What's changing in divorce law in 2026: New York, New Jersey, and Florida
Divorce law keeps moving. If you're filing this year — even an uncontested case where you and your spouse agree on everything — the numbers behind your agreement have to match the current rules, or a judge can send the whole package back. Here's what changed across the three states we file in.
New York: higher income caps and new mandatory forms
As of March 1, 2026, New York raised the income caps that drive support math. The maintenance (spousal support) payor income cap rose from $228,000 to $241,000, and the child support combined parental income cap rose from $183,000 to $193,000. Both are routine inflation adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index (about 5.5%–5.7%), and they hold through February 28, 2028.
Smaller figures moved too: the self-support reserve climbed to $21,546 and the single-person federal poverty level to $15,960. Those set the floor for lower-income payors.
New Jersey: a new child support schedule and a new financial form
New Jersey refreshed its Child Support Guidelines on June 1, 2025, with a revised award schedule effective September 1, 2025, and another round of tax and poverty updates landing June 1, 2026. If you ran the numbers a year ago, run them again.
One change is worth flagging for parents: starting June 1, 2026, work-related childcare costs can generally only be folded into a child support calculation for children under 13 (absent special needs). If your support figure leans on childcare for a 13- or 14-year-old, expect it to drop.
Procedurally, since September 1, 2025 family lawyers must file the new Case Information Statement (CIS) — the financial disclosure that anchors both support and alimony. Filing on the old form invites delay. Alimony itself is unchanged in structure: open durational alimony (reserved for marriages of 20 years or more), limited duration, rehabilitative, and reimbursement, with no fixed formula.
Florida: life after the end of permanent alimony
Florida's 2023 overhaul (SB 1416) is now the settled baseline, and 2025 case law is filling in the edges. Permanent, lifetime alimony is gone. What remains is bridge-the-gap (up to 2 years), rehabilitative (up to 5 years), and durational alimony.
- Durational alimony can't be awarded for a marriage under 3 years.
- Its length is capped by the length of the marriage — roughly 50% for marriages under 10 years, 60% for 10 to 20 years, and 75% for over 20 years.
- The amount can't exceed the lesser of the recipient's reasonable need or 35% of the difference in the parties' net incomes.
- A paying spouse can ask to modify alimony at retirement.
In 2025, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal (LoConto v. LoConto) reminded trial judges they still have to square those new caps with real findings on need and ability to pay. The formula sets the ceiling; it isn't a rubber stamp.
What this means for an uncontested divorce
Even when you and your spouse agree on everything, a judge still has to sign off — and they check the math against the current rules. A settlement built on an outdated cap, the wrong worksheet, or an alimony term the statute no longer allows gets bounced, which quietly turns a "quick" divorce into months of back-and-forth. The whole point of doing it right the first time is clearing the court cleanly. That's the part we handle.
If you want to see roughly where your own numbers land under the current rules, the maintenance, child support, and cost calculators on our home page use these 2026 figures.
This article is general information, current as of June 2026, and not legal advice. Statutes and figures change; your case turns on its own facts.