Alimony in New Jersey: types, how long it lasts, and the 2014 law

How alimony is decided in New Jersey

There is no statewide alimony calculator in New Jersey. A judge looks at the specific facts of the marriage and weighs the factors in N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23(b). If the judge gives some factors more weight than others, the court has to explain why in written findings.

Alimony can also be agreed on by the spouses in a settlement agreement, which is how most cases end. Even then, lawyers and mediators use the same statutory factors to frame the negotiation.

Alimony and child support are separate. Child support follows the guidelines, while alimony is decided under the statutory factors, and the two are often negotiated together because both depend on the same incomes. The way property is divided also affects alimony, since a spouse who receives income-producing assets may need less ongoing support.

• The actual need and ability of the parties to pay
• The length of the marriage or civil union
• Each party's age and physical and emotional health
• The standard of living during the marriage and the likelihood each can maintain a reasonably comparable one
• Earning capacity, education, skills and employability
• Time out of the job market and parenting responsibilities
• Time and cost needed to get education or training
• Financial and non-financial contributions, including homemaking and child care
• Equitable distribution of property and income from investments
• Tax treatment, temporary (pendente lite) support already paid, and any other relevant factor

The four types of alimony

The 2014 reform law (P.L.2014, c.42) lists four types, and a judge can combine them if the situation calls for it.

Open durational alimony has no set end date. It replaced what people used to call permanent alimony for cases decided under the new law, and it is most common after long marriages. Even open durational alimony can be modified or ended later, for example at retirement or because of cohabitation.

Limited duration alimony is for a set period, often after shorter or mid-length marriages where the recipient needs support for a time but not indefinitely.

Rehabilitative alimony helps a spouse get the education or training needed to become self-supporting. It requires a plan showing the steps and the time frame.

Reimbursement alimony repays a spouse who supported the other through advanced education, expecting to share in the benefit. It cannot be modified for any reason.

The 20-year rule on duration

One of the biggest changes in 2014 was a cap on duration for shorter marriages. For a marriage or civil union of less than 20 years, the total length of alimony generally cannot exceed the length of the marriage.

The law allows a longer term in exceptional circumstances. Those include the ages of the spouses at marriage and at the time of the award, the degree and length of financial dependency, a chronic illness or unusual health issue, one spouse giving up a career or supporting the other's career, receiving a disproportionate share of property, the effect on becoming self-supporting (including being a primary caretaker of a child), tax considerations, and other equitable factors.

Retirement

Under the reformed statute, there is a rebuttable presumption that alimony ends when the paying spouse reaches full retirement age as defined by Social Security. The court can keep alimony going after considering a list of factors, such as both spouses' ages and health, their assets, the recipient's dependency and retirement savings, and other relevant facts.

A payer who wants to retire before full retirement age has to show that the early retirement is reasonable and made in good faith. Unpaid alimony that has already built up is not wiped out by retirement.

Cohabitation

Alimony can be suspended or terminated if the recipient cohabits with another person. The law defines cohabitation as a mutually supportive, intimate personal relationship with the kind of duties and privileges usually found in marriage. The couple does not have to live together full time.

Courts look at intertwined finances such as joint accounts, sharing living expenses, recognition of the relationship by friends and family, living arrangements and how often they see each other, sharing household chores, and how long the relationship has lasted.

Temporary support while the divorce is pending

Divorces can take months or longer, and one spouse may need help paying bills in the meantime. New Jersey courts can order temporary support, called pendente lite support, while the case is pending. Its goal is generally to keep the financial situation steady until the final judgment.

The amount of pendente lite support paid is one of the factors the court weighs later when it sets final alimony, under N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23(b). The statute also lets a judge order one spouse to contribute to the other's legal and expert fees when the financial situation makes that fair, which can matter when one spouse controls most of the money.

Temporary orders are not a preview of the final result. Judges often set them quickly based on limited information, and the final alimony decision is made after full financial disclosure.

Older orders and changes over time

The 2014 changes took effect immediately but do not rewrite the duration of alimony already set in a final judgment, a final post-judgment order, or an enforceable written agreement made before the law. For those older orders, reaching full retirement age is treated as a good-faith retirement age, which matters when a payer asks to modify or end payments.

Apart from these specific rules, either spouse can ask the court to modify alimony (other than reimbursement alimony) based on a substantial change in circumstances, such as a significant involuntary drop in income.

Because modification requests turn on specific facts, keeping good records helps either side. Payers should keep proof of every payment, and both spouses should hold on to tax returns and job records, which often become the key evidence if a change in circumstances is later argued in court.