Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

Florida Husband (former attorney) ordered to pay alimony.

Ex-Wife diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Ex-Husband reportedly stops paying alimony.

Upon requests for payment, ex-Husband allegedly asked “aren’t you dead yet?”

Ex-wife needs alimony for medicine, housing, etc.

Ex-wife reportedly tried to move the case closer due to health issues. Judge allegedly refused.

An attorney has now offered to help ex-wife without charge.

The reader is left to wonder why an income deduction wage garnishing order was not entered previously.

Sadly, enforcement remains the Achilles Heel of the legal system for far too many dependent former spouses and children. Even those who aren’t dying of cancer.

Read more in this Tampa Bays WTSP-TV 10 news article: Ex-husband stops alimony payments for terminal cancer patient.

Massachusetts man buys lottery ticket.

Man wins $1 million lottery.

All is good in his universe.

Until …

Man gets charged with violating terms of his probation on bank robbery charges.

Not his first probation violation.

Then man is served with contempt of court papers for failure to pay almost $40,000 in back alimony and child support.

Man will not know his fate until next year.

Man’s story illustrates the saying: “be careful what you wish for…”.

Support recipients everywhere got what they wished for in this instance too.

A spokesman for the state lottery issued a statement that state lottery officials would comply with any court order for support.

Read more in this Cape Cod Times article: More bad news for lottery winner.

A sad and unusual scenario.

New Jersey Mother and Father divorce.

Mother is awarded alimony.

Mother and son reportedly get into violent argument at home when Mother is drunk.

Son dies as a result of injuries from fight.

Father is devastated.

Mother goes to jail.

Father falls behind in his alimony payments.

Father seeks modification of alimony obligation, apparently based on the killing of their son. (Not based on substantial change in her needs or his ability to pay.)

The intermediate level appellate court ruled that the killing did not warrant an automatic termination of alimony based on the statute or any legal precedent.

The court did, however, suspend alimony payments pending a final ruling and ordered a lower court hearing on Father’s ability to pay.

It was also noted that the Mother can apply for a modification when she is released from her incarceration.

The court indicated that it is up to the legislature to amend the law if it wants the result sought by the Father.

Read more in this North Jersey Record article: Court cuts alimony to mom who killed her son and this New Jersey Star-Ledger article: Court: No alimony for mom who killed.

Judge orders Nevada millionaire Husband to pay $10,000 per month in alimony.

Husband not happy.

So Husband stabs Wife to death.

Not satisfied, Husband shoots family court judge.

Judge survives.

Husband charged with murder and attempted murder.

Husband pleads guilty.

Husband sentenced to life in prison.

Under the plea agreement, Husband may become eligible for parole after twenty years.

That millionaire showed everyone. He avoided that alimony obligation.

Wonder what he’ll spend his savings on in prison?

Read more in this London Daily Mirror article: Man killed wife - then shot divorce judge.

One of the most common questions in a divorce is whether a spouse can qualify for temporary relief and, if so, how much. In the typical Florida divorce, these are not always easy questions to answer.

But, in one Pennsylvania case, the first question was easy to answer and the answer to the second question was “a shot heard round the bar of family law attorneys”. The case is anything but typical.

A Mellon Bank heir and publishing magnate, a billionaire, is divorcing his wife of more than fifteen years. He earns several million annually.

Pennsylvania, unlike Florida, has a formula for temporary support. The dependent spouse receives forty percent of the paying spouse’s income.

This elegant simplicity led to a court ordering monthly temporary support in this case of $725,000.

It sets an all-time record for temporary support in Pennsylvania - and probably elsewhere too.

The billionaire’s attorneys are, of course, fighting the amount of the award.

Other issues in this unusual case include custody of the couple’s pet Golden Retriever, property division, income determination for purposes of calculating permanent alimony, etc.

Questions about temporary support are still generally tough to answer. But not if the paying spouse is a billionaire.

