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received. Conversely, spousal support payments are tax deduct-
ible to the payor. Finally, a custodial parent who receives alimony
may get a reduced level of child support.
Whatever happened to alimony for life? Alimony is one of the areas
of divorce law that has undergone the most dramatic revision
during the last few years. For starters, at least 22 states (includ-
ing Hawai‘i) now routinely refuse to consider marital fault in
ordering alimony. Yet, all of us probably knew somebody who
got a divorce in the fifties or sixties in which the wife got alimony
for life. Nowadays, however, alimony for life is a real rarity. In
fact, any alimony at all is fairly rare. In Hawai‘i, the courts are
reluctant to award alimony—it is ordered in less than 10 percent
of all cases.
Hawai‘i is at the conservative end of the spectrum. Nation-
wide, alimony is awarded in approximately 15 percent of all cases.
Some jurisdictions—Wisconsin and California—for example, still
place a substantial emphasis on alimony. Awards of alimony are
more common in a higher percentage of those states’ cases and
often for a longer duration. California will still award alimony
for life to women who are older or have health problems or have
been in long-term marriages. Of course, the community property
laws in California usually dictate that the maximum property set-
tlement award is one-half.
Alimony vs. property settlement. An interwoven tradeoff between
awards of alimony and property settlements is frequently utilized
to achieve supposedly comparable overall results in different
jurisdictions. The judges under Hawai‘i’s equitable distribution
system, for example, are pretty tight on actual awards of alimony,
but will often “equitably” compensate by giving a larger share
(perhaps 60 to 70 percent) of the property to the economically
disadvantaged spouse. A judge in California, on the other hand, is
not allowed to deviate from the community property guidelines,
and hence cannot generally award the lower-earning spouse more
than 50 percent of the property. Instead, the court may attempt to
balance things out with an award of alimony.
“Rehabilitative” alimony? Pursuant to both statute and court
precedents in many jurisdictions, alimony is now often awarded
with the specific mandate that it be rehabilitative in nature. (Please