Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Blog

May 15, 2009

How Does Fault Affect My Jacksonville, Florida Divorce?

So often I hear the same questions in my family law practice in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. One of those recurring questions is how does my wife or husband’s affair or marital misconduct affect the divorce proceedings? Will he or she be punished for cheating on me and this marriage? While that issue is quite emotional and understandably the slighted spouse wants some vindication in court, in counties like Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns as well as other Florida counties, fault just doesn’t matter. Florida is considered a “no fault” divorce state. As such, a spouse could have 100 affairs and it won’t matter to a judge in Florida. It simply is not relevant. We can, however, attack marital misconduct financially. If your spouse spent marital funds in the furtherance of the affair, then the Florida courts allow for an unequal distribution of assets and debts to make up for the money spent on the affair. There are other areas in which marital misconduct may be relevant in a divorce proceeding including the determination of alimony. But don’t expect the courts to vindicate you by “punishing” your spouse for marital misconduct. It simply won’t happen in Florida. Do you think this is good law in Florida or do you think a spouse should be held legally accountable for marital misconduct? I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any questions about the divorce process please call our firm at 904-355-8888.

May 13, 2009

Step-Parent Adoptions: Whose Consent Is Required in Florida?

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Oftentimes, a biological parent has been out of the child’s life and the step-parent wishes to adopt the child. In those cases, the courts sometimes require the consent of an unmarried biological parent. Florida Statute 63.062 governs the rule requiring consent in adoptions. The consent of the unmarried biological father is only required if the unmarried biological father was married to the mother at the time the child was born, adopted the child, has had a paternity determination by a court or has acknowledged in writing that he is the father of the child and has had that acknowledgement witnessed by a competent witness and filed the acknowledgement with the Office of the Vital Statistics. If any of these requirements have been performed by the unmarried biological father, our firm can help in obtaining the required consent from the biological father when filing the step-parent adoption. Please call us at 904-355-8888 should you require any assistance with this matter.

May 11, 2009

Moms vs. Dads in the Courtroom: Florida Divorce and Custody

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

As a divorce and family law attorney in Jacksonville, Florida, I am aware that even in today’s world, custody battles still have judicial biases. As an attorney who represents both men and women, moms and dads, I am disturbed by this court bias that exists. In determining custody, the judge is supposed to look at which parent is most likely going to foster a caring, loving and affectionate relationship between the child and the other parent. In addtion, it is important for the custodial or primary parent to work with the other regarding visitation or timesharing. However, in many cases the court can be given all inforamtion showing that the father is the right parent to provide these things and the mother is actually not fostering the relationship with the other parent, but the judge will still name the mother the primary residential parent.
I am shocked by the idea that one gender can still be given more weight than the other in a modern day judicial system. For the benefit and justice of the child, this prejudice seems unfair and archaic. So, how does one combat it? Truthfully, there is no silver bullet, simply evidence. The more you have on your side the better your case. However, the bias remains true and fast in today’s world and it is one that can really only be corrected, in time, by the general public’s involvment in the judicial campaigns in their area and state.

May 8, 2009

Modifying Child Custody: What Are Grounds To Do So In Florida?

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

The dissolution has been finalized and child custody has been determined but now one party is infringing on the other party’s relationship with the minor child or children. What is that parent to do? This happens quite a bit after the finalization of custody in Florida, but the Courts have provided the parent who’s relationship is being infringed upon with a solution. That parent can bring an action to modify custody before the Court and normally, the Court will strongly consider changing custody to the parent who is most likely to continue fostering a strong and loving relationship with the non-custodial parent. The infringement must be severe, however and should accompany violations of other factors. Please contact our firm if you believe your relationship with your children is being affected due to the actions of your former spouse. There may be a remedy for you.

May 6, 2009

How To Obtain Success At A Family Law Mediation

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

If you are going through a dissolution proceeding or any family law proceeding that includes modifications of final judgements, child support issues, child custody issues, alimony issues, then most likely you will be required by the courts to attend a mediation. A mediation is a formal settlement conference where the parties sit down with a mediator who is an impartial person designed to help the parties reach an agreement regarding the issues in a case. To mediate issues properly, you should have your financials available such as cost of children’s health insurance, cost of your own health insurance, the cost of daycare, if any, the cost of private school expenses, the cost of extra-curricular expenses for the child and decide who will get the IRS deduction. You should also have the values of any real property as well as the value of any personal property in dispute. If there is any debt in dispute, you should know who’s name the debt is in, proof of the amount owed, and whether the debt was acquired during the marriage or before the marriage or acquired during the separation of the parties. Having all of this information available for the mediator will make the mediation run more smoothly and give you a better chance to reach a settlement with which each party can live.

For more information regarding mediation services, please call our firm at 904-355-8888.

