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Plantation, Florida 33324
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Since Florida is a no-fault state, abuse, desertion, and drunkenness do not need to be proven in Court. These conditions may be crucial for fair distribution, alimony, and parenting plans. If counseling can heal your marriage, it’s not irreparably ruined. One of the parties – not both – must have lived in Florida for 6 months before filing the Petition for Divorce. You don’t need to be a Florida resident on the day of your final hearing, merely 6 months before your case begins. Your marriage must be valid. Never-married people can’t divorce. If you believe your marriage is invalid, you should consult a lawyer about the differences between divorce and annulment. If you have any further questions, please go to the FAQs or call the office.
Florida law requires that you be a Florida resident for the six months immediately preceding the filing of your Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. If you do not meet this requirement, Florida courts do not have needed jurisdiction over your marriage to terminate the marriage.
This is not a requirement that you and your spouse can agree to. For example, usually divorcing couples can agree on when they were married and how many children they have. If you tell the judge these things, he will believe you. However, you must present proof to the judge that you satisfy the residency requirement. Most commonly, this is done by showing the judge a valid Florida Driver’s license that was issued six month before the case began.
In order to be a Florida resident you must actually be in Florida with the intention of making Florida your permanent residence. For example, if you are currently residing in another state and intend to make Florida your residence, you do not become a Florida resident until you are actually in Florida with that same intention to remain in Florida.
In order to prove that you have the intention to remain in Florida, there must be some proof that you have made Florida your residence. Examples of such proof include owning a home in Florida, obtaining a Florida driver’s license, registering to vote in Florida, and banking in Florida.
The requirement that you be a resident for six months does not mean that you cannot leave Florida during that six month period. You are allowed to leave Florida during the six month period so long as you don’t do anything at your destination that is contrary to your residency in Florida.
It can be fairly easy to lose your Florida residency. As another example, suppose you were born, raised, and married in Florida. You leave the state with your spouse for a job in another state. Within days your marriage falls apart and you leave to return to Florida and file for divorce.
Your petition will likely be dismissed since you ceased being a Florida resident when you left for the other state with the intention of residing in that state. You are once again a Florida resident when you return, but you need to wait six months to file your Petition.
Lastly, many of these residency rules do not apply to military service members. Typically, they are residents where they are stationed and in the state that is their home of record.
As long as both parties agree, a divorce case can be filed in any county in Florida. For example, if a husband and wife were living together in Fort Lauderdale and decided to get divorced, they could file their case in Lee County or in any other county in Florida. This is usually done for privacy reasons.
However, this is not usually the way it works out. There is usually not an agreement between the parties on where you file your divorce case. In that situation, the general rule is that you file your divorce case in the county where the Husband and Wife last lived together as Husband and Wife.
For example, if a Husband and Wife live together in Fort Lauderdale, split up, and later wants to get divorced, no matter who files the case; they should file the case in Broward County.
If both parties have left the county when they last lived together as Husband and Wife, then the spouse who files the case should file in the county where the other spouse now lives. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, and you should consult with an attorney before you file a case in a situation like this.
The last scenario is if one person remains in Florida and the other Spouse has left Florida, the spouse remaining in Florida can file where they live even though that might not be where the parties last together as Husband and Wife.
For example, if the parties last lived together in Broward County, and the Wife moves to Georgia, and the Husband moves to Orlando, then he can file the divorce case in Orange County. You should consider the fact that – in this scenario – after six months, the Wife might be able to file for divorce in Georgia no matter where the Husband lives.
It is very important to remember that if you think your spouse has filed the case in the wrong county, you need bring that issue to the Court’s attention if your initial response to their filing of the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. If you don’t reply at the right time the court will treat that as your agreement that the county that they selected is correct.
If you have any other questions, please review the other frequently asked questions or give me a call at the office.
Inevitably, when couples break up, they lose track of each other. If you do not know where your spouse is and you want to get divorced, there is a solution.
Typically, as in most lawsuits, you must have a copy of your Complaint or Petition served on the other party. This process is fairly simple in most cases. However, it gets more complicated when you don’t know where your spouse is. If you have been unable to locate your spouse you must complete a two part process in order to give your spouse notice of the divorce case.
First, you need to complete a document called an Affidavit of Diligent Search. Basically, this document is a list of all the ways you searched for your spouse. You do not need to complete the entire search methods listed in the affidavit, but the more the better.
After the affidavit has been signed, notarized, and filed with the Clerk of Court, the Clerk will issue a document called a Notice of Action which must be published is a newspaper near the missing spouse’s last known address. This ad must run once per week for four consecutive weeks. The Notice of Action contains a cutoff date for the missing spouse’s reply.
