Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Blog

The wild rants of celebrities like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin that were released to online sources and are now available to anyone may be tempting for spouses involved in a bitter divorce or custody dispute to emulate except for one big problem: it’s against the law.

Using a voice recorder to tape your ex’s rants as leverage or evidence in a divorce or child custody suit may be enticing, but it is also illegal and could do more harm than good to your own case.

In Florida, all parties must consent both to the recording and the disclosure of any wire, oral or electronic communication. If you record, disclose or try to disclose any of these types of communication, you could be charged with a felony, unless it is your first offense committed without any illegal purpose or commercial gain. In addition, the person you recorded without consent can sue you for damages.

Getting a divorce is bad enough emotionally without having to suffer unnecessarily when it comes to your finances. Here are some tips for making smart divorce financial decisions:

Count all your assets. In preparation for a divorce, you both will need to make an itemized list of all your assets. These should include both individual and joint assets, and cover what you have now as well as what you may expect in the future from inheritances, gifts, insurance policies, etc. Working with a financial professional like a certified divorce financial analyst can help you not only uncover all your assets but also project what you will likely need to live on in the future so you can negotiate for it in your divorce settlement.

Close joint accounts. First, be sure to check with your divorce attorney on when to close accounts so it doesn’t have an adverse impact on your case. If possible, divide the joint accounts equitably and open individual accounts.

A survey among 1,900 UK residents who divorced after the age of 50 found that a lack of intimacy was the main reason for their split. What differed between men and women was how they defined intimacy – one-third of men say their marriage ended because their partner was no longer interested in sex, while 28 percent of the women surveyed said they divorced because their partners became emotionally cold.

The survey also found that 14 percent say that nagging was responsible for their divorce, and 10 percent said they no longer had anything in common with their partners. Five percent of those surveyed said they had waited until later in life to divorce because of their children.

Researchers said they believe that older couples divorce for different reasons than younger couples. Once their children have left home and they are nearing the age of retirement, intimacy becomes a more important attribute in their choice of partner for their later years. In addition, women begin to see more opportunities for themselves that may not have been there when they were first married or occupied with raising children.

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.