Senate sends alimony reform measure to the House for final passage
'As a professional who deals with divorce on an ongoing basis you see how tough it is for families to go through this process'
Sen. Joe Gruters
The measure to eliminate permanent alimony in Florida and replace it with durational alimony based on the length of the marriage passed through the Senate floor April 19, and is now ready to be heard by the Florida House.
The bill, SB 1416 by Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters, passed on a 34-6 vote.
The proposed reforms provide divorcing couples with more predictability and consistency by setting clear, definitive parameters for the courts when considering the amount and duration of alimony.
The bill provides guidelines for the court to determine whether to reduce or terminate an award of alimony based on the retirement of a payor. The guidelines codify existing case law that date back to 1992 under the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Pimm v. Pimm.
This is Gruters’ third attempt at passing alimony reform. In 2021, Gruters unexpectedly withdrew his measure 10 days prior to the end of session following a fierce debate on the child-sharing provision in the bill.
Last year, Gruters filed SB 1796, which passed both chambers, but was later vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“As you know this has been a long journey,” Gruters said. “This has been vetoed three times now and been up, I think, 10 times in the last 15 years.”
The bill received its second reading on the Senate floor April 18 where it faced stiff questions from Democratic senators regarding retroactivity. Of the six nay votes, five came from Democrats with Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough standing as the lone member of his party in opposition.
“I want to be really clear,” Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, said. “If I had a permanent alimony award, would it be modifiable under this new bill?”
Gruters assured Berman the proposed legislation does not impact current agreements regarding modifications.
“If you have an agreement that’s modifiable and it says it’s modifiable, whether we pass this law or not it’s still going to be modifiable,” Gruters said. “If it says non-modifiable and we pass this law, it’s still going to be non-modifiable.”
Throughout the entire legislative process, The Florida Bar’s Family Law Section has been steadfast in its support of the measure. Speaking in the House Judiciary Committee last week, section advocate Trish Armstrong continued to stress Gruters’ assessment of retroactivity.
“This is something that the Family Law Section has been vocal about in the past,” Armstrong said. “If this was unconstitutionally retroactive, if it negatively impacted current agreements, the section would not be in support of it.”
Gruters told his colleagues replacing permanent alimony with durational alimony will give judges more leeway to make decisions.
“You think when you’re heading into a divorce that it is 50-50, but really, it’s 50% to the professionals and 50% to the families,” Gruters said. “The whole goal of this bill is to try to limit the litigation and the games that are played. To try and make sure that families can keep as much money as they possibly can.”
Democratic Leader Sen. Lauren Book, D-Davie, asked Gruters to explain exactly why this bill wasn’t retroactive and mentioned previous public testimony during the committee process that claimed it was.
Gruters said most of the public testimony regarding retroactivity comes from persons currently going through divorce proceedings.
“If you have a divorce that is ongoing right now, by the time this bill passes, this new law will apply to your divorce,” Gruters said.
Berman and Book joined fellow party members Sen. Tracie Davis, Tina Polsky, and Bobby Powell as opponents of the measure.
Gruters said following last year’s veto he was able to bring all groups together and hammer out a plan on all these issues and got every side to agree from top to bottom. He said he’s committed to finding finality in the process.
“The problem is how we shorten the clock [on divorce] and make it more predictable,” Gruters said. “We’re giving the judges a lot of room to make decisions.”
Gruters said this measure was initially brought to him four years ago and he didn’t want anything to do with it. However, in his job as a certified public accountant, he deals with divorce regularly.
“As a professional who deals with divorce on an ongoing basis you see how tough it is for families to go through this process,” Gruters said.
Gruters praised the leadership of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo throughout the process and said he finally sat down together and worked out every single issue in this bill and had a bill that 95% of the population agreed with.
“Madam President, I appreciate your willingness because I know when we met on this two years ago, you said get everybody in a room, get everyone to agree, and let’s get this out,” Gruters said. “For us to be able to come back this year under your leadership, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
