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Sometimes, when a couple agrees on all issues and has no children or jointly owned real property, they can handle getting a divorce without the help of an attorney. There will still be court costs but no attorney fees. For couples who must use an attorney to obtain a divorce successfully, the cost is significant and can become a hardship and ...
“How do I choose a lawyer?” Is a question many people ask at some time in their life. It seems today that “going to court” for one reason or another is an everyday happening for a myriad of issues. In the United States crime rates are high, divorce rates hover near 50% and suing someone,or some organization has become the way to right...
In many states, including Florida, whenever the court is needed to determine the outcome of a minor child where both parents will be involved in shared parenting a parenting plan is required. This is true for parents who have never married or even lived together as well as for parents who have married and are divorcing.A parenting plan will i...
Divorce, or dissolution of marriage as it is now called in most states, is sometimes even harder on children that it is on the adults. Especially minor children are affected as they have no say in what will happen to their future life and in fact, will be made to go along with the final judgment signed by a judge. Not only will they, in many ...
Does marriage counseling work? To be blunt, sometimes “yes” and sometimes “no.” What are some of the considerations that are more likely to lead to success rather than failure? The following are food for thought: Probably first and foremost, for success of any kind, both parties must recognize the need for marriage counseling and...
Divorce, now termed dissolution of marriage in most states, including Florida, is not something to be taken lightly. However, there are times, for a variety of reasons one or both parties of a marriage determine their marriage is no longer working, it is, as a judge would say, irrevocably broken. Now what? First, if both parties have come ...
There are sometimes, during the hearing of a case before a judge, when it necessary to use an expert witness. According to The Legal Dictionary.com. an “expert witness is a person who is a specialist in a subject, often technical, who may present his/her expert opinion without having been witness to any occurrence relating to the lawsuit or...
To begin with, what or who is Daubert? And what is an expert witness and why should he or she need to be qualified? As Daubert deals directly with the qualification of an expert witness asked to give testimony, this blog will start with a legal definition of “expert witness.” According to Legal Dictionary|Law.com, an “expert witness ...
Everyone wants their court case to be finished with the judge’s ruling finalized as soon as possible. Quickly is unheard of in the legal world but in many instances there are causes for delays Cases which of course add time to arriving at the final judgment. Here are some of the most frequent reasons for a delay: In most jurisdictions ...
There is no definitive answer to“How long does a divorce take.”A number of factors enter into the amount of time it takes to process a divorce. These factors include: Will the divorce be contested or non-contested? If both parties agree on all issues including alimony and marital asset and debt division (Florida is an equitable distr...
With the ever-increasing use of texting as a way to communicate ideas, information, requests, and just about any other form of verbal sharing between two or more persons, Text Messages Be Used as Evidence are becoming more and more common in court proceedings. Text messages can be saved with the date and time of production, making them useful...
Social media is quickly becoming the primary way to communicate information, ideas, and often pictures to support the written word. Authors Marisa A. Tradatti and Anna C. Hore note, “There’s a whole generation of people for whom tweeting is as natural as breathing, for whom the word ‘friend’ has become a verb, and for whom Web 2.0 is ...
No, being separated is not a requirement for a divorce in Florida. In fact, in Florida, as in five other states—Texas, Mississippi, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Georgia—legal separation is not formally recognized. A couple may choose to live apart, in other words, “separate,” but Florida courts do not have a legal status ...
You have done your research, met with some attorneys specializing in handling situations involving your concerns, chosen the attorney you felt the most comfortable with and had confidence in, and your particular case is well on its way to being decided. Without intending there to be problems with your attorney, several issues have surfaced an...
n states like Florida, unless there are special circumstances, there is no longer a primary custody parent for minor children between newborn and 18 years old, but rather a sharing of parental responsibility. This is termed “parental time-sharing.” Basically, this means parents will share equally in the care and nurturing of any minor chi...
To advocate, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, is “one who assists, defends, or pleads for another; one who renders legal advice and aid and pleads the cause of another before a court. A person learned in the law, and duly admitted to practice, which assists his clients with advice, and pleads for him in open court….” Taking this d...
According to US Legal, Inc. the definition of legal ethics in law “is the minimum standards of appropriate conduct within the legal profession. It is the behavioral norms and morals which govern judges and lawyers. It involves duties that the members owe one another, their clients, and the courts.” These issues of ethics include commun...
Going through a dissolution of marriage (divorce) in Florida when there are minor children, that is children under the age of l8 or who cannot take care of themselves, requires the awarding of child support. To calculate which parent will be the receiver and which parent the giver, and how much monthly payment will be ordered, Florida Family ...
As was pointed out in the first and second part of this series, mediation is used frequently in Florida to try to resolve Family Court matters including dissolution of marriage, (divorce), child support and shared parenting, including developing a parenting plan, (child custody) and post judgment modification for alimony, child support and pa...
As pointed out in part 1 of this series, most jurisdictions in Florida require a mediation before a court date can be set for a dissolution of marriage (divorce), setting of child support and developing a parenting plan for parental timesharing for unmarried parents, and for post-judgment modification of alimony, child support, and parenting ...
Mediation, according to the Legal Dictionary law.com, is “the attempt to settle a legal dispute through active participation of a third party (mediator) who works to find points of agreement and make those in conflict agree on a fair result….However, mediation does not always result in a settlement.” As this implies, a mediator is a per...
Essentially, 50/50 equal time sharing and paying child support have little to do with each other except that both involve a couple being the legal parents, either by birth or adoption, of a minor child. Taking a closer look at both 50/50 equal time sharing and paying child support the following is important to note: Equal time sharing: In F...
The word “subpoena” comes from “suppena”, Middle English and “sub poena”, Latin, both meaning “under penalty” It is interesting to note that even though the word has English roots, in England the term subpoena is no longer used but the phrase “written summons” is used instead. Actually, “written summons” is a good, bri...
In Florida, most jurisdictions handling contested divorce (dissolution of marriage) require the case to go to mediation before it can be assigned a court hearing date to be heard by a judge. As mediation allows each party, with the help of their attorney, to hopefully be willing to compromise and work out a marital settlement agreement satisf...
Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) comes from Latin and, is defined by the online Legal Dictionary as “a unique type of guardian in a relationship that has been created by court order only for the duration of legal action. Courts appoint these special representatives for infants, minors, and mentally incompetent persons, all of whom generally need hel...
As each state has its own laws regarding the care and nurturing of minor children following a separation or divorce of their biological or adoptive parents, this blog will focus on the state of Florida. For many years Florida, as in most states, awarded the custody of minor children to one or the other parent. Children lived with the parent h...
For 75 years tax laws surrounding alimony have stayed the same. This has meant the person receiving alimony would pay taxes on the amount and the person giving alimony could take the amount of alimony as a tax deduction. While this may not seem significant, for those in high-income tax brackets an increase or decrease in taxable income can ch...
All clients, no matter the business or professional arrangements have expectations as to how they expect the situation to proceed and what they perceive the final outcome to be. This is certainly true when it comes to working with an attorney. Most clients have preconceived ideas as to how their case should proceed and what they hope for as s...
About two years ago a well-received movie who gets the Dog gained the attention of many Americans. The theme of the movie revolved around a couple who had a beloved dog that neither was willing to part with because of their pending divorce. While the movie provided a great deal of humor, in reality, it isn’t funny when a couple desires a di...
Unfortunately, there is no time frame allotted for getting child support. While the party desiring child support may feel it is an emergency, the legal system has its specified procedures which must be followed before adjudication for child support will be finalized by a judge. Taking a look at the procedures needed to obtain child support wi...
