Alimony in Florida changed fundamentally in 2023
For cases filed on or after July 1, 2023, Florida eliminated permanent alimony. Senate Bill 1416 rewrote Fla. Stat. § 61.08, and the new framework is built around a single idea: support should be a bridge to financial independence, not a lifetime arrangement. If you researched alimony a few years ago — or are relying on what a friend's divorce looked like — much of what you learned no longer applies.
Alimony is still decided in two steps. First, the court asks whether one spouse has an actual need for support and whether the other has the ability to pay. Only if both answers are yes does the court reach the second question: what type, how much, and for how long — guided by factors including the length of the marriage, each spouse's earning capacity and resources, the standard of living during the marriage, and each spouse's age, health, and contributions (including years spent raising children or supporting a career).
The four types of alimony Florida law now allows
- Temporary alimony supports a spouse while the divorce itself is pending. It ends when the case does, and it is often the most urgent issue in the early weeks of a case.
- Bridge-the-gap alimony covers identifiable, short-term needs in the transition from married to single life — a deposit, a car, the months until a house sells. It cannot exceed two years and cannot be modified in amount or duration once awarded.
- Rehabilitative alimony funds a specific, written plan to rebuild earning capacity — finishing a degree, renewing a license, completing training. It may not exceed five years, and the plan itself matters: vague aspirations don't get funded; concrete plans do.
- Durational alimony provides support for a set period after the divorce. It is available only for marriages of at least three years, and its length is capped by the length of the marriage: up to 50% of a short-term marriage (under 10 years), 60% of a moderate-term marriage (10–20 years), and 75% of a long-term marriage (20 years or more). The amount is capped at the recipient's reasonable need or 35% of the difference between the spouses' net incomes, whichever is less.
What this means in practice
The reform did not make alimony automatic in either direction — it made alimony cases more mathematical, and that cuts both ways. For the spouse seeking support, the case is won by documenting need precisely: a real budget, a real earning-capacity picture, a rehabilitative plan concrete enough for a judge to fund. For the spouse expecting to pay, the caps and the 35%-of-income-difference ceiling are meaningful protections, but only if net income is calculated correctly on both sides — and income is exactly where alimony cases get contested, from overtime and bonuses to a business owner's true earnings.
Shelley has practiced family law in Polk County since 1990 — through the old law, the reform debates, and the new statute. She builds alimony positions the same way she builds every case: documented, conservative where the law is unsettled, and negotiated from numbers the other side can't easily dismiss. Alimony also never stands alone; it interlocks with property division and child support, and a well-negotiated settlement treats the three as one financial picture.
Modification and enforcement
Durational and rehabilitative awards can generally be modified when circumstances change substantially — an involuntary job loss, a serious health change, or the payor's retirement, which the 2023 statute now addresses expressly. Bridge-the-gap alimony cannot be modified. If an ex-spouse simply stops paying court-ordered support, enforcement through the court is available, and the sooner it starts, the cleaner it goes.
Key law: Fla. Stat. § 61.08 (alimony, as amended by ch. 2023-315, SB 1416); § 61.14 (modification and enforcement).
Common questions about Florida alimony
For new cases, yes. Courts cannot award permanent alimony in cases filed on or after July 1, 2023. Permanent awards entered under the old law still exist and remain enforceable, though the new statute affects how modification — particularly at retirement — is analyzed. If you're paying or receiving under an older judgment, that's a conversation worth having before assuming anything.
It depends on the type. Bridge-the-gap is capped at two years, rehabilitative at five, and durational at a percentage of the marriage's length — 50% for marriages under 10 years, 60% for 10–20 years, and 75% for marriages of 20 years or more. Within those ceilings, the actual duration is argued case by case.
Florida is a no-fault state, but § 61.08 expressly lets the court consider adultery by either spouse — chiefly its economic consequences, such as marital money spent on the affair. It is one factor among many, not an automatic penalty or windfall.
Yes — spouses can settle support on terms a court might not have ordered, and most alimony outcomes are negotiated rather than tried. But an agreement is only as good as its drafting: whether it's modifiable, what ends it, how it's secured. Those details are where careless settlements come apart years later.
Alimony generally ends at the death of either party or the recipient's remarriage, and the statute directs courts to reduce or terminate support where the recipient is in a supportive relationship — living with a partner in a financially interdependent way. Payor retirement can also support modification under the 2023 framework. Each of these is fact-driven, which is a polite way of saying: documented or it didn't happen.
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