Do Cheaters Forfeit the Right to Equitable Distribution?
Laws enabling no fault divorce changed society. Before the 1970s, divorce was always a litigious ordeal; you had to prove that your spouse did something bad enough to persuade the court to award you a divorce. It was like suing someone who caused a car accident in which you got injured. Today, couples can choose to divorce simply because they no longer want to be married to each other, and people get divorced over all the reasons that previously simply led to unhappy marriages, such as meddlesome in-laws, jealousy, and differences of opinion over money and parenting. Some people think it is too easy to get divorced; they believe that, since both former spouses emerge from a divorce poorer and emotionally stressed, that fewer divorces would mean more prosperity and less loneliness for the entire society. A politician who plans to run for governor is promoting changes to Florida’s equitable distribution laws, in the hopes of making people think twice before sabotaging their marriages. If you do not take the idea of divorce lightly, but your marriage is beyond repair, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Gubernatorial Candidate Floats the Idea of Categorizing Adultery as Marital Misconduct
James Fishback, who is seeking the Republican nomination in Florida’s gubernatorial race, believes that divorce makes everyone poorer and harms families and communities; he also believes that some people divorce only because their spouse abused them or broke their marriage vows by committing adultery. He proposes that, in divorce cases where one spouse had an extramarital affair, the family court should treat it as a case of marital misconduct. Currently, Florida law defines marital misconduct only as intentionally diminishing the value of the marital property, to harm one’s spouse financially when the couple gets a divorce. If one spouse committed marital misconduct, the divorce court is more likely to adopt the other spouse’s requests for division of marital property.
“Cheaters Lose Full Custody” Sounds More Like Campaign Rhetoric Than a Serious Legislative Proposal
Fishback’s proposal about treating adultery as marital misconduct sounds legally feasible enough, but it is the other part of his proposal that will likely get more media attention. He also proposes that cheaters will lose the right to “full custody” of their minor children. This, frankly, sounds like clickbait. All parents have the right to parenting time; the court only restricts your parenting time if you do something much worse than cheating. Hardly any parent gets full custody, meaning 100 percent of the parenting time and 100 percent of the decision-making authority. When parents cannot agree on how to divide parenting time and decision-making authority, the court decides after making findings about the children’s best interests.
Contact Schwartz | White About Divorce After Adultery
A South Florida family law attorney can help you achieve a fair property division agreement and parenting plan if your marriage broke up after one or both spouses had an extramarital affair. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
msn.com/en-us/news/politics/divorce-rules-could-change-for-millions-of-people-under-republican-s-plan/ar-AA1WLmd9?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=6998fc9e2acc435f8faba3b1731228be&ei=32
