Recent Blog Posts

Divorcing a Spouse with Dementia or Other Cognitive Impairment
Any major health issue can place a significant burden on a marriage, but dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other cognitive impairments are particularly difficult to handle. These conditions often make the sufferer unpredictable, sometimes violent, and eventually uncommunicative. The situation may become too much for either spouse, and divorce may become an unfortunate, but necessary option…. Read More »

What to do if Former Spouse Refuses to Pay Alimony?
Alimony typically gets a bad rap in the media and society, as financial support for those too lazy or entitled to take care of themselves. However, alimony is not easy to get, unless agreed to as part of a prenuptial agreement, and rarely lasts beyond a few years – just long enough for the… Read More »

What is Parental Alienation?
Parents generally realize that an environment with lots of conflict is not good for a child’s wellbeing, and divorce can put this knowledge to the test, as it pushes some spouses into highly adversarial positions. However, when children are involved, parents do try to keep things on an even keel to facilitate better cooperation… Read More »

How Courts and the Law View Non-Parental Custody
Parents play an integral part in a child’s life, and there is no question a parent is almost universally the most influential person in a child’s development. However, the reality of raising a child, and the structure of most families and communities, means children are cared for and raised by a variety of adults,… Read More »

Nuances of Military Divorce
Having a spouse in the military means constant change and frequent moves to new places. This dynamic, along with the stresses of deployment, can make it difficult to keep a marriage happy and healthy. If divorce does come, though, the laws that apply differ, bringing both flexibility and complexity into the equation. These complications… Read More »

Will Courts Split Children in Divorce?
When a family enters the divorce process, the parents try to understand and anticipate the challenges ahead of them. In addition to spousal issues such as property division and alimony, child-related issues such as child support and parenting plans must be agreed to, or accepted by, the spouses, depending on whether the end result… Read More »

How do Adult Children Deal with Divorce?
When children are young, they are dependent on their parents for the necessities of life, as well as emotional support while they figure out who they are and how to operate in the world. This support is especially needed if the parents divorce while the child is still a minor. Society tends to assume… Read More »

What Is Domestic Violence and How to Escape?
Domestic violence is a tragic reality for tens of thousands of Floridians every year. Most people automatically associate domestic violence with physical abuse, which is certainly one of the most well-known forms of aggression a spouse or intimate partner may use. However, domestic violence is much more expansive than solely physical violence, but those… Read More »

Biological Parental Rights in Florida?
The dynamics of family structure in America have changed drastically over the past 50 years. Families can no longer be assumed to contain married heterosexual couples with children solely from that union. Families are now blended, include many unmarried couples, and children who are not directly related to one another. This transformation of the… Read More »

When do Courts Award Sole Custody?
The default for divorced parents in Florida, and most other states, is that parenting time, formerly referred to broadly as custody, will be shared. While the ideal is that the child spends roughly equal amounts of time with each parent, typically one parent will have primary responsibility for childcare, with the other parent taking… Read More »