If no reply is received – and such a reply would be rare – I request that the Clerk enter a default against the missing spouse. This has the same legal effect as if the missing spouse were handed the court documents and then failed to reply.
After the default has been entered, I schedule a default final hearing before the judge. This hearing only lasts a few minutes and at the end of the hearing the judge will usually sign your divorce judgment which dissolves your marriage.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
The complication arises due to the fact that under Florida law children born during a marriage are the legal children of the Husband. As a result of this situation, if the parties divorce, the court must determine a time sharing schedule and they must establish a child support amount.
In most cases that I have handled, when this situation occurs, neither the Husband nor the Wife wants or expects the Husband to pay child support. The problem is that the judge has very few options.
In order for the Husband to avoid a child support obligation he must have his legal rights to the child terminated. This can only be done if the court finds that the termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interest.
To show that the termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interest, the biological father needs to file an Affidavit of Paternity in the Wife’s divorce case. This affidavit needs to state that he is the biological father of the child and that he expects to assume the role of father in the child’s life.
Similarly, the Husband needs to file an Affidavit of Non-Paternity where he states that he is not the father of the child and wishes his rights to the child be terminated.
Lastly, the divorce order needs to state that the parental rights have been terminated.
This whole situation is greatly complicated if the biological father can’t or won’t sign his affidavit. Essentially, the court will not allow the child to be legally fatherless. And that, of course, is a problem for both parties.
If you have any other questions, please review the other frequently asked questions or give me a call in the office.
If you and your husband have already agreed on all problems, your case will be heard and closed quickly. I can meet a potential customer within a few days of being contacted.
After the client comes in and we discuss the agreement, I can usually return all the documentation needed for an uncontested divorce within a few days. After that, the client reviews the documents, and we make any necessary modifications.
After both sides approve the documents, they must be notarized, signed, and submitted to my office. After receiving the documents, I can electronically file them with the court clerk. After filing a case in Florida, you must wait 20 days for a final hearing.
In order to get an uncontested divorce, you and your spouse need to agree on all the issues that are raised in your case. The issues that commonly need to be addressed include: the division of property, the division of debts, alimony, the time both parties spend with their children and child support. Those last two – of course – only need to be addressed if you have children.
The division of property includes the division of personal property, land, homes, financial accounts – which include bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and also the division of vehicles. The division of debts includes any credit card bills, tax bills, any person you owe money to.
In regard to the children, you need to agree on the terms of a Parenting Plan which has to do with when each party gets to see the child.
If you can agree on all of these issues, you can get an uncontested divorce. In my practice, I can normally meet with a potential client a few days after they contact me. At the initial meeting, we will discuss your agreement. In a few days after that, you will receive all the documents you need for an uncontested divorce. After you review the documents, I will make any changes that are needed and then you will have a set of documents that you and the other party are 100% fine with. All of those documents need to be signed and notarized and then returned to my office so I can electronically file them with the Clerk of Court.
Following the filing, you can expect to have your Final Hearing in about 4 to 6 weeks following the date of the filing. On rare occasions you can have the hearing in as little as 3 weeks – but like I said that is rare.
I will go with you to the courthouse to the hearing and see the judge. I will ask you some simple questions in from of the judge. The judge will sign your order and you will walk out of the hearing room that day with a copy of divorce order and your case will be finalized and closed. If you have any other questions, please review the other frequently asked questions or give me a call at the office.
The first question that needs to be answered is “What will happen with your marital assets. Simply, marital assets are those assets that you and your spouse have acquired during your marriage if you can’t come to an agreement on the division of your marital assets, the judge will do it for you.
Normally, you can take out of the marriage what you bring into the marriage. These types of assets are called non-marital assets. Of course, there are always exceptions to these general rules.
For an uncontested divorce, you and your spouse need to agree of the division of the marital assets. Marital assets typically include house, land, financial accounts (such as a checking account, a savings account, or an investment accounts) they also include retirement accounts (such as an IRA, 401(k), or pension), vehicles, and personal property (such as clothes, jewelry, electronics, and tools).
The second question that you need to answer for an uncontested divorce is “What happens with your marital debts?”
Similar to how assets are treated, in an uncontested divorce you and your spouse will need to agree on how the marital debts are divided. Marital debts are simply those debts that were incurred during the marriage and typically include mortgage and rent payments, credit card debt, car payments, personal loans, and any payments to creditors.
The third question that you need address is will there be any alimony, and if so, how much and for how long. Alimony does not need to be paid forever. Potentially, it can be paid for a fixed length of time. Any alimony award is based on one spouse’s ability to pay the alimony and the other spouse’s need to receive the alimony. It is also based on the duration of your marriage. If you and your spouse have children, then you are going to need to address the fourth and fifth questions that commonly come up in an uncontested divorce.
