Divorce

August 14, 2012

Alimony in Florida

Alimony can be one of the most contentious issues in a Florida divorce. Alimony, also known as spousal support, is designed to provide the lower-income spouse with money for living expenses over and above the money provided by child support. Spousal support differs from child support in that child support is a simple mathematical calculation using guidelines published by the state, where as spousal support is discretionary and requires balancing multiple factors.

Though there is certainly no rule saying so, it is generally seen as rare that spousal support is awarded in marriages that lasted only a few years. It is also rare to see it awarded in cases where the incomes of the parties are close to equal. Alimony is typically reserved for situations where one spouse has been economically dependent on the other for most of a lengthy marriage. Again though, this is not a hard and fast rule and exceptions do exist, especially when one party’s bad behavior was responsible for the dissolution of the marriage.

There is a possibility of rehabilitative alimony for shorter marriages. Rehabilitative support is a means that some courts use when one of the spouses needs some time to transition back into the job market. The court can order modest alimony for a set period of time to allow the other spouse to finish school or get back to work and get on his or her feet.

August 3, 2012

What Can You Learn From Celebrity Divorce?

by David M. Goldman

Many celebrity marriages are over in the blink of an eye. What can average citizens learn from the divorce mistakes of the rich and famous? Plenty.

1. Get a prenup

When Mel Gibson divorced, he was reported to have cut his $900 million fortune in half. Madonna’s ex, Guy Ritchie, is said to have walked away with an extra $90 million for his time spent with the singer. Kelsey Grammer, of Frasier fame, had to shell out $50 million to a former Playboy Playmate. Why did they all pay so much? Not because of their generosity, that’s for sure. All these people foolishly lacked prenuptial agreements. Even if you don’t have the amount of money they have, a prenup can help secure the assets you will need if your marriage fails.

August 1, 2012

Grounds for Divorce in Florida

by David M. Goldman

Florida statutes were designed to encourage amicable settlements and to make it easier to end a marriage, all with the aim of reducing potential harm to children and spouses during the messy divorce process. In Florida, the dissolution process begins with one party filing a “Petition for Dissolution of Marriage” with the family division of the local circuit court. The other spouse is then served with divorce papers and given time to respond before the process proceeds.

The divorce system in Florida is based on the principle of “no-fault,” meaning that a divorce will be granted if either party believes that the marriage is over. According to Florida Statutes 61.052, marriages in the state can be dissolved based on only two grounds: 1) the marriage is irretrievably broken; or 2) there is mental incapacity of one of the spouses for a preceding period of at least three years.

For the first basis, no one needs to have a specific reason for wanting the divorce and no one needs to be blamed for the collapse of the marriage. That being said, it must be shown that the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” meaning that the spouses have differences that cannot be settled. This decision does not have to be mutual; only one spouse is required to have the intent to end the marriage. As is the case for any divorce in Florida, one of you must have been a resident of Florida for at least six months.

July 31, 2012

The Complexities of Military Divorce in Florida

by David M. Goldman

Deciding how to split up a couple’s accumulated assets is a challenging but necessary task before any divorce can be finalized. This already tough job can be made even more complicated if one or both spouses is an active duty or retired member of the military. In such situations, one of the couple’s biggest assets is likely the military spouse’s pension. This pension, and all the rules that come along with it, make military divorces generally more complex than those of nonmilitary families.

Military pensions are often worth significant amounts of money and, as an added bonus, are guaranteed for the rest of the military spouse’s life. The Wall Street Journal says that a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who has put in 30 years of service will receive a pension worth $72,288 a year. The pensions are not paid in lump sums, but if they were, the present value of the pension may exceed $1 million. What makes this even more valuable is that there is no minimum retirement age. It’s in the realm of possibility that someone who enlisted at 18 could retire at 38 and go on to receive a pension, including yearly cost of living increases, for decades into the future.

The length of the marriage is another factor that can contribute to the difficulty of dividing up the military retirement pension. When the marriage overlaps the military spouse’s service period by 10 or more years, the nonmilitary spouse may receive benefit payments directly from the government. If the marriage lasted fewer than 10 years of the service period, then the government may not enforce a court order from the nonmilitary spouse for a share of the retirement pension. In such cases, if the military spouse does not agree to provide a share of the retirement benefits directly to the nonmilitary spouse, then the matter will have to be settled in a divorce court in the appropriate state.

July 23, 2012

Don’t risk a conflict, hire a divorce attorney early on

by David M. Goldman

A recent Reuters article says that if you see divorce headed your way it’s best not to waste any time before hiring an attorney, even if the papers haven’t officially been filed yet. The reason is an attorney ethical conflict known as “conflicting out.”

