Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: New Jersey caps alimony duration at the length of the marriage for marriages under 20 years, but that cap does not apply to 20-plus-year marriages, and separately creates a rebuttable presumption that alimony ends at the payor’s full retirement age.
The rule that changes the answer in New Jersey
Under N.J.S. 2A:34-23(c) and (j), as amended by P.L.2014, c.42: “For any marriage or civil union less than 20 years in duration, the total duration of alimony shall not, except in exceptional circumstances, exceed the length of the marriage or civil union.”
What this means for duration
The under-20-year duration cap does not apply to marriages of 20 years or longer; those marriages are eligible for open-durational alimony, subject to the separate full-retirement-age rebuttable termination presumption in subsection (j).
Why this matters for a later-life divorce
The 20-year line is the exact hinge point separating a capped-duration award from open-durational eligibility, which is the central question a long-married divorcing spouse in New Jersey needs answered.
Read it yourself
Read the full official text before relying on any figure here. Alimony law is fact-specific and this rule is only one input to a court’s decision, not a guaranteed outcome. This is a source-backed planning guide, not individualized legal advice.
Read directly from the official enacted Public Law PDF at pub.njleg.gov, the New Jersey Legislature’s own bill-archive domain (the codified-statute search portal has no fetchable per-section URL); this is the actual 2014 act that put the current text into force, not a mirror.
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