The fourth question is what will be the children’s schedule with each parent. You need to consider that the court generally divides the children’s time into four separate time periods: the normal school year, Christmas break, Spring Break and the Summer. You will need to decide where the children will be during these times as well as various holidays such as Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Halloween, and any other holiday that you care to address.
The last question you need to answer in an uncontested divorce with children is what will be the child support. Under Florida law, you are generally not allowed to simply pick your child support amount. A child support amount must be calculated according to the Florida Child Support Guidelines.
Typically, in an uncontested divorce, both sides complete a Florida Financial Affidavit and I use those Financial Affidavits to do the child support calculation. Once I’ve completed with all the documents needed for an uncontested divorce, I will send my client the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet which describes how I arrived at the child support amount. If the information that I put into the child support guidelines worksheet is correct, such as incomes, day care, and medical insurance amounts – if all those amounts are correct, then the child support amount is correct as well.
Lastly, it important to note that additional topics can be discussed in any settlement agreement if those additional topics are important to you and your spouse and you want them to be a part of your agreement.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
First, is “do I have to appear at the final hearing?”
Second, is “does my spouse have to appear at the final hearing?”
When I file an uncontested divorce on behalf of a client, my client generally has to appear at the final hearing so that I can ask the client a few questions in front of the judge. If you cannot attend the final hearing – for some reason – your spouse must attend the final hearing with me. It is up to the judge to determine whether certain exceptions are applicable and can be made. Often the judges will allow a military service member to appear by phone as long as that service member can be sworn in by a notary that appears on the telephone call with them.
A second exception may occur if a client is disabled and cannot physically attend the final hearing. In that situation, the client would still need to have a notary with them when they called into the final hearing. While one party needs to attend the final hearing, the other party usually does not. In most uncontested divorce cases, the other party – not my client – usually signs a document entitled Answer and Waiver which is that party’s statement to the court that they do not want to attend the final hearing and do not need to be notified of the date and time of the final hearing. It is also that party’s permission to the court to allow the hearing to proceed without them. Of course the other party can attend the final hearing if they want.
In order to finalize your uncontested divorce case, you need to have a final hearing. Most cases do not have a contested final hearing. Whether your case starts with an agreement as an uncontested divorce or you reach an agreement following a contested case, most cases will have an uncontested final hearing.
This type of hearing lasts only a few minutes. And neither side makes any arguments before the judge. In Broward and Palm Beach counties, the uncontested divorce hearings typically take place between 8:30 A.M. and 10 A.M.
Once you arrive at the courthouse, you should wait outside the judge’s chambers. When I arrive, we will go in, sit down, and wait our turn to talk to the judge. When we talk to the judge, I will ask you a few simple questions.
Most couples would prefer an uncontested divorce because it is less expensive and far less time consuming. However, in this situation the answer is fairly simple. You can’t get an uncontested divorce unless both sides agree to get an uncontested divorce.
In my practice, this comes up in two ways.
The first way is that one spouse believes that the couple has no assets or debts to divide and proposes that they each keep what they have and pay their own debts. Even if you assume that this type of division is exactly what the judge would do after a trial, you can’t have an uncontested divorce unless the other spouse agrees with your proposed division of the assets and debts. The reasonableness and fairness of your settlement offer does not require the other side to accept it.
The other way this comes up is that the other side won’t negotiate at all. This could be that they don’t want a divorce so they will not cooperate or it could be that they don’t want to agree to anything because they don’t trust that you are being fair and they don’t trust their ability to know what is unfair.
In this situation, you can’t get an uncontested divorce because at this stage you can’t force the other side to negotiate. Eventually you can force them to negotiate by attending a court ordered mediation that is part of a contested case. If you are in the situation where you want an uncontested divorce and your spouse does not, you have three choices:
The first choice is to simply wait. Perhaps the other side will change their mind if given enough time.
The second choice is to explain to the other side that their refusal to even negotiate will cause a contested case that will cost them more money and time.
The third choice is to ask the other party to consult with a lawyer. Sometimes people have unrealistic demands that they will drop once they find that they are unrealistic and would be expensive to pursue. Even if their demands are realistic, they will discover what the cost of litigation would be.
The Florida Child Support Guidelines determine child support in Florida. This formula determines how much child support one parent owes the other.
A judge will never ask one side how much child support they can afford or the other how much they need. The judges may be curious about the replies, but they don’t inquire.
They can’t consider the solutions. A judge isn’t bound by the parents’ child support arrangement. If the parents agree to pay $500 per month in child support, but the standards say it should be $200 or $800, the judge can reject the agreement. This is the rule with few exceptions. Salary, earnings, commissions, overtime, workers comp benefits, disability benefits.
