Miami TV news anchorman seeks alimony from wife

Story here.

Excerpt:
"Whether it's fragile male ego or the continuing disparity in incomes between men and women -- in the absence of any studies, lawyers are left to theorize -- men don't go after the money the law says they can have.

''A lot of lawyers feel uncomfortable even asking for alimony, even if [the men] are entitled, because it's a very tough row to hoe,'' said prominent divorce attorney Andrew Leinoff. ``They know a lot of judges raise their eyebrows at it.''

However, as women increasingly outpace their husbands in earnings -- the percentage of women who earned more jumped from nearly 18 percent in 1987 to more than 25 percent in 2004 -- the number of men receiving alimony will surely rise, some say.

''When you look at the stats of where people make money, it's in small businesses, and most small businesses are owned by women,'' said forensic accountant Loretta Fabricant, who currently has two cases in which the husbands are seeking alimony. She says she once helped a West Palm Beach husband win $10,000 a month in support."

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Comments

As long as alimony is an option, men of course should get as much as women under similar or the same conditions. But alimony shouldn't be part of the equation at all. It simply isn't relevant anymore given that every adult can and should be working to pay their own way.

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I can see extreme cases where Alimony would help with smoothing the transition to singlehood like if one spouse makes $1 million a year and the other spouse stays at home taking care of the kids for 18 years, getting no work experience, and then they get divorced.

Still, even in that case, the alimony should be time limited to a percentage (somewhere between 10-25%) of the length of time they DID NOT WORK during the marriage and capped to be AT MOST equal to the average monthly cost of living in the area where the person divorces.

This would strongly encourage the recipient to retool and rejoin the workforce, paying their own way as soon as possible. Think of it as severance, not alimony.

Thoughts?

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Rip women for every penny you can !!!

They'd do the same for you!!!

Statistics show that women marry up (which means that men marry down)...the likleyhood of having a wife that earns way more than the man is low. So, as they say, "take her to the cleaners".

oregon dad

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Alimony/severance time-limited to a percentage (somewhere between 10-25%) of the length of time they DID NOT WORK during the marriage?

Give me a break! That's as bad as child support being based on a percentage of the man's income. One has nothing to do with the other. Feels like prostitution to me. Pay her based on her sacrifice to her man? Sacrifice? Really? Or a CHOICE?

How long does it take to train for a new career at a technical school? Six months? A year? Two years at the absolute most? Then have the government support her on welfare if she's truly incapable of supporting herself and stop expecting us men to compensate women for their "services" while being our wives!! How come nobody ever talks about women compensating us men for all the services and support we provide them during the marriage.

Seems to me that if marriage makes women so dependent on men and so less able to support themselves than they were before they got married, maybe marriage should be made against the law. Or women should be made to prove that they can support themselves after a divorce before they are allowed to marry. And then be required to maintain that level of earning ability throughout the marriage.

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I believe alimony is appropriate for a wifie poo who quit work to be a stay at home mom to raise the kids. It is appropriate ONLY IF the husband and wife together decided on that arrangement beforehand. Alimony is not appropriate if the wife decided unilaterally to quit work and be a stay at home mom. If she did that that was a decision by a competent adult and that adult should accept the consequences of that action. To award alimony to a woman who unilaterally decided on that course is thief! Alimony is appropriate in other scenarios as well for instance if the husband was hurt in an accident and was handicapped in some way and the wife was bringing in a similar income then she should help support him until, if possible, he could become self-supporting if the marriage dissolves.
Alimony in itself is not a bad thing. It is how it is used to punish a spouse (usually the husband of course) or to spread misandry that gives it a bad reputation. Of course all of this would be moot if properly drawn up prenuptial agreements were universally upheld as binding upon both parties.

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Alimony and child support should be done away with completely. We need to do away with any possibility of fighting and lying in court by either spouse. If there are children involved, the spouses should have no opportunity to fight or argue because the ex's need to get along afterward for the benefit of their children. Even if there are no children, the break should be clean and final.

Everything gets split up based on a prearranged formula based on what each contributed in money and assets to the marriage at its onset and monetarily during the marriage. This formula would be applicable to everyone and the children would continue to be cared for by both spouses, each taking turns with a 50/50 arrangement. No more alimony. No more child support.

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Some of you guys have theories or systems that are interesting, but might be a little too complex to implement or enforce. For example, some of them would result in arguements of "he said, she said".
But one thing I am noticing, is that the author again places the potential blame on men, saying it might be their "fragile male ego" to not seek alimony. Sounds like independence and self-sufficiency to me..not to mention the fact that society probably looks down on a man receiving a large alimony settlement.
Also it is evident from what the author says, that many still believe there is a gender wage gap. I wish people could once and for all get this false notion out of their minds, it is incredible how much undue trouble this wrong theory has created.

-axo

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If you get a divorce, get a job and support yourself. If you are physically incapable of working then get disability. Either way, don't be a leech.

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if you want the benefits of a marriage (e.g. access to a spouse's income) stay in it. What exactly does the ex-spouse do to remain on this "payroll"?

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