It’s possible that if your spouse is clever and devious, he or she could make it very hard for you to find a divorce attorney that you actually want. Even if your ex is nice, it’s still possible that he or she could inadvertently prevent your from getting the lawyer you desire.

To explain the importance of conflict, you must first turn to the rules of professional conduct, a kind of ethical handbook for lawyers. These rules say that attorneys must decline to represent an individual if “there is a significant risk that the representation … will be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person…” The rules also require that lawyers keep any and all information they learn confidential, even information that is obtained during an initial consultation.

July 20, 2012

Do Florida Divorce Courts Have a Gender Bias?

by David M. Goldman

We hear a lot about how the courts are biased in favor of mothers when deciding child custody. Several different studies show that there might be more to the story as other factors come into play with why fathers are less involved in their children’s lives post-divorce.

The following statistics come from a Pew Research Center analysis of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). According to the report, a married father spends on average 6.5 hours a week taking part in primary child care activities with his children. This compares to an average of 12.9 hours for married moms. The study points that that two-income households are now the norm and that the data reveals more mothers are working and doing extra child care. This gap and the increased time spent caring for children may be one reason women are more likely to retain primary custody after a divorce.

Even more surprising are the statistics regarding fathers time with children post-divorce. The results mentioned in the Huffington Post show that when fathers and children live separately, only 22% see their children more than once a week. An additional 29% see their kids one to four times a month. Sadly, a full 27% of dads have no contact with their children at all. These numbers further reflect a possible reason for the gap in custody awards during a divorce.

July 19, 2012

“Grey Divorces” Present Unique Challenges

by David M. Goldman

According to new data the trend known as “grey divorce” appears to be picking up steam. The numbers of senior divorces in the country continues to grow and with the baby boomers aging the amount will likely rise even faster.

Susan L. Brown and I-Fen Lin at Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family & Marriage Research Center conducted research that indicated the divorce rate among those over 50 years old had doubled between 1990 and 2009. This shocking figure was true even for those over the age of 65, proving that it is not a phenomenon limited to divorce-prone boomers.

These same researches are predicting that the trend will only continue to escalate. The reason is that those who have already been through one marriage and are now remarried are more than 2.5 times more likely to divorce again than those who are still on their first marriage.

July 16, 2012

More Anger In Divorce Leads To Greater Fees

by David M. Goldman

Here’s something that’s not news to anyone going through the process: divorce can be expensive. When a couple decides it’s time to part ways, it is almost always for emotional reasons but these issues can quickly morph into fights over money. The result can be financial devastation even in splits that started amicably. Everybody loses, except the attorneys.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Divorce doesn’t have to destroy both parties financially but the decision rests in their hands.

Though it’s often hard to do, a divorce should be unemotional. There are years of hurt and anger built up, but the split needs to be seen as a business decision. Financial decisions should be made by keeping your emotions outside of the legal process, whether through therapy or exercise.

July 12, 2012

Consent Divorces Saving Money and Time

by David M. Goldman

Consent Divorces are becoming more popular as economic downturn squeezes parties into making cost-cutting decisions.

A Consent Divorce is one where the parties are non-adversarial. Husband and Wife agree to the terms of their divorce without bringing lawyers to fight with one another. They outline the terms with the advice of counsel and present that agreement to a judge for his signature. As long as the terms are agreeable to the court, and they usually are, the marriage is dissolved with a single hearing.

Typically, a consent divorce takes about a month to occur. This is because Florida Statute §61.19 requires a twenty-day waiting period between the filing of a petition and the entry of a final judgment. This waiting period can be waived if injustice would otherwise occur, a requirement which is granted fairly liberally. In a recent case, I was able to dissolve a marriage in only seventeen days with the recent closure of the courthouse serving as reason for the “injustice” exception to the waiting period.

July 9, 2012

What happens to your house in a Florida divorce?

by David M. Goldman

One of the most common questions that divorce attorneys hear is: “What will happen to our house?” While courts do have the power to order the sale of the marital residence, what happens to the house usually is left up to the parties themselves. Typically, the house situation has a lot to do with whether there are children residing in the home and whether one party can afford to buy out the interest of the other, either through cash or by offsetting the equity (or debt) with other assets.

As we mentioned, the first consideration is usually whether minor children are residing in the home. If there are children in the house and it has been their home for a significant period of time, the courts are often reluctant to order the property sold and the children uprooted. Usually, the Court will give the party residing in the house a chance to come up with a plan to make the mortgage payments and retain the property.

Judges prefer to have the parties themselves come up with a plan regarding the house than have to order the home sold. Even if the parties refuse to decide amongst themselves, a judge may still decide no to order a sale until the children are grown and gone. The court is also able to offset the equity in the house against the value of other assets (including retirement funds, stocks, bonds, etc.).