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Do You Really Need to Pay Alimony in Florida?

Why do I need to pay alimony?

The main reason someone will need to pay alimony, or spousal support as it’s now often called, is to make sure their spouse will be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living after divorce. For example, if one spouse is the primary source of income in the relationship, that person’s financial capabilities will skyrocket after divorce, and the other person’s will plummet.

Unlike other divorce laws, determining alimony in Florida varies from one situation to the next. While there are some guidelines to help establish how much someone might owe, there are no concrete rules judges need to follow to come up with an exact dollar amount.

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Emergency Child Custody Hearings in Florida

How to get Emergency Custody of a Child in Florida

Navigating the Florida legal system can be scary, especially when you’re dealing with a family emergency. The most common form of emergency family court hearing in Florida is over the custody of a child. We’ve laid out a simple guide that will help you navigate the complicated legal process required for acquiring custody of a child in Florida.

According to Florida law, no child custody agreement is ever set in stone. Whether you have majority time-sharing (sole custody) or equal time-sharing (joint custody), custody agreements can always be changed in court. Sometimes, things aren’t as easy as a simple agreement to change the amount of time each parent has with the child. When the safety of the child becomes an issue, an emergency motion to modify child custody is likely the smartest option.

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Why Establishing Paternity Matters

Establishing Paternity

Establishing Paternity in Florida

According to the CDC, about 40% of children are born to unmarried women. In Florida, the mother of a child born outside of marriage is the natural guardian with sole legal rights in respect to the child unless you prove paternity.

The definition of paternity according to Merriam-Webster is the “quality or state of being a father.” That can be pretty ambiguous, and what constitutes paternity varies from state to state. In Florida, legal fatherhood is not necessarily the same as biological fatherhood. If a child is born in wedlock, that child is automatically considered the child of the man the mother is married to. Unless the biological father’s paternity is established, he has no rights or obligations to the child.

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Divorce Tips from Tampa Divorce Lawyers

Divorce Tips from Tampa Divorce Lawyers

Divorce Tips from Tampa Divorce Lawyers

As Tampa Divorce Lawyers we have handled hundreds of divorce cases. So here’s a unique twist, we are sharing divorce tips from divorce lawyer to the stars Laura Wasser’s new book that is filled with practical tips for people who are trying to disentangle themselves from their spouses.

Wasser — who has represented Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, and Ashton Kutcher — offers her advice in a book called “It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way: How To Divorce Without Destroying Your Family or Bankrupting Yourself.”

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8 Emotional Stages of Divorce

Emotional Stages of Divorce

What are the Emotional Stages of a Divorce? 

Divorce is a unique type of loss comparable to a death. Even though both parties are still alive, they will no longer be in your life the way they have been in the past. That’s why the emotional stages of divorce are very similar to the emotional stages of grief that people experience after a death or trauma.

No matter how amicable the separation, a divorce is the end of a significant part of your life and throughout the process, your emotions can and will change during this difficult time. It can help the healing process if you know what emotions you have already gone through and look to see how you are making process moving forward.

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Divorce Advice: Moving Out of Your Shared Home

Divorce: Moving Out of a Shared HomeDivorce Advice from Tampa Divorce Lawyer

As Tampa divorce lawyers we have often heard of one’s partner coming home and saying, “I am moving out.” This usually occurs after an often painful period of deliberation, and they are the ones who are ready to dissolve the marriage and want to be out of the home. Sometimes in cases like these, the spouse may not have any interest in keeping the shared home after the marriage ends.

But other times, even if one spouse wants out and the couple discusses dissolving the marriage it still isn’t clear who should be out of the home.

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Alimony Deduction Eliminated by New Alimony Tax Law

Alimony Deduction Eliminated by New Tax Law

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December 2017 affects how taxes will be calculated for the 2018 Fiscal Year. This new tax bill includes many factors on the state of taxes, especially alimony payments. The provisions regarding alimony will only affect alimony agreements made after 2018. If your divorce was not completed with a final judgement, or your alimony agreement was not signed prior to January 1, 2019 then your alimony payments may still be tax deductible.

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Top 5 Things to Do in a Divorce

How to Prepare for a Divorce in Florida

It is said that divorce is one of the most stressful experiences in a person’s life. As divorce lawyers, we see the fear, sadness, stress, anger, hurt and a range of other emotions that are triggered when a relationship ends. Try not make any rash, rushed decisions during this time. We often want to get the pain over quickly and concede to things that we may regret later.

Keep reading for some tips to for how to be prepared when divorce appears to be imminent.

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How to Fill Out Financial Disclosure Affidavit

Financial Affidavit Sections: Find The Help You Need
  • Section I. Income (1:43)
  • Section II. Average Monthly Expenses (5:15)
  • Sectin III. Assets & Liablities (12:13)

Family law financial affidavits are mandatory in every divorce case by Florida Law, which is a part of mandatory disclosure. Mandatory disclosure is financial information that is automatically disclosed by people filing for a divorce. The purpose is to ensure that each party is aware of the financial circumstances from both sides.

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Out of Date Paternity Law Gets New Ruling

New Laws for Biological Fathers in Florida

In a big step forward for Florida paternity cases, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that biological fathers should be allowed contact with children born to a woman married to someone else.

In the past, “illegitimate children” were taboo and reliable paternity tests were years away so it was decided that the woman’s husband should be declared the legal father and the biological father blocked from their children’s life. Even when the biological father tried to stay involved, through child support and a general concern for the child’s well being, did not mean they had any rights to that child.

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