Appellate Court Trends in Permanent Alimony for "Gray Area" Divorces: 1997-2007 (Florida‪)‬

In 1980, the Florida Supreme Court defined the purpose of permanent alimony: "to provide the needs and necessities of life to a former spouse as they have been established by the marriage of the parties." (1) This purpose is achieved by determining the need of one spouse for alimony and the ability of the other spouse to pay. (2) In 1978, F.S. [section] 61.08(2) established seven specific factors to be considered by courts when determining a proper award of alimony. (3) It is difficult to determine whether the factors can be ranked by level of significance. A review of case law makes clear that permanent alimony decisions are reached as a result of a court's overall impression of the facts of each case and, based on those facts, its determination of equity and fairness. Canakaris v. Canakaris, 380 So. 2d 1197 (Fla. 1980), has been cited in over 2,000 cases and journals since 1980. While the factors courts consider when making decisions regarding permanent alimony have not changed since the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Canakaris, the emphasis on these factors has. In addition to the factors included in F.S. [section] 61.08, courts look to other factors, such as minor children of the marriage, agreements made during the marriage for one spouse to stay home with children, and whether a spouse's career has been limited by the marriage. Although it is not difficult to identify the factors that courts consider, it is still a challenge to predict how a court will emphasize a particular factor. Ten years ago, we examined appellate court trends in permanent alimony in gray area marriages. (4) This article will revisit the subject and examine developments in the case law during the past 10 years. So that this article may be used as a continuation of our previous article on this subject, we have again organized it by the factors appellate courts consider when affirming or reversing permanent alimony awards. (5) These analyses are offered to the reader not as absolutes, but as a means by which to organize arguments either for or against an award of permanent alimony. This article only discusses cases and trends emerging since 1997 and only addresses initial awards of permanent alimony, not modification proceedings.