You can only have money that isn’t counted as child support income if you get child support for another child – not the child in the case before the judge.
In Florida, child support is based on the Florida Child Support Guidelines. This is a formula that the judges use to determine what amount one parent is going to pay to the other parent as child support.
The main component of child support is income. Both parent’s incomes are needed to calculate child support. Income is defined in a way to include just about any way you receive money. As a result of this broad definition,
income includes salary, wages, bonuses, commissions, workers compensation benefits, social security benefits, alimony received, rental income, interest, dividends and royalties.
Just about the only way I’ve seen where you can receive money and it not count as child support is if you receive child support for a different child. It is also very important to understand that just because you may not be working, the court is not necessarily going to agree that your income is zero for child support purposes. They will impute an amount of income to you if they think you are underemployed or unemployed on a volunteer basis.
After the court determines your income, whatever that might be, then they will consider what your allowable deductions are to reduce your income slightly. Allowable deductions include taxes, child support paid that you have been ordered to pay for a different child, your own health care premiums, alimony that you might pay, and mandatory union dues.
Next, your base child support amount is calculated. This amount is then potentially adjusted based on a few more factors. If there is child care that one parent pays, that amount is factored in. Additionally, if one parent pays anything for the child’s medical insurance, that cost is factored in as well.
The last factor that is considered in the child support calculation is the number of nights that each parent spends with the child. If the parent who is paying child support spends more than 73 nights – which is 20% – then, potentially, the child support gets reduced. The more nights, the bigger the deduction.
So, there you have it. These are the factors that the court is going to use in a child support determination. If you have any additional questions, please review the other frequently asked questions or give me a call.
As I’ve discussed in other videos, child support is based on your net income. The differences between your net and gross incomes are the allowable deductions. This is not necessarily the same as your take home pay.
The main deduction from your gross income in taxes. If you work in Florida, that means your Federal taxes. However, if you live or work in another state, you are allowed to deduct you state or local taxes if you pay any.
However, the computer program that the court use estimates your taxes in order to eliminate the possibility that your withholding is too high. For example, let’s assume you make $50,000 per year and have $12,000 in taxes withheld from your pay. In that situation, your net income would be $38,000. However, if you receive a $4,000 tax refund from the IRS, then your actual net income is $42,000 rather than $38,000.
Another potential deduction is for child support that you pay as the result of another case. The key to being eligible for this deduction is that what you pay for the other child is actually court ordered. Voluntary payments to the other child’s parent do not count. Similarly, you can’t deduct payments that you are not making, even though you have been court ordered to do so.
Another court ordered payment that you are allowed to deduct is alimony. Whether it is from your current case or an older case – as long as you actually make the payments.
You are also allowed to deduct what you pay for your own health insurance. Very often only one amount is deducted from your paycheck for health insurance that covers you, your children, and potentially your spouse. In that situation, I advise clients to ask their Human Resources Department at their job for a breakdown of the cost. What you pay for your own health insurance is deductible – while what you pay for the children is treated differently in the child support calculator.
Lastly, and really far less common, are the deductions allowed for mandatory union dues and mandatory retirement plans. The important word here is “mandatory.” Know that most union dues and retirement plan contributions (such as 401(k) and IRA contributions) are not mandatory.
Time sharing and parental responsibility are the relatively new legal terms for visitation and custody in Florida. The Florida Statutes allow for a reduction in child support if the paying parent has the child for more than 20% of the nights in a year. 20% is equivalent to 73 nights over the course of a year.
Each night above 73 will provide a slightly greater reduction of the parent’s child support obligation. So everything else being equal, a parent who sees their child for 80 nights per year will pay a high child support than the parent who sees the child for 90 nights per year. the reason for this is the legislature felt that the parents who spent a sizable amount of time with their children had greater costs when compared to parents who seldom saw their children.
A common misconception is that having 20% of the nights will result in a 20% reduction in the child support obligation. This is not necessarily the case. The Florida Statutes provide for a fairly convoluted formula to calculate the reduction, but I won’t be going into that here is this video.
The key to properly applying the reduction is to correctly determine the number of nights. The first thing to consider is that a potential reduction only applies to nights. Not days. For example, if a parent sees their child for 5 days per week after school (say after school), but the child only sleeps at the parent’s house for 2 nights per week. Then that parent can only apply 2 nights toward the annual total to determine the child support reduction.
Next, you should make sure that you add up all the night that the paying parent will have the child over the course of a year. Other than including normal weekday and weekend visits, be sure to include Spring Break, Christmas Break, birthdays, Mothers or Father’s Day, and other holidays such as the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day. And don’t forget to include the summer. Some parents do use a different schedule during the summer.
