Gov. Christie signs major alimony reform bill into law

Two-and-a-half years of debate and amendments ended Wednesday when Gov. Chris Christie signed a controversial alimony reform bill into law.

The term "permanent alimony" has been eliminated and replaced with "open durational alimony" which means alimony orders can be changed or even terminated under certain circumstances. The new law does not affect those already paying lifetime alimony.

"For the payers married under 20 years what it does is it takes the number of years that you were married and says that alimony can be only applied to the number of years that you were married under the 20-year mark," said Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt (D-Voorhees), prime sponsor of the bill Christie signed into law.

The new law also sets specific guidelines to allow courts to modify or even terminate alimony if the person paying it retires, loses a job or has income reduced. The alimony could also be ended if the person receiving it lives with another person.

"This allows for the courts to look at any sort of predicament where the payer's or the receiver's position may change," Lampitt explained.

Under the new law, a person paying alimony will also be able to apply to have it terminated when he or she reaches the federal retirement age of 67.

All of this may be good news in the future for some who are going through a divorce case, but the new law changes nothing for those who have already been ordered to pay permanent alimony.

"This is prospectively only. There were too many judgments that had already previously been made that to reopen all the established cases would actually not be plausible," Lampitt said.

There are divorce attorneys who have expressed support for the reforms and others who have not. Those already paying permanent alimony are not thrilled with the reforms, but many receiving those payments are satisfied.

"As we all say in Trenton, 'If nobody is happy with a piece of legislation at the end of the day then maybe we did something right,'" Lampitt said. "I believe that the governor has recognized that this was a good compromise effort. I believe that he took the right action."