Alimony, sometimes called spousal support, is very contentious in Florida. There are very specific rules and laws that control how to terminate it, how to lower the cost and how it is awarded. Alimony could be awarded in two ways, either through an order of the court or through the agreement of the parties.
According to MyDomaine, agreement of the parties includes a property settlement agreement, a prenuptial agreement, or a post-nuptial agreement. The court is unable to modify the alimony awarded through these agreements because technically, contract law controls those situations. Parties should always be careful when entering into an agreement to make sure that the alimony is something that they can afford to pay from the time that they enter the agreement until the agreement calls for the end of the alimony.
According to Forbes, the second way that alimony could be awarded is through order of the court. This generally happens after a trial or hearing where the court decides how much alimony that the spouse should get. There are two types of alimony that the court will award: permanent or temporary. Both of these types of alimony can be modified if the right conditions are met. This is called a substantial material change. Parties must prove to the court that at the time they are asking for the change, their circumstances are different from the time that the order was actually entered.
To prove this, the parties must show a change in their earned income. They must also show that this change was not caused by any fault of their own. Quitting their job would not be a substantial reason to the court to change their alibi. However, being fired from their job because of no fault of their own may change the alimony.