Jail Becomes Home for Husband Stuck With Lifetime Alimony

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-26/jail-becomes-home-for-husband-stuck-with-lifetime-alimony.html

by spking • 13 years ago

38 7 13 years ago

jongraehl• 13 years ago

There was a story recently about this happening to a woman (a soldier who was only momentarily earning 90k/yr for hazard pay) recently with about the same result. Retarded law, retarded idea - child custody as a meal ticket. Although if this case is just about alimony, that's even worse.

Anyway, the particulars of this person's struggle don't matter. The default marriage contract is stupid and it seems you can get into bad situations that might not even be possible with a non-marriage contract; don't go into a marriage blind.

jlgreco• 13 years ago

The default marriage contract is stupid and it seems you can get into bad situations that might not even be possible with a non-marriage contract; don't go into a marriage blind.

In a handful of states it may be possible to accidentally find yourself in a common law marriage. Common law marriage requires that both parties want to be married, but that can become a "he said, she said" issue in a courtroom.

Thankfully I believe this is a relatively rare issue and as I said earlier, only a few states support the concept at all anymore.

aaronlidman• 13 years ago

In a similar vein, actor Dave Foley's divorce: (nsfw language) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaC-2lj6HNg

video tldr: He on a show in the 90s and making $1 mil+, the show was canceled and he was without a job but stuck with the child support and alimony of $17700 a month, which can't be adjusted down per the law. He hasn't been able to keep up and doesn't can't go to Canada to see his kids for fear of being arrested immediately.

seanc722• 13 years ago

IMO child support should have a limit... What child needs over 25k a year? I live off of that today as a student... I feel that the other parent would take a large portion of that money for themselves.

spking• 13 years ago

Thank you for posting this. Truly shocking stuff.

nateabele• 13 years ago

Yet another reason why all marriage should be handled by private contract. Solves so many problems.

malandrew• 13 years ago

Totes. I was shocked that missing alimony payments can land you in jail. It should be a purely civil matter.

Marriage as it currently exists is a stupid arrangement. One size does not fit all. It's an opt-in to all sorts of contractual rights and obligations/responsibilities, which two consenting adults should review the same way they review any contract. Instead there should be a form with all the obligations that you could have as part of marriage and you checkmark those that box you and your spouse-to-be agree to.

Basically this checkbox form could basically be made up of all the items on this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_and_responsibilities_of_...

Jail Becomes Home for Husband Stuck With Lifetime Alimony

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