On Tuesday February 21, 2016, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a public hearing in Room 11 at the Statehouse between 5:30-7:30 PM to solicit public input concerning Alimony/Spousal Maintenance Reform in Vermont.
Vermont Alimony Reform (VAR) has been working with the Legislature since last spring on this important issue. Last year, the Senate passed Bill S52 which would have created an Alimony/Spousal Maintenance Task Force to include all parties involved in a divorce; including judges, legislators, lawyers, payors and recipients. However, due to the lateness of the session the House was unable to take up the bill. At the very end of the session the Committee of Conference referred the issue to the Family Court Oversight Committee of the Supreme Court which submitted a report in January.
Vermont residents deserve more consistent, fair and predictable divorce outcomes, which require legislative changes to modernize the state’s antiquated spousal support and maintenance laws to be gender equitable, finite, and consistently applied.
1.) Level the Field with Gender Equity.
* While Vermont prides itself as a pioneer in social equality and human rights, our brave little state lags far behind in applying divorce laws equally to both parties in dissolving a marriage.
* The statues use gender-specific language, creating laws for men but not women — even if the situations were reversed, men and women are not afforded equitable presence in statues.
* Same-sex marriage requires laws that apply to same-sex divorce.
2.) Divorce should not be a Financial Life Sentence.
* Establish a spousal support matrix based on multiple specified factors that is flexible enough to achieve a reasonable alimony award rather than rely solely on discretion based on “conventional wisdom” about what is enough to achieve the purpose of alimony.
* Vermont’s punitive laws are marriage unfriendly, with an open door for more. There is no limitation to how many times a recipient can go back to the court for more money, creating ongoing financial risk that can last decades, and is particularly damaging to small businesses and farms.
* Develop guidelines for the duration and modification of alimony to consider anticipated and unforeseen circumstances such as retirement, job loss, remarriage or cohabitation, economic catastrophe, etc. Alimony should not last beyond full retirement age.
3.) Streamline Judicial Discretion for Greater Consistency of Implementation.
* Spousal support and maintenance laws are ill defined and allow idiosyncratic discretion, such that it is impossible for the legal community to properly advise clients regarding what to expect from one county to another. The law should be applied consistently from judge to judge, and case to case, with predictable outcomes for the vast majority of cases.
* Further compounding the effects of unclear guidance for judicial discretion is the challenge of interpreting references to outdated and repealed statutes.
* A contract in Vermont should be your bond. Pre-nuptial agreements and absolute decrees are contractual agreements that should be respected by the court, with few exceptions.
Divorce is an equal rights issue in Vermont that is imposing undue economic hardship on thousands of citizens because of outdated laws and the often arbitrary way in which they are applied. Divorce is difficult enough our laws should not enable conflict they should reduce it.
Please urge the legislature to make practical changes to domestic relations law and streamline judicial discretion to achieve equal alimony rights for all Vermonters.
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