Lastly, often one side in a dispute will exaggerate the amount of time they intend to spend with the child in order to secure a lower child support obligation. If a parent does not exercise the time sharing provided in a court order, and that amount of time sharing resulted in a reduced child support obligation, then the parent receiving the child support can use this situation to go back to court and have the child support obligation increased.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked question videos on my website or feel free to give me a call at the office.
As I’ve discussed in other videos, child support in Florida is calculated according to the Florida Child Support Guidelines. Spending 50% of the nights with your children is only one factor in determining a child support obligation.
There are situations where the guidelines provide for zero child support. For example, in a 50/50 time sharing situation where both parent’s incomes are roughly equivalent, the guidelines will show a very low or zero child support amount.
Other than incomes, you will also have to take into account anything paid for child care or the child’s medical insurance. For example, suppose a mother and father earns the same amount per month. The child spends equal time with each parent. If these are the only factors present, then the child support should be very low or close to zero. However, now suppose that the mother pays $600 per month in day care costs. Since the parents each earn 50% of the family income, the guidelines provide that they use this percentage – 50% – to divide the day care cost. So,, in this example, the father’s child support obligation would be half of the $600, or $300 per month.
If you have any additional questions, please give me a call in the office.
Over the years, I’ve seen many court orders that state that a parent has to pay child support until the child reaches the age of 18. However, Florida law requires that child support will be paid after a child reaches 18 in a few limited, but common, circumstances.
First, child support continues after a child’s 18th birthday if the child is still in high school and working towards their high school diploma. In that case, child support would end when the child graduates from high school.
Of course, the statute provides an exception to this exception. The child support can stop when a high school student turns 18 if that child will not be able to graduate before they reach 19. For example, suppose and 11th grade child turns 18 in September. the child would obviously be 19 the following September. And graduate the June after that. In this situation, the child support would end when the student turns 18 unless there is a court order to the contrary.
Strangely, the Supreme Court of Florida has a slightly different interpretation on the plain meaning of this statute. There have been cases where the Supreme Court of Florida has allowed child support to continue until age 19 when the expected graduation occurs after – but very close to – the child’s 19th birthday. Of course, they did not decide on where a dividing line would be.
The second way child support can continue after age 18 is if you have a disabled child that will not be self supporting.
Lastly, the child support can extend beyond a child’s 18th birthday if that situation was agreed to by the parents as part of a settlement agreement when the child support was originally established. This is something that the parties would have had to agree to. The judge could not have ordered this on his or her own.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked question on my website or give me a call at the office.
The short answer is yes it can be modified, but there are a few rules. In order for the child support to be modified either up or down, you have to be able to show that the child support would be modified by $50 or 15% – whichever of those amounts is greater.
So, a few examples. Suppose the child support amount is $200. Based on those rules, the child support amount cannot be increased at all unless it increases to $250 or higher or it cannot be decreased at all unless it goes down to $150 or lower. That is the $50 rule.
The 15% rule would be if you have a $1000 child support, it’s not going to go up at all unless you are at $1150 and it’s not going to go down at all unless you are at $850 or lower.
Generally though, Florida calculates child support based on the Child Support Guidelines. And the major factors that go into a child support calculation are income, taxes, medical insurance for the child, day care for the child, and the number of nights each parents spends with the child. Please feel free to look at the other questions on the website or give me a call at the office.
Mediation is simply a meeting when all sides of a disagreement come together and – with the help of a neutral third party – try to resolve their conflict. In each family law disagreement, the matter will eventually culminate with a trial in front of a judge. However, Florida law requires that the parties attend mediation before the trial. This condition is applicable to divorce, paternity, and modification situations. The large majority of family law matters resolve at or before the mediation. This is because both sides can generally get enough of what they want to make to uncertainty and expense of a trial unnecessary. After a successful mediation, the case normally moves to a final hearing within a few weeks. A typical mediation starts with both parties and their lawyers – if they have them – sitting together at a table.
The mediator then explains the rules:
The first criterion is that the mediation is confidential. This means that you are not supposed to talk about what happens during the mediation with anybody else. It also means that the judge doesn’t want to know what transpires at the mediation other than that both parties attended the mediation and if an agreement was reached or not.
The second criterion is that the mediator will take settlement offers back and forth between the parties in the hope of reaching an agreement on all the points highlighted in the case.
The third criterion is that the mediator is unbiased and he does not make decisions in your case. The parties make the decisions. The mediator is not a judge and will only provide ideas based on their experience. While the mediator is often a family law lawyer, he or she will not offer you legal advice. That’s why you should have your own counsel during the mediation.
The fourth criterion is that the cost of the mediation is evenly distributed among the parties. This might become part of the discussion, and one side can seek that the other party pays for the full cost of the mediation.
