For the past decade, divorce lawyers and family law judges have been grappling with a major question left open when the legislature passed an amendment to the alimony statute, which, for the first time, referenced "cohabitation" as a basis for adjusting alimony payments.

It may sound like a niche issue, but the resulting confusion over how parties can prove their former spouse is cohabitating with another and what the minimum evidentiary threshold is for bringing such claims led to thousands of motions being filed, countless hours of argument and a patchwork of case law, where a certain argument or factual showing in one county could lead to completely different results in the next county over.