Contracts and Cocktails

We have all heard the following phrase a million times: marriage is a contract.  But is it?  A quick perusal of the internet gives you a fairly standard definition of the word "contract," which tends to be the same from state to state in this fine country of ours:

contract 1) n. an agreement with specific terms between two or more persons or entities in which there is a promise to do something in return for a valuable benefit known as consideration. Since the law of contracts is at the heart of most business dealings, it is one of the three or four most significant areas of legal concern and can involve variations on circumstances and complexities. 

The existence of a contract requires finding the following factual elements: 

a) an offer; 

b) an acceptance of that offer which results in a meeting of the minds; 

c) a promise to perform; 

d) a valuable consideration (which can be a promise or payment in some form); 

e) a time or event when performance must be made (meet commitments); 

f) terms and conditions for performance, including fulfilling promises; 

g) performance. 

Contracts can be either written or oral, but oral contracts are more difficult to prove and in most jurisdictions the time to sue on the contract is shorter.

Marriage does not meet any of these conditions.  In addition, if you buy a car in Oregon, there are many requirements pertaining to providing the purchaser with all the relevant information so they are not taken advantage of by the seller.  In other words, the state seeks to protect its citizenry by ensuring they enter into a contract with full knowledge and with eyes wide open.

On the other hand, you can go to a county office anywhere in the state and apply for a marriage license, but nobody there will explain to you what your rights and responsibilities are once you tie the knot (the knot that may someday feel like a noose if you are hit with alimony payments).

Because I am working today and because I promised my son we would go see The Hunger Games, this post will be brief.  I plan to go much further in depth in terms of analyzing why a marriage is not a contract in a future post.  But I would point out today that marriage is the only contract I am aware of in which a party has no idea what they are promising, no written terms to review, no real consideration, and if the other party breaches the contract, the non-breaching party can pay unlimited damages until the day they die.  The court doesn't care who breached and who did not, they only consider how hard one party worked to earn income, and then they punish you for it.

I will be hosting a cocktail party so we can all get to know each other better and strategize for the hearings coming up this summer.  Please email me at robindescamp@yahoo.com and let me know if you can attend on April 28 and how many people you will be bringing.  Anyone interested in reforming this broken and sexist system is welcome to attend!

Why Alimony Reform in Oregon?

As our OAR group spreads the word about the reform movement, we are often asked, "Why does Oregon need alimony reform?"  This question comes from people who have had no experience with the issue either personally or within their group of friends and family (lucky people, they are!).  When we enlighten these folks as to the current state of alimony law in Oregon, we have found that each one of them is shocked that in 2012, the laws are as they are.

Did you know:

If you agree to an alimony amount during a divorce settlement or have one ordered against you by a judge should you go to trial, modification in the event of income loss is prohibitively expensive to seek and very difficult to obtain?  

Case in point: Andy is married for 25 years.  At the time of divorce, he is earning $13,000 per month and paying his ex-wife, who works full-time, $2,500 per month in alimony.  In the economic collapse, Andy loses his job.  In the meantime, his former spouse moves her boyfriend into her home and continues working full time.  Andy seeks a modification, and uses up most of his savings to finally get in front of a judge.  For his efforts, he is rewarded with a reduction of $500 per month.  Andy is now earning $1,800 per month in unemployment, while $2,000 goes to his working former spouse.  Andy therefore has a deficit of $200 per month with no money for his own expenses.

Did you know:

It is complete irrelevant whether the earning spouse wanted the non-earning spouse to work during the marriage?

Case in point: Charles married Sally when they were both fresh out of college (he graduated, she did not).  They decided together to have children, with the understanding that Sally would complete her college degree and seek employment once the children were enrolled in school.  Charles paid for Sally to obtain her degree, and then spent the next 15 years asking her to go back to work, as per their agreement.  Sally refused.  Sally filed for divorce years later, and is awarded 50% of the assets and 50% of Charles' retirement account.  She is also awarded "indefinite" (read: permanent) alimony, and Charles now pays over 56% of his income to her.  Sally now works, but has chosen a commission-based profession in which she had no experience during a time when that industry was at an all-time low.  

Did you know:

It is irrelevant what led to the breakdown of the marriage when alimony is being determined?

Case in point: Ted and Cathy are married for 20 years.  Cathy is an attorney and Ted is a stay-at-home parent.  Ted reconnects with his high school girlfriend through Facebook, and falls in love with her.  He leaves Cathy and the kids for his new/old love, and is awarded indefinite spousal support in return.  The divorce coincides with a big year for Cathy at work, but since she is a partner in a law firm, her income varies wildly from year to year.  As a result, while the original alimony award to Ted was 35% of her income, it is now 60%.  She would like to seek a modification but all her money must go to running the home and supporting the children.

What does OAR hope to accomplish?

Fundamentally, OAR believes that an alimony payer should not have a permanent or indefinite duty to maintain a former spouse’s chosen standard of living, but rather that each former spouse should be entitled to a fair and equitable standard of living for a reasonable but limited period of time post divorce.

  

Oregon is one of fourteen States that has recently seen the collective formation of alimony advocacy groups and legislators are listening. In 2011, Massachusetts implemented sweeping alimony reforms, Florida’s House Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved the drafting of a new alimony bill and New Jersey’s Judiciary Committee voted in favor of a bill dealing with alimony reform.

