

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.