A new bill that ends lifetime alimony in New Jersey was signed into law by Governor Chris Christie on September 10, 2014, reports Bloomberg.
Under the new law, alimony payments will be limited to the length of the marriage, if that marriage was less than 20 years—a benefit that is only applicable to future alimony cases. Those in current contractual obligations can take advantage of the other benefits the law provides including alimony payment reductions if a payer loses his/her job or reaches the retirement age of 67.
“The state’s alimony laws were out of touch with today’s society where both partners in a marriage often have careers,” Senator Robert Singer, a Republican sponsor of the bill, said in a statement according to Bloomberg. “The courts will no longer be operating with an assumption that either spouse will be dependent on the other for the rest of their lives after a divorce.”
Many divorce laws in the U.S. originated when “most women didn’t work and husbands were breadwinners,” stated Bloomberg, but several states, such as Massachusetts and Colorado, have revised the laws to reflect modern circumstances.
Thailand’s Alimony Laws are, in some sense, more traditional than the current legal trends in the USA and European law that do not indefinitely impose support obligations on the financially advantaged spouse.
This is evidenced in Thailand’s divorce law which prohibits the waiver of alimony by the spouse in a prenuptial agreement. In other words, Thailand law promotes the principle that a financially advantaged spouse may still have a duty to support a dependent spouse even in divorce.
Continue reading the full story on alimony reform in New Jersey.
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