Recent Blog Posts
How Does Mediation Work?
If you are involved in a contested divorce in Hillsborough County or other Florida jurisdictions, you will be required to attend mediation prior to judge hearing your case, unless there is a substantiated emergency. Outside of emergencies, the Florida Rules of Family Law Procedure require both parties to go to mediation before either temporary… Read More »
Can I Enforce or Modify My Out of State Divorce in Florida?
Because divorce is state specific, it is difficult to know how to “transfer” your divorce when you move. If you and your children have moved or relocated after a divorce, paternity, or other family law proceeding has terminated, you might be wondering if Florida will enforce those orders. If you have received a final… Read More »
Military Divorce In Florida
Divorcing a spouse who is on active duty in the military can present difficulties that would not otherwise be present in civilian divorce proceedings. Although the grounds for divorce are the same, several special issues of service of process, default, custody orders, support orders and property division are unique to a military marriage. Florida’s… Read More »
Circumcision Provision in a Parenting Plan?
Heather Hironimus has recently made headlines for refusing to allow her child’s father, Dennis Nebus, to take their four-year-old son to be circumcised. The paternity suit was initiated in 2010, when the couple originally agreed, via their parenting plan, that their son would be circumcised at the father’s expense. Two years later, Hironimus changed… Read More »
Domestic Violence Injunction vs. No Contact Order
Florida Governor Rick Scott recently signed into law Senate Bill 342, further clarifying the specifics of a “no contact order” and what types of communication it prohibits. No contact orders have long been used to protect victims of domestic violence and prevent the abuser from intimidating the victim. The new law’s clarifications use broad… Read More »
Can Trustees Go After Children’s College Tuition Payments?
A recent trend in bankruptcy law is for trustees, the individuals responsible for collecting money for creditors, to go after tuition payments parents made to their children’s undergraduate institutions. As the trustees see it, the funds parents sent to those institutions should have instead been used to pay off the parents’ debt. Since 2008,… Read More »
Same-Sex Adoption Ban Stalled in Florida Senate
Adopting a child is one of the most complicated and heartwarming ways to expand your family. Adoptions in Florida include adoptions within and outside the immediate family. The Florida legislature, however, recently threatened to limit the rights of gay couples seeking to adopt children. The bill, entitled “Conscience Protection for Actions of Private Child-Placing… Read More »
What’s Mine is Mine…Right?
One of the standard tasks in any Florida divorce involves separating the couple’s property. In some cases, the parties are able to accomplish this by agreement; that is, they determine themselves which one of them will take a particular piece of property. Where there is no agreement, the judge hearing the divorce action will… Read More »
When Can I Stop Paying Child Support?
Most parents who divorce or separate realize that one of them will likely be ordered to pay some amount of child support so long as the child is a minor. This is true regardless of whether the residential parent and the child continue to live in Florida following the divorce or separation. Failing to… Read More »
The Guardian Ad Litem in Florida Divorces
In a Florida divorce, there is a familiar cast of characters: the divorcing spouses, the attorneys representing each of these parties, the judge, and sometimes witnesses or experts who testify concerning the parties’ assets, liabilities, and parenting abilities. One individual who may appear in some divorce or child custody is a guardian ad litem…. Read More »
