Recent Blog Posts
Mental Health, Medical Privacy, and Child Custody
When you read the news headlines, you see much more compassionate and realistic attitudes toward mental illness than would have been there even 20 years ago. Now that nearly a quarter of Americans have been treated for a mental illness, almost everyone knows from experience that the old stereotypes about mental illness are not… Read More »
Lamentations of the Statutory Stranger
In practice, the definition of “parent” is much broader than it is in family law. The person you consider your real mom or dad is someone who has been a consistent presence in your life since your childhood and who has provided you with moral guidance and unconditional love. The person might not be… Read More »
Courts Must Not Base Their Child Custody Decisions on Speculation About the Future
The decisions of the family courts are not just about the exchange of money to remedy prior harms or compensate one party for financial losses; by nature, court decisions about divorce and co-parenting govern how the parties will deal with each other, financially and otherwise, for at least the next several years after the… Read More »
Why Would the Court Order You to Pay $1 Per Month in Permanent Alimony?
Most alimony arrangements can be terminated early if the recipient spouse remarries, even if the alimony was originally meant to be permanent. Of course, it is possible for a couple to act as a single financial unit without being legally married. In fact, over the years, the courts heard the grievances of many divorced… Read More »
What Happens If You File for Divorce, Then Reconcile, Then File for Divorce Again?
Marriage counselors often say that their job is to help couples break up as much as to help them stay together. Sometimes people have to think all the way through how their relationship as ex-spouses would work before they decide that staying married is the best option. When couples file for the divorce but… Read More »
Do You Really Have to Pay Temporary Alimony If Your Spouse Can Survive Financially Without Your Help?
Because temporary alimony, also called pendente lite alimony, automatically ends when the divorce becomes final, you might think that it is not the source of much conflict. The ostensible purpose of temporary alimony is to keep the household bills paid and the home mortgage from going into foreclosure while the divorce case is pending. … Read More »
Establish Legal Paternity Early If You Are Not Married to the Child’s Mother at the Time of the Child’s Birth
In Florida, there is more than one way to be a father. DNA testing is not the beginning and end of the story, and neither is marriage. Every man who has established legal paternity of his child by filing a voluntary declaration of paternity has a unique story, but they all have one thing… Read More »
Civil Contempt and Due Process in Florida Child Support Disputes
If a court has ever ordered you to pay child support, you know that the law takes a parent’s responsibility to support his or her children financially while they are minors very seriously. For example, past due child support payments were virtually the only reason that the federal government permitted garnishment of anyone’s coronavirus… Read More »
When Preteens Refuse to Visit One Parent: Reasonable Preference or Just Reacting to the Stress of Divorce?
One of the factors that Florida family courts consider when deciding on parenting time is the reasonable preference of the child. This factor is only relevant when the child is of middle school age or older. For a child’s reasonable preference to count toward the decision, he or she must meet with the judge… Read More »
Your Spouse Has the Right to Veto Your Financial Decisions Until Your Divorce Becomes Final
When a court finalizes your divorce, either by signing off on an agreement you and your spouse have arrived at during mediation or by the judge’s decision at the end of the trial, the final order of dissolution of marriage specifies what financial obligations, if any, one spouse still has to the other. The… Read More »
