If I’m Laid Off Do I Still Have to Pay Alimony While Waiting For a Modification?

Sydney Mitchell:

Hi. My name is Sydney Mitchell.

Matthew Brickman:

Hi, I’m Matthew Brickman, Florida Supreme court mediator. Welcome to the Mediate This! Podcast where we discuss everything mediation and conflict resolution.

(00:14):
I had a listener right in and asked, what if I’m paying alimony and suddenly laid off? What do I do while waiting for a modification if I cannot afford to pay? So, uh, it’s important to know the laws in your state, and you may need legal advice, but, um, at least in the state of Florida, in order to file a modification, there has to be a significant material, permanent unanticipated change in circumstance in order to modify. So, um, if you’re paying alimony and you’re so suddenly laid off, what do you have to do? It’s still owed. Um, now if you do not pay, what could happen? Well, the other party may file a motion for contempt enforcement and you could be found in contempt, but only if the court finds that you have the ability and you’re willfully refusing to. Um, but, uh, other than that, what happens is it goes into what we call arrearages.

(01:12):
So let’s say for example, that your alimony, um, is a hundred dollars a month. You’re laid off for five months. So that’s $500. Let’s say that you’re supposed to pay that over a five year period of time. Well, that may extend your five year period of time by five months because it’ll go on to the back end. Um, but you know, will it get modified? The second part of this question is, what do I do while waiting for a modification? Well, um, might not get a modification. It’s not permanent in nature, it’s temporary. I’ve seen that many a times. I actually had a mediation where, um, a a husband was ordered to pay and had, and I was, I think his fifth or sixth different mediator, but this was his eighth attempt to file a modification, uh, because he had lost his job. And so, uh, month after month, he kept filing his modification and it kept getting denied because the judge said, well, it’s not permanent.

(02:13):
You will find a job, it’ll just go into arrears. And of course, you know, the ex-wife is humming and hollering because she needs the money and is not getting the money. So she’s filing her motions for contempt. But the court did not find that this particular guy had the ability because he was laid off. It wasn’t that he just refused to pay. He did not have the ability to pay, but it wasn’t going to be modified. Um, sometimes, sometimes, sometimes I have seen non-modifiable alimony. And so in those particular cases, um, modification’s not even possible. I mean, modification under the statute is allowable, but sometimes people, uh, by contract make their alimony non-modifiable. So, you know, if you get laid off, it’s not going to be modified. It will continue to go into, uh, the backend, um, or again, into arrearage and it will eventually get paid off.

(03:14):
Um, so I’ve also seen that, uh, same situation even with child support. And I know the question isn’t about child support, but it can apply to child support. The same exact way that if you’re ordered to pay child support and laid off, well then what happens? Same rules apply that, um, it’ll go into arrearages, but it’s not permanent in nature. Um, I’ll deviate from the question a little bit, uh, to also explain what happened during COVID-19. In the year 2020, uh, a lot of people were filing modifications because everything shut down. The world basically shut down and the judges were not able to grant modifications because yes, it was, uh, material, yes, it was significant. Yes, it was unanticipated, but it wasn’t permanent, so they were not able to get it modified. So what happened, um, then a lot of people, instead of filing for a modification filed for a temporary abatement, what does that do?

(04:17):
That says, okay, well while this thing is occurring, whether it’s being laid off or whether it was COVID-19, well, it’s is a temporary pause on the payment. So the other party can’t file motions and can’t try to find them in contempt for failure to pay because it’s now been abated. And once they get their job, it will then start up again. Still, the timeline is still there, the payments are still there. It doesn’t get modified to a lower amount of terminated, but it does temporarily put it on pause. So hopefully that answers the question for this listener, and I appreciate you writing in and look forward to answering more questions in the future.

Matthew Brickman:
Occasionally Sydney and I will be releasing Q&A bonus episodes where we’ll answer your questions and give you a personal shoutout.

Sydney Mitchell:
If you have a comment or question regarding anything that we discuss, email us at info@ichatmediation.com that’s info@ichatmediation.com and stay tuned to hear your shout out and have your question answered here on the show.

Matthew Brickman:

For more information about my services or to schedule your mediation with me, either in person or using my iChatMediation Virtual Platform built by Cisco Communications. Visit me online at www.iMediateInc.com. Call me at 561-262-9121, Toll-Free at 877-822-1479 or email me at MBrickman@iChatMediation.com.