May 4, 2009

The Divorce: How to Avoid Insanity In the Dissolution Process

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

In my experience as a divorce attorney in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, nothing can bring on acts of insanity in otherwise reasonable people like a nasty divorce proceeding. Whether the issues are child custody, child support, alimony or the division of assets and liabilities, when parties split, emotions run high and otherwise reasonable people can tend to engage in some insane antics. Here are the top three stories gathered from other dissolution proceedings to show the importance of keeping your cool as well as your mind when going through a dissolution proceeding.

#3 A Couple in Cambodia Divides the Marital Home: After a Cambodian man suspected that his wife was having an affair with a local police officer, he and his extended family loaded up some chain saws and literally drove to the marital home and cut the house in half right down the middle. The Husband then took his half of the house and transported it to his parent’s house for safe keeping.

#2 Japanese Wife May Face Criminal Charges for Killing Off Her Husband’s Online Gaming Character: After a Japanese Wife discovered her Husband was having an online gaming affair by having his online character have relations with another online gaming character, the Wife hacked into the Husband’s computer and “killed off” i.e. “deleted” his online character and over a year’s worth of purchasing costumes for the character and buying weapons for online battles and such. The Husband contacted the police who realized that in Japan this was actually a crime. Now the Wife is facing serious criminal charges for “murdering” the Husband’s online gaming character.

May 1, 2009

Florida Divorce and Communicating with Your Child

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Florida Family Law has a new requirement for a Florida Parenting Plan for any divorce involving children. As a Florida Family Law attorney, I think this is a great way for parents to put the children first in their divorce. However, it’s just as important to communicate with your children when you’re going through a divorce.

We all think that divorce or issues involving our kids is an “adult” issue. The truth is that children feel the affects from beginning to end. As much as divorce may have impacted your life, their life is impacted even more. During a divorce, it is important to keep an open line of communication with your children. Remind them that this is not their fault, remind them that you are both their parents regardless of what mom and dad decide to do. Remind your children that they will still see the other parent.

Think of divorce as a way to learn new communication skills with not only your soon to be ex-spouse, but your children too.

April 29, 2009

Florida Stepparent Adoption: By Consent

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Stepparent adoption is common in Jacksonville, Florida, where we, Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. is located. Florida recognizes adoption by a stepparent to be commonplace and tries to make the process easy on all parties. Consent of the nonparticipating parent is the best way to gain adoption rights of the child. However, some situations do not require consent of the parent.

Stepparent adoption is usually achieved when a parent remarries and the other parent has not consistenly participated in the child’s life. Upon the primary parent’s marriage, the new spouse offers to adopt the child so that the child can have an intact and stable environment with a mom and dad. Florida courts, looking at the matter in the best interest of the child, are happy to provide such a family unit to a child.

Typically, a nonparticipating parent is fine giving up their parental rights to the child, because it alleviates the need to pay future child support and they understand that the child has a chance at a two parent home. If the other parent is willing, then it is best to get them to sign a consent terminating their parental rights. This process is the easiest method for all parties.

April 27, 2009

Florida Annulment: Voidable Marriages — Florida Divorce Law

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Florida has annulments, but they are not governed by Florida Statute or law. As a family law attorney in Jacksonville, Florida, I can honestly say that annulments are rare. Annulments are most common in religious settings mainly because a church will sometimes require one from its divorced members. However, getting a court to sign off on an annulment requires a number of steps to be shown or proven to the court.

In Florida, there are only two ways to be granted an annulment, either by showing the marriage is void or showing it is voidable. While they are similar words, they are very different terms. For purposes of this article, I am focusing on the voidable scenario.

A voidable marriage is one where the parties may present to the court that their marriage is invalid for one of the reasons below. However, if the marriage is consummated (marital relations take place) any time after learning of the voidable action, then an annulment is not possible. The following are the forms and explanations of a voidable marriage.

April 24, 2009

Florida Annulment

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

A Florida Annulment is not a common practice in family law, but they do occur. Florida divorce attorneys do not see annulments on a regular basis because the standard of proof is very difficult to achieve. Recently, I was successful in getting a fraudulent marriage annulled in Jacksonville, Florida. The facts the case were perfect for showing that the marriage was based on fraud by one party against the other, however, that is typically not the case.

For those who don’t really understand what an annulment does, other than allow you to take communion in a Catholic church, it actually makes it as if the marriage never occurred. It’s not a divorce because it completely works to put the parties in a position as if the wedding, vows, etc. never occurred. They are granted only if the marriage is void (one party still married to someone else) or voidable (induced by fraud) and not consummated after learning of the fraud.

A divorce, on the other hand, is the recognized ending of an intact and valid marriage. A divorce is often an important action when there are children born of the marriage, even if the marriage was voidable at the time. The reason for that is because the parties do not want it to appear as if their child was born out of wedlock.