Read more in this Editor and Publisher article: Scaife’s Wife Gets Giant Settlement After Messy Divorce — Claims Newspaper is ‘Hobby’ and this Pittsburgh Post Gazette News article: Millions up for grabs in Scaife divorce fight.

A South Carolina man embroiled in a drawn out divorce was not very happy with how his case was going.

The court had ordered him to pay temporary alimony and attorneys’ fees to his wife.

And he didn’t want to.

So he devised a way around it - or so he thought.

He allegedly torched his wife’s lawyer’s office.

But that turned out not to be the best way to handle the situation.

In addition to his other troubles, he was charged with stalking, burglary and arson - and held in jail without bond.

This is not a recommended strategy for success in family court.

Read more in this [Columbia, SC] WIS TV News 10 article: Bond denied for man accused of setting Columbia law firm on fire.

Granted, taxes are not foremost in the minds of most couples going through a divorce.

But for couples with sufficient assets, income and civility, tax impact is an important consideration which may be factored into any divorce settlement.

Couples should pay particular attention to alimony, the sale of the house, income tax filing status and timing of the divorce.

An interest in real estate can be transferred from one spouse to another tax-free, but alimony payments are normally taxable income to the receiving spouse.

Capital gains treatment on sale of real estate may favor selling as a couple before the divorce, rather than as a single after the divorce.

For late-in-year divorces, it may pay to wait until early the following year.

In appropriate cases, it may be well worth consulting a tax accountant or tax attorney on the structuring of any divorce settlement.

Read more in this [New Jersey] Courier Post article: Keep your cool in a divorce to avoid tax headaches.

Under the law of California, Florida and many states, the obligation to pay alimony ends when the receiving spouse remarries, among other possibilities.

A divorcing California man agreed to pay his wife a certain sum of money each month as alimony.

After their divorce, his ex-wife registered her domestic partnership with another woman.

Believing the registered domestic partnership to be equivalent to marriage, the man thought he was released from the obligation to pay alimony.

But a California judge disagreed, ruling that the domestic partnership is mere cohabitation and not a marriage.

The man plans to appeal the court’s order that he continue to pay alimony.

The ruling highlights one of the less publicized impacts of the difference between marriage and civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Read more in this San Francisco Chronicle article: Man ordered to pay ex-wife alimony, despite domestic partnership.

A Tennessee dad spent two days in jail in 2002 for failing to make all his child and spousal support payments.

The man claimed his financial circumstances had changed for the worse and that even though his obligations had been reduced, he still just couldn’t meet them.

Tennessee’s high court finally ruled that it was error to jail him, because the former wife hadn’t proved that he had the ability to pay and was willfully refusing to do so.

Armed with that ruling, the man is suing the state of Tennessee in federal court.

Although the former wife may have been entitled to an order of arrears for non-payment, a judgment of contempt warranting jail time requires more than non-payment; it requires willfulness.

Read more in this Memphis WMC-TV 5 article: Man jailed in child support case files federal lawsuit.

A Florida man took his ex to court in an attempt to have his obligation to pay spousal support terminated.

The original support obligation was part of a marital settlement agreement, which provided that support would terminate upon the receiving spouse’s death or remarriage.

The receiving spouse neither died nor remarried.

So what was basis of the former husband’s argument?

His ex-wife is now a man.

Since a man can’t marry a man, a man can’t divorce a man and a man can’t be ordered to pay spousal support to a man, the ex-husband contended.

Good try, but the judge didn’t buy the argument.

The court held that the former wife’s birth gender was what mattered for this purpose and that the sex change operation didn’t qualify as a substantial change of circumstances for purposes of modifying or terminating the support obligation.

The former husband vowed to challenge this ruling as far as he could.

This Florida ruling is consistent with a similar ruling handed down in Ohio a few years back.

Read more in this CNN article: Judge: Ex still due alimony when she becomes he.