What is Domestic Violence?
Under the Florida Statutes, Domestic Violence is defines as “any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offenses resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another family or household member.” F.S. 741.28.
Is Domestic Violence Criminal?
This is a question that is often asked by custodial parents. If you live in Florida the answer is yes. Florida has a relocation statute, and it is found at §61.13001 in the Florida Statutes. If you have a minor child and you are divorced or no longer in a relationship with the other parent, you cannot move more than 50 miles from the current residence without obtaining permission from the other parent or consent from the Court. This condition applies to both the custodial parent and the non-custodial parent. Your Jacksonville family attorney can assist you in determining how you can comply with the relocation statute to enable you to move.
The statute requires that unless there is an agreement between the parties, a parent or other person with time-sharing rights seeking relocation must file a petition to relocate and serve it upon the other parent, and every other person entitled to access to or time-sharing with the child. The pleadings must meet the following requirements:
a) The petition to relocate must be signed under oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury and include:
If Your License is suspended for Child Support Obligations, What Can You Do?
Florida law allows one’s driver’s license to be suspended when they fail to meet their support obligation. If your license is suspended as a result of child support obligations that are not satisfied, you should understand the law. If one truly cannot pay their obligation because they simply do not have the financial resources to do so, your license cannot be suspended, but you must act promptly.
Your License Can Be Suspended for Child Support Failures
Why Timesharing is Important?
A dissolution can be a very emotional experience for some. This is especially true when a divorce involves children. The current rules require that when parties have children, a parenting plan must be developed. The parenting plan details parental responsibility, timesharing (formally referred to as visitation), and child support. It may also include additional details unique to a particular child or children, or it may address a unique family situation. Although the Court system attempts to equalize timesharing between parents, this is not always possible. Parents may work or live so far apart that a 50% timesharing schedule would be impractical.
What Are the Different Types of Timesharing?
Can I modify time-sharing for my children in Florida?
In Florida, it is the public policy of the state that each minor child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents separate or the marriage of the parties is dissolved and to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities, and joys of childrearing. We live in a pretty mobile society and oftentimes when divorce or separation occurs one of the parents is in another state or even another country. When that occurs, it is important that Jacksonville parents keep the child’s best interest at the forefront of their minds, taking that into consideration in fostering the parent-child relationship with the non-custodial parent. The parents and your Jacksonville divorce attorney need to get creative in crafting a Parenting Plan that will both work for the parents and foster the relationship between the child and the non-custodial parent.
How to Communicate better with long-distance time-sharing in Florida.
Few people want to accept responsibility for a lifelong obligation that they were not responsible for. There is more than one way under Florida law to create a parental relationship with a child. Not all relationships in today’s society follow the model that involved a two parent family whereby the husband was the bread winner and the wife was a stay at home mother. Today, the norm has changed, and single parent households are much more commonplace than they were traditionally.
There are a number of ways that paternity can be established. When a woman is married and she becomes pregnant, there is a legal presumption that the husband is the father. This is true even where the husband could not physically have impregnated the wife. Section 742.10 of the Florida Statutes covers all of the ways that paternity of a child can be established. In short, paternity can be established when a married woman has a child, by consent, by court order, or by the legal father signing the birth certificate and notarized documents admitting paternity.
When a woman has a child out of wedlock and applies for governmental assistance, she may find that the agency or agencies she is applying through will require her to participate in a legal proceeding to establish the paternity of the child. In part, this is because the government wants to make the father responsible for supporting the child. Both parents are responsible for their child and a father or mother can be required to support their child until they reach majority. In some rare cases, they may have legal responsibility beyond the age of majority. The author of this article has handled numerous child support cases over the last 16 years and he has seen some people have their lives wrecked after they were required to pay child support (an Obligor). When an Obligor discovers that the child they are supporting is not theirs, disestablishing paternity may be an option for them. Although disestablishing paternity will terminate an ongoing support obligation, it will not extinguish any child support obligation which has accrued. Even when disestablishing paternity is successful, an otherwise Obligor may still have to pay a large arrearage.
Many parents in Jacksonville are in a dilemma about what to do about time-sharing during the COVID-19 Pandemic. What do you do if the other parent is positive for COVID-19 and they insist on exercising their time-sharing rights? What do you do if the primary residential parent tests positive for COVID-19? What do you do about time-sharing if the minor child tests positive for COVID-19?
Under Florida statute 61.13 (2)(c ) the basic premise of family law is that the Court will look at what is in the “best interest” of the minor child(ren). As a Jacksonville Divorce Attorney, we must also look at how this conforms with the public policy of the state that each minor child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents separate or the marriage of the parties is dissolved and to encourage parents to share the rights, responsibilities, and joys of childrearing. See 61.13 (2)(c ) (1)
There may be some negative stereotypes that are associated with Prenuptial Agreements. Typically, neither party wants to detract from the blissful atmosphere typical prior to a wedding. However, a Prenuptial Agreement can also help preserve a marriage. This is because there is certainty as to how things will terminate should the marriage not last.
The thought alone of creating a prenuptial agreement can cast a negative light upon a wedding. To some, the contemplation of a prenuptial places a negative light upon wedding preparations and the future of the relationship. Having to plan for divorce is an admission that a relationship is not permanent. That said, it is far better to deal with the details of how a relationship is going to end (should it end) while a couple is reasonable and loving compared with being negatively affected by the hostilities and uncertainties of divorce.
In Florida, there are several types of alimony that courts may consider. There are factors that affect the amount of alimony that can be provided for such as, length of a marriage, the equality of earning ability between the spouses, and the assets that a court must divide. Florida law creates a rebuttable presumption against permanent alimony when a marriage is 7 years or less, which under the Florida Statutes is defined as a short term marriage. However, there is a rebuttable presumption for permanent alimony awards in marriages that are long term (greater than 17 years). Moderate term marriages are defined as between 7 and 17 years and no presumption exists.
It is important to know your rights following a divorce. The final judgment of dissolution and the parenting plan determine the legal playing field for the future. However, most issues are dynamic. Children get older and their schools change and sometimes their relationship with parents change. Incomes change, which can directly impact child support and people sometimes desire to relocate where child custody can be an issue. There are a myriad of circumstances that should be re-evaluated following divorce.
In Florida, the standard used to file an action to modify a final judgment is that a substantial change in circumstances occurred that was not anticipated at the time of entry of the final judgment. It does not always make practical sense to file an action to modify a final judgment just because a party can do so. The relationship that a party has with a former spouse is important, especially where children are involved. Every time a party considers filing a supplemental petition (this is the instrument filed requesting modification of a final judgment), one should consider how such will impact their relationship with their former spouse and other legal consequences. I frequently have parties coming to me that wish to file for a modification. I typically find that they have only evaluated a part of the effect of seeking a modification. For this reason, it is imperative that one review the ramifications of an action for modification with an experienced family law attorney.
Although a divorce is designed to deal with all of the legal issues concerning dissolution, the reality is that there are sometimes issues that are left unresolved. On occasion there are assets that neither party put on their financial affidavits that require addressing post dissolution. One example of such an issue involved a divorce of a long time married couple in which neither party included the child’s prepaid college fund account on their financial affidavit. The fund was cashed out by the Father/Former Husband after the divorce without permission from the court or the Mother/Former Wife. Since the asset was not listed on either party’s financial affidavit, the judge considered the asset marital property and ordered the Former Husband to pay back one half of the funds post dissolution.
Jacksonville Divorce Attorney Blog