This past spring some major changes were made to Minnesota Family laws. Almost all family law is made at the state level. For laws to change, new laws have to be passed by a majority of the state legislature, both houses, and signed by the Governor. That is not an easy process. In most years we do not see major changes. Unlike many issues in politics, family law does not have a clear party split, on most issues we see Republicans and Democrats on both sides, votes tend to be split between the parties, as opposed to along party lines.
In the next few weeks, I will talk about some of the changes in detail. First up, spousal support, formerly known as alimony. The old law had virtually no guidance as to who received support, how long it would last, and how much would be paid. The new law gives us some more guidance. For marriages less than 5 years long the legal presumption is no support; in order to get support for a short-term marriage someone would need to show special circumstances.
For marriages between 5 and 20 years the legal presumption is temporary support, if there is a need for support, i.e., need by one parent, and ability to pay by the other.
For marriages over 20 years the legal presumption is permanent support, again, if there is a need, and ability to pay.
Just because someone is married for a long time does not mean they get spousal support. They have the option to ask for it if they can show a need, and that the other spouse can pay support. This usually comes up when there is a big gap in incomes, and one parent has made sacrifices for the other, i.e., stayed home to raise kids so the other parent could pursue a high-income career.
There are still a lot of grey areas in spousal support law, but at least we have a little more predictability now in who receives support, and for how long.
Ed