Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Blog

June 28, 2010

Israeli Man Breaks Record For Highest Number of Divorces

A Jewish Israeli man recently broke the country’s record for the highest number of divorces – again. Previously, the record for the most number of divorces for one person was seven. This unnamed man has now been divorced eleven times. He reportedly told the Rabbinical court that he usually divorces his wives after two years and remarries as soon as possible. He appears to be addicted to the “experience” of meeting and courting a new wife.

The man reports that he has never experienced any difficulty in finding a new wife, and he has never paid any alimony or child support, even though he has been ordered to do so. His most recent ex-wife claims that he never worked while they were married, living off of her earnings and running up a large debt. The Rabbis did praise the man for going through all the appropriate religious procedures for getting a divorce, including issuing his wife a Get. He plans to remarry. Find out more about his marriage plans at Record 11th divorce granted to Jewish Israeli man.

Marriage is a serious commitment and divorce is a painful and difficult experience. It is strange and sad that this man takes it so lightly. If you are considering divorce, please contact our firm to discuss your case with a Florida Family Law Attorney.

June 25, 2010

Study Shows Men Hurt More When Romantic Relationships Go Bad

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

New research from Wake University shows that men suffer more stress in a rocky relationship than women and have a harder time accepting a break-up.

The new study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, examined the relationships of 1,000 college-age Florida men and women. Researchers discovered that when a relationship is troubled, men are likely to suffer more than women because they do not have the same support system that women do.

The research also showed that when a relationship bottoms out, men are more likely to turn to substance abuse to cope. Women are more likely to become suffer from depression when the break-up of a long-term relationship occurs.

June 24, 2010

Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Details Florida Stepparent Adoption Process

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

For a Florida stepparent adoption to take place, one of the biological parents must relinquish their parental rights to the adopting stepparent. The adopting stepparent is then assigned all the legal rights and responsibilities of a biological parent.

If the child is over the age of 12, he or she must consent to the adoption by the stepparent and will be interviewed by the court prior to signing a consent form.

If the birth parent does not consent – or cannot be found to provide consent – the stepparent adoption may be allowed to proceed if you can prove:

June 23, 2010

Florida Divorce Law: What a Prenup Can and Cannot Do for You

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

If you are considering a Florida prenuptial agreement, you need to understand exactly what the law allows – in other words, what a prenup can, and cannot, do for you.

A prenuptial agreement can:

Keep assets separate – A prenuptial agreement can ensure that an individual retains designated assets even if they are accumulated during a marriage that ends in divorce.

June 22, 2010

Florida Divorce: When Going to Court Makes Sense

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Florida divorce courts are no different than many other states when it comes to encouraging couples to settle their divorces via mediation or collaborative law: they’re for it. And while I usually urge divorcing couples to consider mediation or collaborative divorce, there are some instances when going to court is the right move:

When A Spouse is Abusive – If someone is seeking a divorce from an abusive spouse, chances are that they are easily intimidated by that spouse and will have trouble sticking up for their rights in a mediated or collaborative divorce process. In this case, it is usually best to have a divorce attorney as your advocate.

When A Spouse is Uncooperative – Unfortunately, in some cases, a spouse will be particularly vindictive and spiteful and want to “punish” the other spouse in the divorce. Some spouses may refuse to communicate with each other at all. In these cases, there is no good faith basis on which to proceed with a mediation or collaborative divorce.

June 21, 2010

Florida Divorce Law: How to Create a Parenting Agreement

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

As a Florida divorce lawyer, I tell couples with children who are getting a divorce that it is better for them to agree on a co-parenting plan rather than have the court do it for them.

Creating a parenting agreement usually helps to reduce future conflicts because the expectations are clear from the beginning on how each parent will interact with the other when it comes to parenting their children.

Just the act of creating a parenting agreement allows couples to make decisions about all the issues that they will face in the future with their children. Once a parenting agreement has been created, the court should then approve it so it becomes enforceable in case one party does not live up to the agreement.

June 18, 2010

Florida Divorce: How to Enjoy Father’s Day as a Divorced Dad

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Father’s Day can be a tough holiday for many divorced dads, especially in the first year following a divorce. But as the family starts to adjust to a new way of life, there are things that divorced dads can do to make it easier on everyone, especially themselves:

Plan Ahead – Be sure to plan any outings in advance and be sure your ex-wife is aware of those plans. You can avoid a lot of confusion and hurt feelings by doing a little advanced planning. Be sure to include your kids in the planning as well.

Be Generous With Your Time – Many divorced fathers feel they must compensate their children with gifts and money for the pain a divorce may have caused them. Don’t make this mistake. Your children want your time more than anything.

June 17, 2010

What is Disestablishment of Paternity?

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

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The Florida Disestablish of Paternity or Termination of Child Support Obligation statute allows a male to disestablish paternity or terminate a child support obligation when that male is not the biological father of the child.

Steps to disestablish paternity or terminate a child support obligation:

1. The male must file a petition in the circuit court that has jurisdiction over the child support obligation.

June 16, 2010

Financial Savings in No-Fault Divorce In Florida

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

In a no-fault state like Florida it is difficult to understand, as a family law attorney, why parties are willing to spend more money than they have to prove that a spouse was, in fact, having an extramarital affair. It is not to say that affairs are not personal or do not take personal tolls on the individual hurt by it, they do. However, to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for a court to hear the atrocity, when the reality is the affair will not have a bearing on the outcome of the case is scary.

Speaking as a professional interested in representing the client’s best interest, I think preserving the client’s money for what can really make a difference, counseling on the emotional aspects, is much better. I struggle with this issue as a family law attorney because I do not want to take advantage of the emotions associated with the divorce. The only way to avoid an attorney taking advantage of this situation, other than hiring an attorney like myself, is to take the emotion out of the divorce.

What do I mean by this? I simply mean that the divorce is a business transaction, you are seeking to dissolve a contract, that being the contract of marriage. I know that sounds cold, but the reality is, at the end of the day, it’s business. You are searching to protect your assets, finances, retirement, which again, is a business concept. The more you can remove the emotion from the action the less money the divorce will cost you in the end.

June 15, 2010

Summer Visitation in Florida – A Popular Issue During the Summer

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Florida visitation laws changed to timesharing laws in 2008. The primary goals of these laws are to (1) ease the need for a custodial parent to be determined and (2) to protect the child and keep his or her interests as a central concern throughout custody or divorce proceedings.

How is timesharing affected during the summer?

Generally, the roles of the primary parent and non-primary parent are swapped. For example, the primary parent – the parent who has custody of the child for a majority of time – becomes the non-primary parent during the summer. Generally, the timesharing laws allow for the non-primary parent to have custody of the child for a consecutive 6 weeks with every other weekend going to the primary parent. This switch is the normal practice unless the parents deviate from the standard visitation schedule in the parenting plan, which is also a requirement in visitation cases. If that happens to be the case, it is usually established in the parenting plan established by the parents if they have deviated from the standard schedule.