To know more, contact us right away.
First, I think we need to talk briefly about what is a mediation. A mediation is simply a meeting between both parties to a lawsuit and their lawyers – if they have one – where they discuss potential settlement options for their case.
So, “Is a mediation required?” The short answer is, yes it is. Generally, in Family Law cases, those are divorce and paternity cases, and modification of divorce and paternity cases, a mediation is going to be required before you go to a trial. You do not need to have a mediation if you and the other side can come to an agreement without one. But if you want the judge to decide your case, you are going to have to have a mediation.
There are a few reasons for this mediation requirement. The first is, since most cases settle at mediation, doing away with mediations would greatly increase the number of trials which would delay all of those trials.
The second result of mediation is since most cases settle, that keeps the cost of litigation much lower than it would be. The cost of a mediation is a few hundred dollars, whereas the cost of a trial is many thousands of dollars.
If you have any additional questions, please review the other frequently asked questions on my website, or give me a call at the office.
If you need a judge to decide the issues in your family law case, you will need to attend a mediation prior to the trial. At the mediation, both sides will have the opportunity to describe how they would like the case resolved. That’s where we get to the mediator, whose role is to be neutral and suggest potential alternatives.
The mediator takes settlement offers back and forth between the parties. In order to reach an agreement, the mediator may ask you to lessen or drop one of your requirements in order to get a similar concession from the other side.
After a few rounds of this back and forth, cases are usually settled. If that is the case, the mediator will draft a settlement agreement for both sides to sign. If you are unable to reach an agreement, the mediator only needs to tell the judge that both sides attended the mediation and that no agreement was reached.
Lastly, it is important to note what the mediator is not. The mediator is not a judge. The mediator will not make decisions in your case. The mediator will not tell you that you are right and other side is wrong. And the mediator will not give you legal advice.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
An injunction for protection against domestic violence requires the abuser to stop specific acts (such as abusing you, contacting you, or coming near you) and to conduct other acts (such as leaving your home and paying you temporary child support). It gives you rights (such as temporary custody of your children). If an abuser violates an injunction, authorities may arrest him. Domestic violence includes any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or other crime resulting in physical injury or death to a family or household member.
If you’re a victim of domestic abuse or fear you’re in immediate danger, you can ask for an injunction. Without being physically abused, a judge may grant an injunction if they consider you are in imminent danger of becoming a victim of domestic violence.
Simply, repeat violence is defined as two incidents of violence or stalking committed by the respondent which is directed at the petitioner or the petitioner’s immediate family.
One of these two incidents of violence or stalking needs to have been committed in the six months before the filing of your petition.
Two sets of people can request an Order of Protection Against Repeat Violence.
Number One: An adult that is the victim of repeat violence.
The Second groups are legal parents of a minor child who is living at home and who are seeking the injunction on behalf of a minor child that has been the victim of repeat violence.
After you file your petition with the Court, it will be read by a judge. Usually in a day
or so. Based on what you write in your petition, the judge will enter a temporary order if it appears that an immediate and present danger of violence exists.
If your temporary order is entered a hearing will be scheduled within 15 days. The hearing date can be delayed and the temporary order extended if the respondent has not been notified of the hearing.
At the hearing, you will have to prove the allegations you set forth in your Petition.
If the judge grants your request for an order – whether or a temporary or permanent basis – the judge can order that the respondent do the following:
If you have any further questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
Dating Violence is defined as violence between individuals who have or have had a continuous and significant relationship of a romantic or intimate nature. The dating relationship must have existed within the last six months and be characterized by the expectation of affection or sexual involvement. This does not include violence in a casual acquaintanceship or violence between individuals who have only engaged in ordinary fraternization in a business or social context.
You can request an Order of Protection Against Dating Violence if you are in one of three groups.
Number One: You are the victim of dating violence and you have reasonable cause to believe that you are in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence.
The second group is any person who has reasonable cause to believe he or she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of an act of dating violence.
And the third group is the parents or legal guardians of any minor child who is living at home and seeks the injunction for the protection of that minor child.
After you file your Petition, it will be read by a judge – usually within a day. Based on what you write in your Petition, the judge will enter a temporary order if it appears that an immediate and present danger of violence exists.
If your temporary order is entered a hearing will be scheduled within 15 days. The hearing can be delayed and the temporary order extended if the respondent has not been notified of the hearing.
At the hearing, you will have to prove the allegations that you have alleged in your Petition. If the judge grants your request for an order – whether on a temporary or permanent basis – they can order the respondent to do the following:
Number 1: Not commit any act of violence against you.
Number 2: Not contact you.
Number 3: Not knowingly come within 100 feet of your vehicle or 500 feet of you, your workplace or your school.
