Florida Divorce Law

A. In cases of domestic violence, emergency orders of protection are available. These orders may give a victim exclusive use of a shared residence, child custody and child support on a temporary basis to protect the victim from dange.

A. No, Florida does not have legal separations. However, you can file for support unrelated to a divorce under certain circumstances. Your spouse may then reply with a divorce petition. Once either of you have filed for relief in court, a lawsuit between the two of you has begun.

A. YES, contrary to what most think, an agreement or signature is not required to get divorced. Although most cases usually are settled in the end, often they are contested in the beginning.

A. If there has been no violence in your marriage, the court may allow both of you to live in the house while the divorce is pending. You are always free to move out, but the court may not let the children move out if custody is being contested. You may not lock your spouse out of the house unless the court gives you exclusive possession of the house.

A. NO, Florida is a no fault divorce state. If one spouse desires to get divorced, it will happen. Most of the litigation is related to the issues of property or children.

A. NO, There is no preference to women in any divorce or custody action. It is NOT presumed that the man can make more money therefore should give more to the divorcing wife nor is there a custody presumption for mothers, regardless of the age or sex of the children. Regarding the support of minor children; all states have adopted the Uniform Support of Dependents Law. Under that law, "[i]f possessed of sufficient means or able to earn such means, either or both parents shall be required to pay for child support a fair and reasonable sum as the court may determine."

A. The federal Family Support Act of 1988 requires every state to establish numerical child support guidelines. Every state has "child support guidelines" that applies a percentage to the non-custodial parent's income. It is from this percentage that the child support is calculated.

A. In the vast majority of cases, child support is awarded based on reported wages of the payor, as demonstrated by income tax returns.

A. There are many enforcement devices available in most states. These include wage garnishments, making a negative report to credit reporting agencies, collecting past-due child support from lottery prizes won by the payor parent, intercepting tax refunds due the payor parent from state and federal income tax authorities, seizure of the non-paying parents property, obtaining a court order directing that the payor parent post a cash deposit to secure payment of support, by obtaining a court order placing the defaulting parent on probation, and finally, where other methods have all failed, obtaining a court order sentencing the defaulting parent to serve jail time.

A. Yes, ask the court to put you in touch with the state agency responsible for enforcement. For most custodial parents, if there is any difficulty in collecting support, it is worthwhile applying for support enforcement services at the local child support enforcement agency. It is usually recommended that the custodial parent have the support paid through the support enforcement agency even if no problems are anticipated as most support enforcement services take care of the necessary record-keeping, provide a neutral third party to report to the court concerning any collection problems, send reminders to the payor parent, send out income executions and automatically undertake many of the enforcement methods without cost to the custodial parent in the event the payor parent does not pay support.

A. No. The federal bankruptcy code exempts child support and alimony. Even if a former spouse files for, and receives relief from all debts, the child support obligation will not be relieved.

A. Many states have a parent locator service. Call your state's support enforcement agency and ask about the parent locator service. If they are not able to help you, you can often locate a missing parent if you know what state he or she resides in simply by asking for a search of the motor vehicle records for that state.

A. Yes. All states have passed the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act ("URESA") or a comparable statute. This act provides for interstate collection of child support. This Act sets up the method for enforcement of support orders where the parties live in different states. Essentially, the party seeking enforcement files a petition in his or her home state. That petition is transmitted to the payor parent's home state and he or she is brought into the court of that state and the court enforces support.

A. Non-custodial parents have the absolute right to visitation, and this is easy to enforce with the help of an attorney. Constant denials of visitation are strictly punished.

A. NO, child support is a right of the child and a parent cannot waive it. Child support and visitation are not interchangeable, and visitation cannot be denied because support is not paid. There are other ways to enforce these rights separately.

A. Unmarried parents of children have the same rights to custody, visitation and child support as married parents. A child of unmarried parents must be legitimized by court order, and the parents have the right to paternity blood testing if there is an issue as to parentage.