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13 March 2012 New Alimony Law is bad for Women The Alimony Reform Act of Massachusetts could affect the way judges grant alimony to non-working spouses and women. Some of the details of the act include basing alimony on how long a couple’s marriage lasted and not on a wide variety of other conditions like the spouses contributions during the marriage. The alimony given based on the length of the marriage would only last for a fraction of the total length of the marriage. “If a marriage lasted 15 years, a woman will receive alimony, at most, for only 10½ years (Murphy1)”. The longer your marriage lasts, the more alimony you will receive along with a larger payment amount. Lawmakers should take into account the public’s interest and not just the special interest group of rich men. The problem that is being addressed is that any man/women who is married for a limited number of years should not have to pay alimony to their ex-spouse for the rest of their life. The Alimony Reform Act is relevant to the course theme of economic transformation because it deals with how women’s individual finances will continue to be affected by this law. The distribution of alimony in Pennsylvania is either paid by one party of the divorce case or by mutual agreement and is either rehabilitative or permanent. Married people in PA are financially responsible for one another, and the wife and husband have the duty to be supportive of each other. One lawyer says “…she's seen women who have happily chosen to pay off their husbands in an effort to maintain their sanity and keep the peace (Forbes1)”. Massachusetts divorce lawyer, Elizabeth Clauge says lifetime alimony has been given out rarely to some divorced couples and has been on the decline. The Alimony Reform Act is an example of individual financial reform rules in our society. Reform is defined as “ to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses (Merriam1)”. With the new rules of the Act, judges would not be able to give alimony in a more flexible way in which the divorced can have a fair ruling on support. Judges would in essence have to reward or punish the non-working spouse based on the length of their marriage. Since 97% of people that receive alimony are women, they should have the chance to state missed opportunities that the judge would consider before awarding alimony payments from the other spouse. The new law would only take into account the amount of time that the women spent supporting her husband to earn his income while she was doing housework, serving as transportation for their kids, or meeting with teachers. This chart and percentage approach does not account for the women’s full value or her lost earning power as in the case where she has a college degree and a career that she gave up to raise her kids. Some women that face domestic abuse chose to stay in the abusive relationship in order to avoid homelessness and an unfair distribution of alimony. The new law is aimed at limiting rulings for lifetime alimony which many men found unfair if they were only married for a few years. A better reform act would be to grant a more generous review or appeal process for judges to reconsider what is fair when circumstances change such as when the former spouse remarries.
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Works Cited "Alimony/Maintenance/Spousal Support in a Pennsylvania Divorce." //Pennsylvania Divorce Forms and PA Divorce Papers Online//. Smart Legal Forms, 2004-2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. Murphy, Wendy, and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Wendy Murphy. "New Alimony Law Is Bad for Women - CNN.com." //CNN//. Cable News Network, 09 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. Schiffman, Betsy. "Women Increasingly Paying Alimony." //Forbes//. Forbes Magazine, 13 Mar. 2007. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
 * Questions**
 * 1) The author of this article makes the case that the Massachusetts legislature is limiting the judge’s ability to make decisions. Why didn’t the lawyer’s bar association do more to oppose this law?
 * 2) Why haven’t women’s rights groups done more to oppose this law?
 * 3) What do the other 49 states have to say about judges awarding alimony payments based on a chart of the number of years married?