Nov 10, 2009 10:30 pm US/Eastern
Alimony For Life - Push To Change Mass. Laws
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
A divorce doesn't mean anything is final. In Massachusetts you could be forced to pay alimony for life. The state's highest court just ruled that
payments don't have to end when someone retires.
Some believe that's unfair - that the system is outdated - and they are fighting to change it.
STEPHEN'S STORY
Stephen Hitner is behind
Reform Massachusetts Alimony. He has a web site with hundreds of members. He also
has a reform bill in the Massachusetts House with 72 Representatives and Senate members as co-signers.
"What my law entails is that alimony will have a sunset," Hitner explained. "It will be half the term of the marriage, maximum to12 years."
Hitner has been paying alimony for 13 years. His kids are grown and moved out on their own, and his ex-wife doesn't work.
"Why should one person have to work the rest of their life to support someone who refuses to work?" he questioned.
ALAN'S STORY
Alan Wolpin married the love of his life right out of college, in the early 1960s. Thirty years and three kids later, the relationship soured. She left, and he divorced her.
"In 1992 I sought and obtained a divorce," Wolpin said. He has been paying his ex-wife more than $1,000 a month in alimony ever since.
"At the time of the divorce all of our assets, IRAs, our house, everything was split 50/50," he said.
Wolpin never knew that he would have to pay his ex-wife alimony until the day he dies. He is hoping lawmakers recognize that the times have changed, and so too must the laws.
CHANGING THE LAW
Attorney Tim Taylor wrote
the reform bill for Reform Massachusetts Alimony. He says it will give structure and guidance to an outdated system. Getting the remaining lawmakers to embrace it, he thinks, could be difficult.
"Seventy percent, approximately, of the reps and senators are attorneys," Taylor said. "If the net result is a reduction in divorce litigation, that's a benefit for the general public." But, he says, perhaps not for those lawmakers.
Cynthia Stone Creem is both a state senator and a practicing attorney. She agrees changes need to be made, but not across the board. Creem introduced her own alimony reform bill that calls for giving judges more discretion.
"I can't tell you one thing that's going to work for every case," she said, stressing the circumstances should dictate the alimony ruling. "If someone stops working they shouldn't pay alimony."
A state legislative committee is reviewing possible reforms. The earliest lawmakers could vote on changes would be the spring of 2010.
WBZ spoke with a couple of women on the opposite end of this issue, women receiving alimony, but they did not want to talk on camera.
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