There is much discussion and controversy surrounding the potential changes to the alimony law in Florida; but there are additional overhauls to Florida’s matrimonial laws lurking. Florida Senate Bill 58 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate’s Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee on Monday, April 8, 2013.  This bill is commonly known as the “sharia law bill”. This bill will apply to initial Final Judgments as well as modification or enforcement orders. If this legislation passes, Florida courts will be permitted to refuse to enforce provisions in agreements incorporated into Final Judgments or stipulated Orders, even if the agreement contains a forum selection clause, if the court finds that the laws of the other state in which the agreement was executed does not provide its people with the same fundamental rights contained in our state constitution, or the United States Constitution. Therefore, the applicability of foreign divorce law may be completely eliminated. The potential consequences of same are denoted in  the attached article, “Barkey, Osorio and Simon: Jewish divorce laws threatened in Tallahassee” by David Barkey, Carlos Osorio, and Howard Simon. A copy of the draft bill for reference is also attached.

SB 58

Article on foreign law bill