We are working towards the holistic amendment of alimony laws in Oregon.  Our agenda for alimony reform includes:

1. limiting the duration of alimony payments to a reasonable period of time;
2. establishment of a set of guidelines, similar to those used in child support calculations, to provide predictability and consistency in alimony judgments;
3. a rebuttable presumption that the standard of living post-divorce will be lower than that enjoyed during the marriage; 
4. excluding the income of a payer’s romantic partners and future spouses in determining alimony amounts; 
5. the end of alimony payments on remarriage or cohabitation of recipient;
6. limits on the maximum amounts of alimony payable;
7. automatic termination of alimony payments upon good-faith retirement; and
8. a streamlined process for modifications when the payer suffers a decline in income. 

OAR and its many supporters have identified the urgent need for an equitable alimony calculator, similar to the child support model. This will give divorcing parties clarity, predictability and reasonable alimony amounts.  As it stands now, alimony awards vary wildly from case to case and from county to county in Oregon.  In addition, even if the payer is unable to make the alimony payment because of a decline in income, and regardless of whether the recipient actually needs the payment, modifications are expensive and hard to obtain.

OAR is working tirelessly to ensure that arbitrary and indefinite alimony awards become a legacy of the past.  We have been approached by numerous alimony payers who struggle simply to make ends meet, while their previous spouses enjoy the fruits of their labor indefinitely. Many alimony payers are legally forced into a lifetime of servitude, working solely to benefit adults capable of exercising some responsibility for their own lives. 

With over 40% of marriages ending in divorce, the negative economic impact of this current situation on payers and their subsequent families is enormous. We invite alimony payers to join their voices to ours and encourage them to contact us and share their stories in any of the following ways:

• OAR Facebook page (www.facebook.com/oregon.alimony.reform), 
• OAR email (or.alimony.reform@gmail.com), 
• OAR website: http://sites.google.com/site/oregonalimonyreform), or 
• OAR phone: 503-303-8422
• Text 42828 with the subject "OAR" to be placed on our mailing list

Thank you for your support of Oregon Alimony Reform.

Reform is a freight train - get on board or get out of the way!

Dear readers:

I am thrilled to report that we have made much progress in the past few weeks, and there is a momentum building that is long-overdue yet much appreciated by OAR (Oregon Alimony Reform).  While we work tirelessly (well, that's not really true, we are pretty tired) to reform the broken, unfair and antiquated alimony system here in Oregon, we are also working with our brothers and sisters in Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina and elsewhere throughout the US to form a unified nationwide movement.

I am also happy to report that the forces who will likely oppose reform (the Oregon divorce lawyers) are aware of our progress.  This means we have already achieved one of our major objectives: getting the word out.  We are willing to engage in a conversation with the other side and hopefully some middle ground can be identified.

A special thanks goes out today to Jennifer and Nicole, my fellow 2nd Wives/new Girlfriends members.  Women are really a driving force of the reform movement, and I appreciate all they do.  These are strong, independent and proud professionals, who know that the alimony system is an insult to women in general.  The insidious nature of low expectations as illustrated by alimony can only harm women, not help them.  Or any recipient, be they male or female (though research shows over 96% of payers are men).

My day is swamped today with work so I will keep this short.  Thank you for reading.

Let's get this party started!

Tom and I finally found people focused on this issue enough that they have established a grassroots organization: OAR, which stands for Oregon Alimony Reform.  We have a Facebook page www.facebook.com/oregon.alimony.reform as well as a website: sites.google.com/site/oregonalimonyreform

We have met with several legislators and are finalizing our goals that will be put into proposed legislation.  Major points include:

1. Alimony terminates upon retirement of payor
2. Alimony will be limited by amount based on percentage of income differential (we are aiming for 30%)
3. Alimony to be limited by time (10 years maximum) 
4. Compensatory alimony is modifiable
5. If payor loses his or her job, they can get an emergency hearing for alimony suspension
6. If payor remarries, new spouse's income cannot be considered in alimony proceedings. 

Our friends in Massachusetts made this happen and our friends in Florida almost got it passed last week.  Unfortunately for Florida, the bill was sponsored by a politician who hid his connections to the Florida Bar lobbying machine.  Although it passed overwhelmingly in the House, when it came time to put it to a vote in the Senate, this politician (Senator Diaz de la Portilla) hijacked the bill that he sponsored and refused to bring it to the floor for a vote.

It turns out Senator de la Portilla is law partners with the main lobbyist for the Florida Bar Association, which is waging an all-out war against alimony reform.  Why would the Florida Bar Association fight reform?  

Simply put, the uncertainty surrounding current alimony laws in many states, including Oregon, is a financial windfall for divorce practitioners.  Since there are no support guidelines such as those used when determining child support, and since judge's rulings are highly arbitrary and vary wildly from case to case, the subject of alimony is heavily litigated.  Obviously, the more the parties battle over alimony, the more the divorce lawyer earns, thereby depleting the funds of the family and leaving many people in ruin.

Here in Oregon, we are organizing a grassroots movement to reform alimony laws and level the playing field.  The times have long since passed that women are unable to compete in the workplace and raise a family at the same time.  I know, because I do it.  If a husband and wife want to have a marriage in which the wife agrees she will stay at home forever and never have a career, I encourage those couples to have a contractual agreement that provides for alimony should the parties divorce.  But the state should not be involved.

Karl Marx famously said "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."  Alimony is the perfect illustration of Marxism in action.  In this economy, only those who pay suffer financial downfalls.  Alimony recipients, many of whom are college educated, working, and have large sums of money in the bank, suffer no such decline.  If the parties were still married, they would incur the financial losses together.  Now, only one party experiences the discomfort of a loss of income.  

If you have found this blog and have a horror story to share, please email it to alimony.reform.oregon@gmail.com.  Watch this space, things are happening!