Martindale-Hubbell
The National Advocates
The National Advocates
National Board of Trial Advocacy
The Florida Bar
Best Lawyers
Client Distinction Award
The National Advocates

Published on: | by

When a party files for divorce in Broward, their lawyer will remind them that a judge frowns upon a parent who speaks poorly about the other parent in front of the minor children. Many parents fight about their relationship and use their children as ammunition. However, judges practicing in the marital and family division in Florida often believe that this conduct is one of the worst things that children can experience.

Children love both of their parents. They want to have time-sharing and access with both of their parents. Yet, when children hear one parent disparage the other it damages the child’s self worth since they have a sense of loyalty to both parents. During a divorce in Fort Lauderdale, parents should minimize the damage that child custody litigation and fighting can cause to a child.

Parents who separate often believe that they are acting reasonably. However, this is rarely the case. Exercising shared parental responsibility and co-parenting during and after a divorce is not easy.

Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

A recent study indicates that women who earn more money than their husband’s are 40% more likely to divorce. Women who earned at least 60% of the total household income are likely to divorce. The study, which took 25 years, also found that it did not matter how affluent the parties were since they were more likely to divorce if the wife was the breadwinner. One reason for the results of this study may be that women are free to leave bad marriages if they are financially independent.

Published on: | by

Marital and family law in Miami-Dade and Broward, judges and divorce attorneys have relied upon the OurFamilyWizard® website for high conflict child custody, parenting plan and time-sharing cases. This website has become one of the most effective shared parental responsibility tools to remove parental conflict and to assist parents in doing what is in the best interest of the minor children.

After nearly ten years of helping separated families communicate, the OurFamilyWizard® website has added yet another revolutionary tool to its repertoire. Earlier this year the OurFamilyWizard® website announced the release of OFWpay™.

The OFWpay™ system allows parents to make and receive electronic payments to their checking or savings account. OFWpay™ transactions allow parents to send payment for expenses like unreimbursed medical, extra-curricular activities or even child support payments where permitted.

Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Dwyane Wade was in a marital and family law court today while his former wife testified during child custody proceedings in Chicago. Lawyers for the Miami Heat star tried to establish that his former wife has erratic behavior based upon her relationships, confrontations and parenting decisions. Prior to the trial, the divorce judge requested that the Miami Heat basketball player and his former wife attempt to resolve their child custody litigation. However, the parties quickly reached an impasse.

Divorce lawyers for Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade argued that the former wife has bizarre behavior and interferes with his time-sharing. On the otherhand, lawyers for the former wife argued that Mr. Wade is too busy to be designated as the sole custodial parent.

The guardian ad litem has recommended that Dwyane Wade be granted custody. Dwyane Wade is scheduled to testify in court later this week.

Published on: | by

According to cnn.com, couples who are engaged are doing what they can to fight off the alarming divorce rates. Nowadays, young couples are reluctant to get married. But, experts now believe that premarital counseling may be beneficial. Engaged couples are taught to discuss topics such as finances, religion, children and sexuality.

During your first marriage, there is a 50-50 chance that you may hire a divorce lawyer in Fort Lauderdale. While many couples believe that the highest indicator of a divorce is conflict, the true number 1 indicator is avoidance of conflict. While many married couples accept that marriage is hard work, some engaged couples have decided to attend premarital counseling to prevent future problems before they tie the knot.

Psychotherapists have seen an increase in their premarital counseling practice and the sale of premarital books. Experts believe that this is a result of couples having a darkened view of marriage since they hear about the effects of a divorce all of the time. The benefits of premarital education is that it provides greater knowledge and relationship skills for contemporary marriages to succeed so that couples do not reach the point where they need to hire a divorce attorney in Broward.

Published on: | by

In Sootin v. Sootin, the former husband and former wife divorced in Miami-Dade in 1998. The former husband was obliged to pay the former wife permanent alimony. During 2008, the former husband sought to modify or terminate his alimony obligation. The former wife successfully moved to dismiss the petition since she now resided in Tennessee.

Next, the former husband moved to Tennessee and filed a petition to register and modify the divorce decree previously entered in Miami-Dade. After the former wife moved to dismiss the petition for a lack of subject matter jurisdiction in Tennessee, the Miami-Dade court, after consultation with the Tennessee Court, transfered the case to Tennessee. The former wife appealed this order.

