On June 25, 2022, Governor DeSantis signed HB 1119, also known as the “Markel Act,” into law. This law prevents alienation between children and their grandparents in narrowly tailored, tragic situations. More precisely, this new law allows grandparents to petition courts for visitation with their grandchildren where a remaining living parent was found at fault by a criminal or civil court for the other parent’s death.
A bill that would have brought sweeping changes to Alimony, Child Time Sharing and Marital Waste has been vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis. As reasoning for his veto, he stated that, “If (SB 1796) were to become law and be given retroactive effect as the Legislature intends, it would unconstitutionally impair vested rights under certain preexisting marital settlement agreements.”
This is the third proposal vetoed by a republican governor in the last decade despite being passed by an overwhelming majority of republicans in both the House and Senate.
We look forward to the next legislative session to see if this bill will be passed again by the legislature.
There is a lot of buzz circling SB 1796, a bill that was passed by lawmakers that makes massive changes to alimony laws. The bill is important as it completely changes alimony. It is important to note that the bill has not yet become law. The biggest change to alimony is that it will do away with permanent alimony. By eliminating permanent alimony, the bill focuses on bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational alimony. The bill would limit rehabilitative alimony to five years and prohibit any award of durational alimony for marriages shorter than three years. The goal of the legislature is to create a route to retirement. The measure awards durational alimony for half the length of a marriage that lasts between three (3) and ten (10) years, 60% of the length of marriages of between ten (10) and twenty (20) years, and 75% of marriages that lasted over twenty (20) years of more. Durational alimony payments would be limited to the recipients “reasonable needs,” or 34% of the difference in incomes, whichever is less. Lastly, as to alimony, the bill creates a “wind down” period that would, in certain cases, permit a spouse that is retiring after providing formal notice, to reduce alimony payment by 25% per year over four years. The bill is headed to the Governor for review. Please check back with us for updates regarding this bill, and if it becomes law.
