By Paul Tuthill
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Boston, MA – As New York State marks a major change in matrimonial law, Massachusetts is poised to make major changes in family law. A bill to reform the state's alimony system is heading toward passage in the state legislature. WAMC"s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports
The bill would establish guidelines for the duration of alimony payments based on how long a couple was married, ending so called "lifetime alimony" There would be new categories of alimony established in the law to provide for periodic and even lump sum payments. Alimony would end at retirement age. Judges could order a halt to alimony payments to people who are in long term relationships that very much resemble marriage.
State Senator Gale Candaras of Wilbraham, is the Senate Chair of the Alimony Reform Task Force .
The bill was crafted by a task force that included legislators,family law attorneys, legal aid lawyers and alimony reform advocates along with input from the chief judge of the Massachusetts probate court. It took 14 months to produce the final legislation. Candaras says it will be the first major change in Massachusetts family law in 40 years.
In addition to setting duration limits for alimony, the proposed law lets judges consider assets, the length of the marriage, employment and other factors when deciding alimony awards. It creates new categories of alimony including transitional alimony for people who need job training or other temporary assistance. There is reimbursement alimony for people who helped pay a spouses way through college, but then divorced.
Denise Squillante, the president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, called the proposed changes good public policy.
Probate court judges would also have discretion to break from guidelines to deal with unique situations.
Steve Hitner , a small business owner from Eastern Massachusetts, started campaigning for alimony reform six years ago when he was unable to get a judge to change an order that he pay 865 dollars per week to his ex wife. Hitner says he's paid alimony for 14 years and it put him into bankruptcy.
Hitner started an organization that now has 14 hundred members, who lobbied state legislators to make changes to the alimony system.
Rachel Biscardi, an experienced family law attorney, who is a member of the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts said the proposed changes will help women who have been out of the workforce to raise children, low income women who need financial help to attend school, and women whose marriages ended after just a short time..
The alimony reform legislation was passed unanimously last week by the Massachusetts House. The Massachusetts Senate is scheduled to take it up this week.