Alimonys Job Lock
Abstract
In family law, courts often prevent people who owe alimony from changing jobs: if a job change is accompanied by a salary decrease, the court will not readjust the alimony obligation and instead impute the higher income to the obligor. This Article introduces the term “job lock” to describe this situation, borrowing the term from the healthcare context, wherein job immobility due to health insurance concerns has received significant scrutiny. This Article advocates applying the same scrutiny to the alimony context, proposing a balancing test to assist courts in recalculating alimony in the event of an obligor’s job change.
About the Speaker
Margaret Ryznar is Associate Professor at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, where she teaches and researches in the areas of family law, tax, and trusts & estates. Professor Ryznar is the author of over 40 publications on law, and her work has been featured in the media as well as cited in law journals and judicial materials. She edits the Family Law Prof Blog and is a contributor to the Huffington Post. Prior to joining the faculty in 2012, Professor Ryznar served as a law clerk to a federal appellate judge and practiced law with the oldest Wall Street law firm in the United States. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame Law School, where she served as an editor of the law review.