Jacksonville Divorce Attorney Blog

If unhappiness describes the general mood of your marriage and you know that divorce is the only answer and is coming down the pipe, its time to get on your game face. Have you given much thought to your finances? It’s time.
Two experts in the subject, a Georgia lawyer who has been divorced and a certified financial planner who founded the Institute for Certified Divorce Planners, offer financial survival tips for the transition from married life to single life.
These aren’t stick-it-to-your-spouse tips. Rather, they are suggestions for what to do before the papers are filed, with the goal of easing the financial impact of the transition from wedlock to singlehood.
When divorce isn’t a surprise, there’s some preparation time.
Above all you need to keep your emotions out of your financial decisions. Its easier said than done, however. Think clearly and calmly otherwise, you’ll forget to do the most basic things, like copying important financial documents. One thing that you must do is to get copies of every financial record you have. Get copies of statements of every kind of account you have. That includes money markets, 401(k)s, pension statements, certificates of deposit, checking accounts, the works. These papers verify the value of assets that a married couple holds. Then make a budget for the new you.
With divorce, there’s going to be a change in your income and your expenses. The expenses aren’t going to go down at the same rate that the income does. I tell clients to do a budget so they’re not left hanging when it’s time to find the money to pay for a rental deposit or the like. If you don’t have a lot of cash money, you should consider doing things to get back on your feet like renting furniture, leasing a car — it’s not as substantial as buying but you can ease yourself back into the flow of having to live within a budget.
Oftentimes financial situations occur where one party is listed as an authorized user — not a co-signer — on the other party’s credit card. The one spouse declares bankruptcy before the divorce and then the other spouse’s credit rating is damaged so much that they cannot get a mortgage to buy a house.
The moral of the story is this: Make sure that you and your ex-to-be divide your accounts. If you have joint credit cards (in which both of you are responsible for payments), call the issuer and get separate cards. If you’re an authorized user of your spouse’s card, get the issuer to remove you. Do the same if your spouse is an authorized user of your card.
Then it’s time to ponder death. Not your spouse’s… yours. Its time to revise your will, powers of attorney, trusts, and designated beneficiaries for Social Security and life insurance, and time to review tax withholding because, potentially, you’re going to get stuck with fewer dependents.
All of these suggestions might seem obvious, but they aren’t to people going through the emotionalism of a pending divorce.
Divorce isn’t usually the time when people are at their most clearheaded. If you are facing a divorce, its important to keep your heart and your head separate and get your head in the game to protect yourself down the road! It is also incumbent on your attorneys or CPAs or whoever’s advising you to steer you in the right direction.

I’ve said for years that the courtroom is no place for common sense. At least thats the way it appears sitting from my defense table. Defendants are often misinformed that the State is going to see them as a person instead of as a case number and that mitigating factors that make each case different are going to be considered. Not true. Look at Genarlow Wilson from Georgia.

Genarlow Wilson was convicted by a Georgia jury of aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from a consenting 15-year-old at a New Year’s Eve party. For this action, he was convicted and sentenced to a mandatory state prison term of ten years. Genarlow Wilson spent two years of that ten year sentence in Georgia State Prison housed with adult murderers, rapists and the like. Prior to being sentenced, Genarlow Wilson was a good, normal, goal-oriented kid. He was the homecoming King, on the honor roll, popular. However, according to the State of Georgia, he was a menace to underage children everywhere. According to the applicable laws in Georgia at the time, if Genarlow had had sexual intercourse with the consenting 15 year old, he would have been charged with a misdemeanor. Because of public outcry and thanks to Court T.V.’s The Vinnie Show, the state intervened and changed the law, defining underaged, consensual oral sex as a misdemeanor, but refused to grandfather in Genarlow Wilson. Even as the public outcried, the prosecutor in the case fought as hard as he could to make that ridiculous sentence stick. As a result, instead of going to college, playing football, choosing a major, going Greek and going to college homecoming, Genarlow Wilson sat in prison. He wasn’t even 20 years old.

Finally, on October 26, 2007, thanks to a very dedicated criminal defense attorney who vowed to hold the State in check for their actions, the Georgia State Supreme Court ruled that Genarlow’s 10-year term amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” and he was released after serving two of his 10 years in prison.

Last month, the American Bar Association issued a report in which it identified numerous problems with Ohio’s existing death-penalty scheme including botched lethal injections. Unfortunately, botched legal injections are a reality and not fictional. They are becoming increasingly documented and more and more prisoners are dying in agony. The State of Ohio underwent the killing of inmate Joseph Lewis Clark last May. Those who witnessed his execution said it took over an hour and a half to kill him. Reports were that after uttering his final words, Clark lay still, breathing shallowly. A witness described the scene as one where Clark appeared to have fallen asleep, except for the occasional movement of his feet. But after a few moments, Clark raised his head, shook it back and forth, and declared over and over, “it don’t work”! The execution team closed the curtains to block the view of the execution chamber but witnesses said they could still hear Clark’s moans and groans through the glass.

No doubt many of those same problems exist in other states’ death penalty systems as well. And now, the United States Supreme Court has decided to hear oral arguments regarding the issue of whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. (To learn more about this important case, go to the website for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.)

The death-penalty system that currently exists in 37 states and in the federal judicial system is fatally flawed and needs to be discarded entirely. Why not have a system of justice in which individuals who are convicted of first-degree murder are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison with no possibility of early release? That system would be much less expensive than housing a death row inmate through years and years and years of appeals. That system would bring finality to cases much more quickly than the current system. Many people believe that the death penalty is a deterrence to crime. However, after interviewing many defendants convicted of murder, defendants purport that they weren’t thinking of the death penalty in any way when committing their crime. Then there is the issue of killing an innocent man. Fortunately, the Innocence Project has uncovered many wrongful convictions thanks to DNA evidence. However many wrongfully convicted will never be exonerated because no DNA evidence existed in the case. Its likely that some of those wrongfully-convicted individuals are currently located on death row awaiting their execution. I’ve heard many lay reasons why the Death Penalty should remain but none of those reasons are legally based. The first and foremost is “An Eye for an Eye”. Dead Man Walking is a film written and directed by Tim Robbins and is based on the true story of Sister Helen Prejean, a compassionate New Orleans Nun who became the spiritual advisor to Matthew Poncelet, a vicious, angry and complex murderer awaiting execution. Her dedication was to help Matthew find salvation before the State of Louisiana killed him. In the film, as Poncelet is displayed before the spectators observing his execution, the executioner asks if Poncelet would like to say his last words…they were…”killing is wrong no matter who does it. Me or the government”. I agree.

Drunk Driving

Drunk driving is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Depending upon the state, the name of the offense will vary. Some states refer to the offense as DWI, driving while intoxicated. Others use DUI, driving under the influence of an intoxicant, or OUI, operating under the influence. In some states an OUI is a lesser offense for a DWI.

The Stop

Florida grandparent visitation

As a Florida Family Law Lawyer, I was recently asked by a grandparent about their rights to see and visit with their grandchild. The client stated, “my daughter isn’t allowing me or my Husband to see our grandchildren! I want to file a petition for grandparent visitation with the courts! Can you help me?”

Grandparent visitation is a common issue that is made worse by a Florida law which is unconstitutional in most circumstances. Even though Florida law says a grandparent can petition for visitation with their grandchildren, the United States Supreme Court has, in effect, struck down Florida’s law in some circumstances.