No need for task force, implement alimony
reform

 ALAN
ROSS FRISHER, MELBOURNE, FLORIDA

Current
law has been financially self-serving to the litigating attorneys at the
expense of divorcing spouses and their families

 Representatives Cynthia Stafford and Lori
Berman, in their recent Point of View article, “Create
task force before taking up alimony reform again” (June 27), state, “If
alimony reform is necessary — a point that is far from settled — then it should
be done in response to … well-reasoned analysis.”

As a financial adviser, certified divorce
financial analyst, and president of Family Law Reform, I can personally and
professionally attest to the atrocities occurring within our current family law
system with regard to divorce.

Current alimony law, like an insidious cancer,
is figuratively — and sometimes literally — killing our citizens and causing
irreparable damage to the family unit in our society.

To draw an analogy, when doctors see a tumor,
they typically cut it out before it grows or metastasizes. Sure, they can study
it some more and watch it grow, but at what cost to the patient? Good doctors,
like good legislators, handle the situation effectively, and as soon as
possible.

Similarly, outdated and dysfunctional alimony
laws need to be “cut out” as soon as possible because they are extremely
harmful to our citizens.

Legislators have already studied and debated
the need for alimony reform for the better part of eight years. I have
personally been working with them as well as the leaders of the Family Section
of the Florida Bar. Initially the leaders of the Family Section stated that
Florida had “among the most progressive alimony laws in the nation.” They
argued there is no reason to change current law.

Family Law Reform, as the largest alimony
reform group in the nation, effectively educated our legislators to the fact
that current law has been financially self-serving to the litigating attorneys
at the expense of divorcing spouses and their families. Thousands of stories
have been annotated and told about the bias, abuse, and never-ending cost, both
financially and emotionally, inflicted upon our unsuspecting divorcing citizens
and their children, all at the hands of litigating divorce attorneys ensconced
within the judicial system.

After eight years of testimony, leaders of the
Family Section of the Florida Bar have now finally agreed that not only is
change necessary, it is expected by society. Our legislators in the House and
Senate voted twice by super majorities in favor of proposed alimony reform law.

Setting up a task force to study a problem that
is so obviously in need of change is a transparent attempt to maintain the
status quo for alimony recipients and litigating family attorneys who
personally benefit from the continued and substantial income allotted to them
by current law; as well as a judicial system that thrives because of
inconsistent and unpredictable results from one case to the next.

Current alimony law is outdated, superfluous
and unwarranted. Creating a task force would only stave off the inevitable. The
time to reform our current abusive alimony law is now.

ALAN ROSS FRISHER, MELBOURNE

Editor’s note: Mr. Frisher is president of Family Law Reform, Inc.

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original article