“Dissolution of Marriage” is the legal proceeding in Florida to get a divorce and end your marriage. The court case will also include deciding everything about your children, your property, support, alimony, debts and attorney’s fees. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Florida does not require you to prove “fault” or that someone did something wrong. If you believe that your marriage is over and you have reasons to believe that the marriage is over, the courts must give you a divorce. Your spouse cannot stop you from getting a divorce. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
How long do I have to live in Florida to get a divorce?
Six months. Check your driver’s license. If it was issued more than six months ago, you have already proved you can get a divorce in Florida. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
There is only a short 20 day waiting period from the time you file your divorce case until the Family Law judge can give you a divorce. The actual time it takes will depend on the issues in your case and whether or not your divorced is contested. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
The divorce itself is not contested. If you ask the Court to give you a divorce, the court must give you a divorce. “Contested” means that the issues about your children, your finances, support, alimony, property, debts and attorney’s fees have not been decided. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Even if you and your spouse reach an agreement, one of you will have to go to Court for a short hearing to finalize your case. Until everything is settled, you may have to attend hearings or a trial for the Judge to make decisions. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Mediation is a meeting between you and your lawyer and your spouse and lawyer, with an independent neutral person, called a Mediator. The Mediator does not decide your case. The Mediator is trained to help you and your spouse reach an agreement about some or all of the issues in your case. Anything that is agreed in Mediation will be put in a written agreement that you and your spouse will sign. The Judge will then enter an Order that approves your agreement. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Florida does not have “custody”. In most cases, both parents have the opportunity to remain active with the children, and both parents spend time with the children. In Florida, you will create a Parenting Plan that will decide important matters such as decision making, education, religious upbringing, timesharing with the other parent, child support, health insurance and other issues for your children. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Shared parenting means that Mom and Dad are still Mom and Dad, and participate in school activities, have access to records, spend time with the children and must agree on major decisions regarding bringing up your children, such as education, religion, and other important matters for your children. The rights and responsibilities of shared parenting will be written out in your Parenting Plan. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Your Parenting Plan is the written document that sets the guidelines for making decision about your children, sharing time with your children, supporting your children and any other mater important for your family and your children. Often, you and your spouse will settle these issues and your attorney will write up a Parenting Plan for you to sign. If you and your spouse cannot settle these issues, the Judge will hear from you and your spouse, and other witnesses, and decide a Parenting Plan for you. The Judge will consider many factors to decide what is best for the children. The factors include which parent has been caring for the children, which parent is more involved with the children and many other factors. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
People often talk about visitation or contact when the children are with the other parent. In Florida, the parents share the time with the children. By Agreement or by a Judge’s decision, the time sharing arrangement will decide when the children are with the parents for school nights, weekends, holidays and vacation times. There is NOT a “standard” time sharing schedule. Timesharing should be designed especially for your family, and what makes sense for your children. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Sadly, in some cases, the other parent is not fit to be with the children or take care of the children. In these situations, the Court can order supervised and limited contact between the bad parent and the children, and take other actions to safeguard your children. The Court can enter an Injunction to keep the other parent away from the children. The Court can appoint experts in psychology and child matters to make recommendations about how to protect the children. The Court can appoint independent persons (like Guardian ad Litems or Home Studies) to investigate the best interests of the children and make recommendations about parenting and timesharing matters. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Florida has a law called the “Relocation Statute”. The law says that once you have a divorce case or a Parenting Plan you cannot move the children more than 50 miles unless the other parent agrees or the Court says that you can. The law has a number of factors to consider, such as the reason for the move, how involved the non-moving parent has been with the children, and other important matters to decide if a move is in the best interests of the children. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
There is a child support statute. Your income and your spouse’s income are used to determine the support need of the children. The costs for child care and health insurance are also paid in child support. The amount of child support will also depend on the time that the children spend with each parent. The parent having to pay child support will pay a percentage of the child’s need for support, child care and health insurance. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Alimony is support that one spouse pays to the other spouse. Alimony can be permanent (usually until remarriage of the person getting alimony, death of either party, retirement or some other reason to end support); rehabilitative (to give the party time to get more education or training to be self-supporting); or for a period of time to help a party get “back on their feet”. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Alimony depends on many factors. The lengthen of the marriage, the income of each party, medical conditions and other special needs, education and other reasons will determine whether your case will include alimony. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
There are no simple guidelines like there are for calculating child support. If alimony is appropriate in your case, the expenses of the person receiving alimony (the need) and the income of the person paying alimony (the ability to pay) will be closely analyzed to determine the amount of alimony in your case. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
How do we divide our property? What is Equitable Distribution?
Dividing the marital property is called “Equitable Distribution”. As a starting point, property that you get during the marriage is going to be divided 50/50. Property includes houses, cars, boats, furniture, bank accounts, retirement accounts, investments and all other assets. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
While many cases are 50/50, in some cases, there is a reason for an unequal dividing of the property, like special contributions to the property or wasting assets. There are factors and reasons in Florida law for you to get more than 50% of the assets in appropriate cases. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Your house is usually your most valuable asset, even in bad economic times. In divorce cases, the house can be sold, and the parties divide the proceeds; or one party “buys out” the other party’s interest in the house. If you have children, you may need your house to have a home for your children. In that case, the Judge may decide that you stay in the house with the children until the children are out of high school. Once the children are adults, the house is sold. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Often, the family business is the main source of income for the family. You have worked hard to grow your business. It may be important to keep the business intact to make sure that there is enough income for you and your children. If your spouse has an interest in the business, your spouse sometimes can be paid for that interest over time. Calculating the actual value of the business is a complex accounting task. We can hire valuation experts to make sure that the business is valued fairly, and that even in divorce, the business can remain active and thriving. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Can my spouse get my property I had before we got married?
Usually, property you have before the marriage is your property. However, if your spouse has made a contribution to the improvement or maintenance of the property, your spouse may have a claim to part of the property. Also, if you have mixed (“co-mingled”) your property with marital property, like in a bank account, your spouse may have a claim to the mixed property. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Debts are decided the same way as property, and are divided between the parties. Often, the debts are divided equally. In some cases, there may be a special reason that one person should pay a particular debt, especially if it is the financing for the assets given to that party, or if the party has wasted or spent the money for a non-marital purpose. Unfortunately, sometimes the debts are high or even more than the assets. In that case, you may want to consider filing bankruptcy. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
Maybe. When one spouse makes a lot more money than the other spouse, or has a lot more assets, the Court may order the spouse with the income/assets to pay the other spouse’s attorney’s fees. There is no simple guideline on paying attorney’s fees or deciding on the amount of attorney’s fees your spouse pays. We do expect you to pay for our fees, but if your case is an appropriate case to ask for attorney fees from the other party, we will aggressively seek reimbursement for you. Please contact us for an immediate consultation.