Number 4: Not possess any ammunition or firearms.
If you have any other questions, please review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
According to Florida’s criminal law, stalking is defined as when someone willfully (intentionally), maliciously, and repeatedly follows, harasses, or cyberstalks another person. Below you will find the definitions of the emboldened terms:
Here are some examples listed on the court petition so you can get an idea of what behaviors/acts may qualify someone for an injunction:
If you have any further questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
Mediation is simply a meeting where both sides of a dispute come together and – with the help of a neutral third party – try to resolve their dispute.
In any family law dispute the case will eventually end with a trial in front of a judge.
However, Florida law requires that the parties attend a mediation prior to the trial. This requirement is applicable to divorce, paternity and modification cases.
The great majority of family law cases settle at or before the mediation. This is because both parties can usually get enough of what they want to make to uncertainty and expense of a trial unnecessary. After a successful mediation the case usually proceeds to a final hearing within a few weeks.
A typical mediation starts with both parties and their lawyers – if they have them – sitting together at a table. The mediator then explains the rules:
The first rule is that the mediation is confidential. This means that you are not supposed to talk what happens at the mediation with anyone else. It also means that the judge doesn’t want to know what happens at the mediation other than that both parties attended the mediation and whether an agreement was reached or not.
The second rule is that the mediator will take settlement offers back and forth between the parties in the hope of coming to an agreement on all the issues raised in the case.
The third rule is that the mediator is neutral and he does not make decisions in your case.
The parties make the decisions. The mediator is not a judge and will only offer suggestions based on their experience. While the mediator is typically a family law lawyer, he or she will not offer you legal advice. That’s why you should have you own lawyer at the mediation.
The fourth rule is that the cost of the mediation is equally divided among the parties. This can become part of the negotiation and one party can ask that the other party pay for the full cost of the mediation.
As an alternative to litigation, some couples are choosing to mediate their dispute prior to the start of their case. This has the added benefit of identifying the points of conflict that would arise in litigation even if the mediation is unsuccessful.
The potential downside of a pre-suit mediation is that you may be unaware of various assets or debts that might be revealed during the discovery phase of a litigated case.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to review the frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
First, I think we need to talk briefly about what is a mediation. A mediation is simply a meeting between both parties to a lawsuit and their lawyers – if they have one – where they discuss potential settlement options for their case.
So, “Is a mediation required?” The short answer is, yes it is. Generally, in Family Law cases, those are divorce and paternity cases, and modification of divorce and paternity cases, a mediation is going to be required before you go to a trial. You do not need to have a mediation if you and the other side can come to an agreement without one. But if you want the judge to decide your case, you are going to have to have a mediation.
There are a few reasons for this mediation requirement. The first is, since most cases settle at mediation, doing away with mediations would greatly increase the number of trials which would delay all of those trials.
The second result of mediation is since most cases settle, that keeps the cost of litigation much lower than it would be. The cost of a mediation is a few hundred dollars, whereas the cost of a trial is many thousands of dollars.
If you have any additional questions, please review the other frequently asked questions on my website, or give me a call at the office.
If you need a judge to decide the issues in your family law case, you will need to attend a mediation prior to the trial. At the mediation, both sides will have the opportunity to describe how they would like the case resolved. That’s where we get to the mediator, whose role is to be neutral and suggest potential alternatives.
The mediator takes settlement offers back and forth between the parties. In order to reach an agreement, the mediator may ask you to lessen or drop one of your requirements in order to get a similar concession from the other side.
After a few rounds of this back and forth, cases are usually settled. If that is the case, the mediator will draft a settlement agreement for both sides to sign. If you are unable to reach an agreement, the mediator only needs to tell the judge that both sides attended the mediation and that no agreement was reached.
Lastly, it is important to note what the mediator is not. The mediator is not a judge. The mediator will not make decisions in your case. The mediator will not tell you that you are right and other side is wrong. And the mediator will not give you legal advice.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to review the other frequently asked questions on my website or give me a call at the office.
First, define annulment. A court order annuls a marriage. You weren’t married. When I say “married,” I mean you applied for, received, and submitted a Florida marriage license with the Clerk of Court. Because Florida has no statutory foundation for annulments, they are difficult, complex, and confusing.
There are two types of marriages: void and voidable. A void marriage was never valid. In Florida, it’s unlawful to marry a sibling. Hence a sibling marriage is void. In states where sibling marriage is permitted, you cannot move to Florida and ask for an annulment. Voidable marriages are next. This is a legitimate marriage with a possible fixable flaw. Assume, for example, that you value your spouse’s religious beliefs.
