Alimony Reform: F & F Helps Introduce SB 1482 to Protect Alimony Obligors from Abuses

Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2010-07-07 02:40

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'Fathers and Families recognizes that sometimes alimony (and alimony increases) are appropriate, particularly when a parent, usually a mother, has had to make large career sacrifices to care for children. This is especially relevant if the children have school-related problems or other special needs. However, Fathers and Families is also concerned about the abuses experienced by California spousal support obligors.

Some obligors assert that their exes are voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, or are artificially lowering their earning capacity because they’d rather keep collecting large amounts of tax-free alimony. SB 1482, a bill recently introduced by Senator Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles), helps solve this problem by allowing obligors to request vocational examinations for the recipients of alimony payments, and requiring judges to follow the examiner’s estimate of the recipient’s earning ability when calculating alimony.

Also, current law places no time limit on how long potential alimony recipients have to file for increases after their children reach the age of majority and child support ends. This can create many problems for alimony obligors, who can be hit with stiff increases well after their children have emancipated. SB 1482 solves this by placing a time limit on the obligee.'

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Comments

This sounds so rational, it makes me wonder why it hasn't been done before... This should be like shooting fish in a barrel. If we get push back on this, if we can't do this, then there's very little hope of accomplishing other more structural reforms to make the alimony system more gender-neutral. I believe we MRAs need to be pushing a whole lot more of these minor changes, changes that are logical, and in keeping with the notion of equal protection. We can then edge men back to a place of equality with women.

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Submitted by redwoodwriter on Wed, 2010-07-07 03:59

"Fathers and Families recognizes that sometimes alimony (and alimony increases) are appropriate, particularly when a parent, usually a mother, has had to make large career sacrifices to care for children."

This comment doesn't pass the sniff test. Staying home to look after kids is a luxury that (typically) women get when the family financial situation allows for it. No one HAS to stay home - OK, perhaps there are rare, rare cases when a child has unexpected special needs - but its when the family needs that second income that women HAVE to do something (i.e. work outside the home). Almost always when a woman stays home to look after the kids its because there is a man working hard to make that possible. Not to say that alimony is NEVER appropriate, but there is no way I buy the idea that staying home is a "large sacrifice" rather than a luxury.

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Submitted by Scottie on Thu, 2010-07-08 03:18

Unlike feminism, which had a great deal of male support as well as virtually no opposition during its formative years, F & F faces massive opposition from organized feminism, the bar associations, and the often hostile media. Because of its precarious position it must keep its image simon pure and its pronouncements mild with maddening qualifiers. Until it gains size, power, and prominence, its activism must keep its militance under wraps.

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Submitted by Hunchback on Thu, 2010-07-08 13:29