Under current law, alimony payers may try to modify payments if the recipient is cohabiting, but proving it is a nearly impossible standard.
As a mark of the current vogue for alimony over matrimony, "Committed" has sold 200,000 copies in the United States, according to BookScan; "Eat, Pray, Love" has sold five million copies.
Instead, they would be forced to pay off some or all of those debts under a court-supervised plan, even if that puts the payment of old credit-card bills in competition with the payment of current child support, alimony and other court-ordered expenditures.
However, if the judge agrees that the ex-husband can no longer afford to pay the current amount of alimony, that judge can decide to reduce those required payments.
The current zeal for alimony "reform" in legislatures around the country means that more than ever, women need to do what they can to protect their financial futures both before they marry and during their marriages.
After emerging from bankruptcy, they would still be responsible for paying off some of their unsecured debts, even if that meant dividing their paychecks between old credit-card bills and current child-support payments, alimony and other court-enforced obligations.
Even though a good many family lawyers believe there are problems with the current cohabitation laws, the alimony reform package, including the cohabitation provisions, died in the Judiciary Committee.
Here's the tax angle: Often a husband can't make his steep alimony payments from current income without compromising his lifestyle.
Besides, since alimony payments under current divorce decrees will be treated the same way as under the old law, the lines will have to stay.