In reversing the trial court’s transfer order, the Third District Court of Appeal held that the Miami divorce court erred in transferring the case to Tennessee. The court reasoned that Florida, under the Unified Interstate Family Support Act (hereinafter “UIFSA”), had continuing exclusive jurisdiction over the alimony order throughout the existence of the obligation.

Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Fort Lauderdale divorce attorneys can file a petition to disestablish paternity and terminate a child support obligation if a male is not the biological father of a child. The petition must contain an affidavit that newly discovered evidence has become available since the original paternity or child support determination and an affidavit acknowledging that the child support obligation is current or has been substantially complied with and that any arrearage is a result of inability for just cause to pay the child support. Last but not least, a Broward marital and family law lawyer must plead that scientific paternity tests administered within 90 days prior to the filing of the petition prove that the male is not the biological father. Alternatively, an affidavit can be filed advising the court that the mother has prevented access to the minor child and that the court should order all interested parties to submit to DNA testing.

In Aulet v Aulet, the former husband appealed the Miami trial court’s order that dismissed his petition to disestablish paternity and terminate child support as a result of his failure to include scientific paternity tests administered within 90 days prior to the filing of the petition. The former husband was the father of three minor children pursuant to the final judgment of dissolution of marriage entered in December 2003. On April 5, 2007 and May 1, 2007, he had two DNA tests performed on one of the children. The DNA testing results revealed that there was a 0% chance that he was the biological father of one of the minor children.

The former husband’s petition did not contain an affidavit stating that he did not have access to the minor child to perform the DNA test within 90 days prior to the filing of the petition or that the trial court should order DNA testing of the minor child. Rather, the former husband alleged that that former wife refused to allow him access to the minor child since May, 2007. In affirming the decision of the Miami-Dade divorce and paternity court, the Third District Court of Appeal held that the plain language of Florida Statute 742.18 mandates that when a movant relies upon DNA tests administered prior to the filing of a petition, the tests must have been administered within 90 days prior to the filing of the petition.

Published on: | by

According to cnn.com, the Miami Heat’s newest basketball player, LeBron James, is being sued in federal court for allegedly denying paternity by committing fraud and misrepresentation against the alleged putative father. The putative father is requesting DNA testing to ascertain whether or not he is the biological father as well as $4 million in damages. The biological father, Leicester Stovell, claims that he engaged in sexual relations with Gloria James, the mother of Lebron James, during 1984. Mr. Stovell claims that he filed the lawsuit two weeks ago since the statute of limitations is close to expiring. It is unknown whether or not a Miami divorce attorney or paternity lawyer has been consulted or retained.

Published on: | by

Divorce attorney’s in Miami, Coral Gables, Hallandale, Plantation and other South Florida cities are preparing for a statutory overhaul regarding legislative modifications to the statute governing alimony. One of the most significant changes is the codification of bridge-the-gap alimony.

Bridge-the-gap alimony assists a party in making the transition from being married to being single. It assists a party with identifiable short term financial needs. A marital and family law judge may not award bridge-the-gap alimony for a period in excess of 2 years. Bridge-the-gap alimony terminates upon the death of either party or upon remarriage of the party that receives alimony. Last but not least, bridge-the-gap alimony is non-modifiable in amount or duration.

Another important change to alimony relates to rehabilitative alimony. Rehabilitative alimony assists a party in redeveloping previous skills or credentials. It also helps a spouse acquire education, training or work experience necessary to develop employment skills. In the Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage, the court must detail a defined rehabilitative plan. A party may modify or terminate rehabilitative based upon a substantial change in circumstances or compliance with the rehabilitative plan.

Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

The Miami Herald is reporting that Tiger Woods and his wife have many different options if they decide to file for divorce in Florida. Their personal financial information may be kept away from the public eye if agreed to by both parties. In order to pay the least amount of taxes, Mrs. Woods would likely file for divorce in Florida rather than where the parties own additional homes in Sweden and California. In light of the fact that Florida is a no fault divorce state, they would only need to inform the Florida marital and family judge that the marriage is irretrievably broken.

In order to keep their divorce confidential, they could file for their divorce in any county in Florida. It is most likely in the best interest of the children if the court balances the public right to know and the privacy of the Woods family in disclosing details of the case. However, divorce lawyers in Miami believe that it would be difficult to conceal the location of the divorce filing in Florida since a clerk of court could easily divulge this information.

While Tiger Woods and his wife would be required to file a child support guidelines worksheet and financial affidavits listing their income, assets and liabilities, a judge may seal financial aspect of the case to keep it away from the public eye. However, this will really depend upon the judge who is assigned to the case.

Continue reading ›