Articles Posted in Divorce / Dissolution of Marriage

Jacksonville has ranked #9 on a list of America’s Top 50 Divorce Capitals compiled by The Daily Beast, and another Florida city – Panama City – ranks #1.

The Daily Beast looked at 2009 divorce statistics, including the number of divorces and the percentage of the population in each city that was currently divorced. Four cities in Florida made the top 10 – Panama City, Deltona, Palm Bay and Jacksonville – and 11 Florida cities made the top 50.

Jacksonville’s divorced population stands at 13 percent, with 4.7 percent of the population obtaining a divorce in 2009. In Panama City, 15.5 percent of the population is divorced, and 4.3 percent got a divorce in 2009.

In Florida, anyone who wants to divorce must have been a resident of the state for at least six months and wait for a period of 20 days before a final judgment can be entered. A roadmap of the Florida divorce process includes:

Gathering financial information. Pull together all recent tax returns, bank statements, retirement accounts and other important business documents. These will be used for making property division and support decisions.

Discussing property division. Try to hash this out with your spouse early on if possible. Even if you cannot come to an agreement, you will have a better understanding of what your spouse’s position is regarding the division of marital property.

The wife of former baseball star Roberto Alomar has filed for divorce in Tampa and accuses him of knowingly exposing her to the AIDS virus.

According to a Florida divorce court filing, Maripily Rivera Alomar says that Alomar had unprotected sex with her even though he knew he was HIV-positive, and lied to her about having tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases prior to their first sexual contact.

This is the second time Alomar has been accused of exposing a partner to HIV. He was sued by a former girlfriend last year who claimed that Alomar had AIDS but encouraged her to have unprotected sex with him. The case was settled in May. At the time of the suit, Maripily Rivera was his girlfriend and defended him vigorously, saying that the story of Alomar’s AIDS diagnosis was “a vile lie.”

A joint study of long-lasting marriages by researchers at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and Indiana University has found that couples wed for an average of 40 years know less about each other’s preferences when it comes to food, design and entertainment than those who have been married for only a few years.

The researchers studied two sets of married couples – one aged 19-32 and another aged 62-78. They said that the findings — that accuracy in predicting each other’s preferences decreases over the course of a long relationship – were unexpected.

“That wasn’t what we expected to find, but this evidence lends support to a hypothesis that accuracy in predicting each other’s preferences decreases over the course of a relationship despite greater time and opportunity to learn about each other’s likes and dislikes,” said Peter Todd, a psychologist at Indiana University and one of the authors of the study which will appear in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Many clients looking for a Florida divorce attorney equate being good with being mean. They want a shark, a bulldog, a nasty SOB who will take their husband to the cleaners or ensure the wife gets nothing.

But does that really work in the long run?

First, most divorce lawyers worth their salt will tell you that you want to do whatever you can to avoid an acrimonious divorce, especially if there are children involved. If you have children, you will be tied to your former spouse for as long as you both are living. You can avoid as much contact with the other person as possible, but they will never be totally out of your life. Do you want someone who hates you to be sharing that energy with you forever?

While money issues continue to be a leading reason couples divorce, in these tough economic times, divorce rates are actually declining.

Simply put, many people say they just can’t afford to get divorced.

Like any legal proceeding, divorce takes planning. While it may be hard emotionally to delay a divorce action, it may actually provide you with the necessary time you need to fully prepare yourself and your family for divorce, both financially and emotionally.

If you’ve gone through a divorce in 2010, tax time will take on an entirely new meaning for you. You want to be sure you take all the deductions you’re entitled to (and that were set forth in your divorce decree, if dependent children were involved) and that you’re following all the rules.

If you were married or divorced recently, there are a couple of things you’ll want to do to ensure the name on your tax return matches the name registered with the Social Security Administration.

Here are tips from the IRS for recently married or divorced taxpayers. Following these steps will help avoid problems when you file your tax return:

Before beginning – or replying to – any divorce action, people want to know how to find a good divorce lawyer. Rather than just hitting the Yellow Pages, you should consider asking friends or family members who’ve gone through a divorce to make recommendations, do some online research of divorce attorneys in your area and arrange to meet with several different divorce lawyers to see who would be the right fit for you and your circumstances.

As a general rule, you want to find a divorce lawyer who is:

A good listener – someone you can speak with frankly and confidentially and feel you can trust. Someone who returns your calls and keeps you up to date on your case.

For those over the age of 50 going through a divorce – and those numbers are rising for this age group – healthcare is one of the largest concerns they have about moving forward. Many spouses who may have been covered under their soon-to-be ex’s company insurance plan may be worried that they will be left without health insurance after the divorce.

Here are some tips and information on healthcare coverage for divorcing couples:

Start shopping. If you will be responsible for your own healthcare coverage after the divorce, start shopping for coverage as soon as possible. There are many, many different options available and you should take the time to study and understand them before making a choice. You may also want to contact an independent insurance agent to do some of this legwork for you. Having someone who is knowledgeable about the industry and plan options to discuss deductibles and the kind of coverage you want can be comforting.

The sad reality in today’s economic environment is that divorcing spouses are increasingly more concerned about dividing debts rather than assets. Under Florida law, both assets and liabilities must be divided equitably – which does not necessarily mean that you will split them equally, but that the court will endeavor to split them fairly so that one spouse does not suffer more financial harm following the divorce.

During your marriage, if you have opened credit card accounts in both your names, or added your spouse to what was previously an individual account, then you are still both liable for the debt. In this case, the court will usually split the debt as equitably as possible – perhaps assigning different accounts to each spouse, as long as the total is fairly equal.

However, what most people do not realize is that a court order does not supersede the right of a creditor to pursue a judgment against both parties if the one responsible for paying the debt as the result of a divorce defaults. The fact is that both spouses are still liable for the debt. In the case where one spouse cannot pay, a creditor has the right to pursue the other spouse for the debt.