State Rep. Colleen Burton’s alimony “reform” bill is anti-young-husbands. As a circuit judge, I found that divorcing young men who had been married fewer than 10 years were seldom ordered to pay alimony unless the wife could prove to a judge that there were special circumstances. Those special situations are eliminated by Burton’s anti-young-man bill.

In place of the long-established special rules, Burton’s bill “presumes” alimony after only two years of marriage, “absent an agreement of the parties." For a marriage of eight years, alimony could be required for up to six years.

The amount of alimony and the length of time a young man will have to pay it under this bill have no basis in real life. Burton, a Lakeland Republican, or whoever wrote this bill for her, made the ranges up from whole cloth.

I suspect that the folks who elected Donald Trump will not like what Burton is doing. The next election is almost two years away. By then, young men who are paying alimony after two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight years of marriage will be reminded who put them on the hook. Their families and friends will know, too.

Robert Doyel

Circuit judge (Ret.)

Winter Haven