Are My Alimony Payments Affected by the New Law?
Posted November 17th, 2014 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Family Law.
Are My Alimony Payments Affected by the New Law?
Posted November 17th, 2014 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Family Law.
In September, Gov. Christie had signed an act that reformed the way alimony is distributed to divorcing parties in New Jersey. The new law had replaced the permanent alimony option with an “open durational alimony,” which means alimony ends when the couple reaches retirement age. In addition, the law has made it clear that alimony payments for couples who have been married for less than 20 years cannot exceed the length of the marriage.
The new law is only applied to those currently divorcing or those planning to divorce in the future. However, the new law has brought some confusion to the New Jersey Supreme Court. The justices are having some trouble meshing the new law’s definition of long-term and short-term marriages. The case before the court involves a divorced couple. They had been married for 15 years. The wife had given up her job in order to take care of the couple’s children. When the couple divorced, the judge had called the marriage long-term and had awarded the wife alimony. However, the ruling was appealed and the case has now found its way to the Supreme Court. Since the couple was only married for 15 years, the new law states that their marriage was short-term, not long-term. So how will this affect the alimony? This means the wife is only eligible for alimony payments for up to 15 years. But the couple is already divorced, can the new law affect them? In this case, it can since they are still in litigation.
If you were awarded permanent alimony in the past, be aware that the new law does not affect your case. You will still receive payments for your lifetime. But if you appeal your award, can you fall under the new law? That’s for an experienced divorce attorney to decide.
If you are going through a divorce, you’re going to need some legal advice. For 26 years, the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone has been fighting for the rights of his clients. Contact us today for a free consultation. For more information on the rights of parents going through a divorce, download our free ebook today.
What “Open Durational Alimony” Actually Means for Your Case
The shift from permanent alimony to open durational alimony is more than a terminology change. Under the old framework, a judge could award alimony that ran for the rest of the recipient spouse’s life. That obligation only ended upon the death of either party or the recipient’s remarriage. Open durational alimony is different in a meaningful way: it is presumed to end when the paying spouse reaches full retirement age as defined by the Social Security Act. Right now, that age is 67 for anyone born after 1959.
That presumption is rebuttable. A paying spouse who wants to terminate alimony at retirement age still has to go to court and make that argument. The receiving spouse can push back by showing that the paying spouse has the ability to continue payments, or that the circumstances of the marriage justify continued support. The court weighs the health of both parties, their respective financial situations, and the contributions each made during the marriage. The retirement trigger is a starting point, not a guarantee.
For marriages that lasted fewer than 20 years, the cap on alimony duration is not automatic either. The statute establishes a presumption that alimony should not exceed the length of the marriage, but a judge can deviate from that if there are exceptional circumstances. What counts as exceptional? Courts have looked at factors like a significant disparity in earning capacity, a spouse who left the workforce entirely to raise children for many years, or a spouse dealing with a serious health condition that limits future employment. These situations do not guarantee a longer award, but they give the court room to look beyond the mathematical rule.
The Four Types of Alimony Still Available in New Jersey
Open durational alimony gets most of the attention because it replaced permanent alimony, but it is only one of four types that New Jersey courts can award. Understanding all of them matters because the type of award you receive shapes what you can request in the future and how any modification proceeding will unfold.
Limited duration alimony is designed for marriages that were meaningful but not long-term. A judge sets a fixed end date when the order is entered. The amount can be modified if circumstances change substantially, but the duration itself can only be changed in very limited circumstances.
Rehabilitative alimony is intended to support a spouse while that person retrains, completes education, or re-enters the workforce. This type of award requires a specific plan. The recipient is expected to show how the support will be used and how long the process will take. Courts monitor rehabilitative awards carefully, and a paying spouse has grounds to seek termination if the plan is not being followed.
Reimbursement alimony is narrower still. It compensates a spouse who supported the other through professional school or advanced training during the marriage, only to see the marriage end before they shared in the financial benefit of that investment. Once paid in full, reimbursement alimony cannot be modified based on changed circumstances.
Open durational alimony applies to longer marriages and replaces what would have been a permanent award under prior law. There is no predetermined end date, but as discussed above, the retirement age provision gives the paying spouse a mechanism to seek termination.
How Courts Decide the Amount in the First Place
The duration question gets a lot of attention, but the amount of alimony is equally significant and often harder to predict. New Jersey courts look at a detailed list of factors set out in the statute. The standard of living established during the marriage is central. Both spouses are expected to maintain, as closely as possible, the lifestyle they had while married. That goal becomes harder to achieve when the marital household has to support two separate residences instead of one.