Only a religious member could marry that individual. When you first meet your partner, they say they are of that faith. You marry that individual. Your spouse lied to you and isn’t a member of that religion. There is no ban against marrying someone with different priorities, hence the marriage is valid. Your marriage is annullable. If you can prove your spouse lied to you and you wouldn’t have married them, otherwise, a judge will likely annul your marriage.
If you uncover the truth about your spouse’s religion and do nothing, your spouse could argue at a later divorce court that you agreed to the problem and fixed it. Every month, I get calls from people who have only been married a few days or months and want an annulment. Florida has no warranty period where you can receive an annulment if your marriage is failing. You don’t have to stay married; simply divorce. If you and your spouse agree on the causes and terms of an annulment, you can receive it at a reduced cost and time period than litigation.
If your debts are beyond your control and you are afraid to answer your cellphone or are receiving phone calls at work, it may be time to give serious consideration to filing bankruptcy. Often, most or all of your debts can be discharged without losing assets. Bankruptcy may offer you a fresh start whether your financial difficulty occurred due to unanticipated emergencies or due to financial mistakes.
Bankruptcy is a procedure that provides an opportunity for individuals or corporations to eliminate or reorganize their debt while be protected by the bankruptcy laws and the bankruptcy court.
Chapter 7 is a one where a debtor liquidates assets not protected by the laws of the State of Florida: this means that at the end of the bankruptcy, most or all of your debt will be extinguished, you will keep exempt property (often almost all the property you own is exempt) and the nonexempt property will be used to provide a payment to creditors.
“Exempt” property is property you can keep and protect from creditors under State or Federal law. Some of the common exemptions (the list varies based on state law) are:
Homestead- You can exempt all or a portion of your home from the claims of creditors;
Insurance/retirement plans- certain types of retirement plans and the cash values of life insurance policies are exempt from the claims of creditors;
Personal Property- Depending on state law, the debtor can exempt household goods, furniture and furnishings, and clothing. There is a limit on the amount of personal property that the debtor can exempt.
Chapter 13 (as well as Chapter 11) is a reorganization of debt which provides a debtor the opportunity to pay all or a portion of their debt over a period of time under a plan of repayment approved by the bankruptcy court.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy is not available if a debtor has previously filed for bankruptcy protection within the previous 8 years. You may also have valuable nonexempt assets which would be lost as part of liquidation in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You may also have debts that non-dischargeable debt that is secured by property which you want to keep.
Some categories of debts cannot be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and must be fully satisfied in a Chapter 13 reorganization. These include:
A petition is filed with the bankruptcy court. These are various schedules or forms required to show the debts owed and the asses a debtor owns. A debtor also has to provide information concerning their income, expenses and any assets transferred. If you file for bankruptcy you must pay a filing fee, however it is sometimes possible to pay the filing fee in installments.
If your debts are primarily consumer debts (as opposed to business debts), you must pass a Means Test in order to file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Means Test determines and compares your income to the median income for households of your size in Florida. If your income indicates you may be able to pay back a portion of your debt, you may be deemed ineligible to file a Chapter bankruptcy. However, you may still be able to file a Chapter bankruptcy. At Darren K. Edwards, PA, we will advise you at our initial free consultation whether you will pass the Means Test and if not, what alternatives are available.
A court-appointed trustee is assigned to oversee each bankruptcy case. After the case is filed, a meeting of creditors, where you attendance is mandatory, will take place approximately 4-6 weeks after filing. At this meeting the trustee will ask questions to determine whether the information you filed in the bankruptcy papers is correct. After the meeting, the trustee may ask you to provide additional records. Creditors rarely attend this meeting. If they do attend, they will be permitted to ask you questions as well. The meeting usually is very short. In approximately 3-6 months you will receive a court Order indicating your debt has been discharged.
The filing of a bankruptcy stops creditors from moving forward with collection or enforcement actions without obtaining permission from the bankruptcy court. If a creditor attempts to calls after a bankruptcy has been filed, they are advised a bankruptcy has been filed and are provided the case number of the filing. If a creditor engages in actions which harass the debtor after the filing, the creditor may be subject to being sued under various state and federal collection laws.
Darren K. Edwards, PA offers a free consultation. Let us review your case and indicate what options may be available to you. Call us at (954) 495-4690.
Darren K. Edwards, P.A. is located in Fort Lauderdale, FL and serves clients in and around Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Dania, Pembroke Pines, Boca Raton, North Miami Beach, Opa Locka, Delray Beach, Miami, Hialeah – Coral Springs, Dania Beach, Davie, Hallandale Beach,, Margate, Miramar, OaklandPark, Pembroke Park, Plantation, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise, Tamarac, Weston, Wilton Manors, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Broward County, Aventura, Doral, Fontainbleau, Golden Glades, Miami Beach, and Miami-DadeCounty.
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