VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE ALLOWS REHABILITATIVE ALIMONY

The 1998 General Assembly enacted Rehabilitative Alimony. This means that in Virginia, as in all other U.S. states, a court can now award alimony for a certain number of years, and not just until remarriage or death. Previously, a Virginia court could only make such an award if the spouses had already agreed on it.

HB 517 clarifies that a court may order alimony "for a defined duration". It also codifies and changes the law on reservations for all alimony awards. Refinements were made down to the last day of the session.

The bill, as introduced, contained rebuttable presumptions that any alimony would be permanent in long marriages (20 years or more) and only for a "defined duration" in short marriages (five years or less). The presumptions were dropped in the final version that was enacted. They were the key part of a compromise between different interested groups statewide that allowed the rehabilitative alimony bill finally to proceed without organized opposition.

Reservations of jurisdiction, instead, were subjected to a presumption. When a court reserves jurisdiction, there will be a rebuttable presumption that the reservation is for half the length of the marriage. "Once granted, the duration of such a reservation shall not be subject to modification." This means that the presumption is rebuttable only when the court is making the initial order - after the reservation is granted, its length is fixed and not "rebuttable". This change applies to all forms of alimony.

The amount or duration of "defined duration" alimony may be modified during the "duration," if there is a change of circumstances not reasonably contemplated by the parties, or if an event the court anticipated failed to happen "through no fault of the party" seeking modification. To facilitate this modification in the future,, "defined duration" orders may specify "the events and circumstances reasonably contemplated by the court which support the award."

Modification is still only allowed when the original award was contested, however, and not when it was the subject of a separation agreement that did not explicitly provide for modification.

The alimony factors concerning earning capacity and education are consolidated and refined. New additions to the factors: "the present employment opportunities for persons possessing such earning capacity"; "the extent to which the age, physical or mental condition or special circumstances of any child of the parties would make it appropriate" not to work; parties' contributions to each other's education; all life decisions made during the marriage; and the feasibility of further education or training. This change applies to all forms of alimony.

In contested cases, any order regarding alimony or even a reservation has to include written findings and conclusions "identifying the factors in subsection E which support" it. "Defined duration" (rehab) orders, in addition, have to do this separately for the award's "nature, amount and duration".

The "defined duration" does not have to be a term of years. Its beginning or end can also be "specified in relation to the occurrence or cessation of an event or condition."

Other 1998 legislation