The court also examines the length of the marriage, the age and physical health of each spouse, their earning capacities and educational backgrounds, and the time and expense that would be needed for the lesser-earning spouse to become self-supporting. Parental responsibilities come into the calculation as well. A spouse who has primary custody of young children faces real barriers to full-time employment that a court is expected to take seriously.
Tax treatment is part of the picture too. Under federal law as it stood before 2019, alimony was deductible by the paying spouse and taxable income to the receiving spouse. For divorce agreements finalized on or after January 1, 2019, that changed entirely: alimony is no longer deductible for the payor and no longer included in the recipient’s gross income. For anyone negotiating a settlement today, that shift has a real impact on how an acceptable amount gets calculated. A number that made sense under the old tax treatment may look very different now.
Modifying an Existing Alimony Order
The 2014 reform did not rewrite existing alimony agreements. But life changes, and New Jersey law has always allowed either party to return to court and seek a modification when circumstances have shifted substantially. What has changed is how courts evaluate those requests, particularly when they involve the paying spouse’s financial situation.
Under the current statute, if a paying spouse loses a job involuntarily, that person can apply for a temporary reduction in alimony after 90 days of unemployment. The court considers how long the unemployment has lasted, what efforts have been made to find comparable work, the reasons for the job loss, and whether the former spouse has become more financially independent in the meantime. This is not a simple process. The paying spouse has to document everything, and the receiving spouse has every right to contest the reduction.
Voluntary changes in income are treated very differently. If a paying spouse quits a well-paying job to pursue a lower-earning path, the court will likely impute the prior income and hold them to the original payment schedule. The same principle applies to early retirement. Walking away from a career before reaching full retirement age does not automatically reduce alimony obligations. The court will look at whether the decision was made in good faith and whether the paying spouse’s financial picture genuinely justifies relief.
When Cohabitation Changes the Equation
One of the more contested areas in post-divorce alimony disputes involves the receiving spouse’s cohabitation with a new partner. New Jersey law allows a paying spouse to seek suspension or termination of alimony when the recipient is living with someone in a relationship that resembles a marriage or civil union. The key word is “resembles.” Courts look at whether the couple shares finances, whether they hold themselves out publicly as a couple, how long they have lived together, and whether they have made joint purchases or investments.
Cohabitation does not automatically end alimony. It triggers a legal proceeding in which the paying spouse has the burden of making a threshold showing that cohabitation is occurring. Once that threshold is met, the burden shifts to the receiving spouse to show that the cohabitation has not materially reduced their need for support. This distinction matters. A person can be living with a new partner without that partner contributing meaningfully to the household finances, and in that situation, the alimony obligation may survive.
The Risk of Appealing an Older Award
The original post raises this question briefly and it deserves a fuller explanation. If you received a permanent alimony award before the 2014 law took effect, that award remains in place. You are entitled to the payments as ordered. The new law does not reach back and convert your permanent award into open durational alimony.
Where things get complicated is when one of the parties initiates new litigation. If the paying spouse files a motion to modify the alimony amount, the court is generally applying the current statute to its analysis of the modification request. That does not automatically mean the award gets converted to open durational alimony, but it opens the door to arguments that the prior framework no longer governs the relationship. Anyone sitting on a favorable pre-2014 alimony order should think carefully before doing anything that might give a court grounds to revisit the nature of that award.
The same caution applies to the receiving spouse. Filing a motion to increase alimony sounds straightforward, but it puts the entire support arrangement back before a judge. That judge operates in today’s legal environment, not the one that existed when the original order was signed.
What to Do If You Are Unsure How the Law Applies to You
Alimony law in New Jersey has never been simple, and the 2014 amendments added layers of complexity without resolving all of the questions they raised. Whether you are negotiating a divorce settlement, trying to understand an existing order, or wondering whether to seek a modification, the answers depend heavily on the specific facts of your situation. General information only goes so far.
Working with a New Jersey Divorced Attorney who handles these matters regularly makes a real difference. The calculation of an appropriate alimony amount, the timing of a modification request, the strategy for responding to a cohabitation claim — each of these requires judgment built on experience with how New Jersey courts actually handle these issues, not just how the statute reads on paper.
If you were awarded permanent alimony in the past, be aware that the new law does not affect your case. You will still receive payments for your lifetime. But if you appeal your award, can you fall under the new law? That’s for an experienced divorce attorney to decide.
If you are going through a divorce, you’re going to need some legal advice. For 26 years, the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone has been fighting for the rights of his clients. Contact us today for a free consultation. For more information on the rights of parents going through a divorce, download our free ebook today.
