General information on dissolution of marriage

Keep Your Contact Information Current with the Clerk of the Court, Even After Your Family Law Case is Closed

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Let’s start with a simple proposition:  Each party involved in a family law case should make sure that the clerk of the court has updated contact information for that party.  It seems easy, but taking this small step could prevent big headaches in the future.

I have heard of cases where a party has moved in the middle of the case, did not inform anyone, then complained afterwards that he had not received notice of an important hearing.  I also have seen cases where a petitioner (the party initiating the case) provides the clerk with the wrong address for the respondent (the party responding to the petition), and the clerk sends information to the incorrect address for the entire duration of the case.

I have even encountered this scenario:  Parties get divorced.  In the final judgment, Husband is required to pay Wife alimony.  After the divorce, Wife moves to a different apartment in the same apartment complex.  Husband sends alimony payments to Wife’s old address, but they get delivered to the new addressed because Postal Worker knows and likes Wife (and especially the gift certificates to Best Buy that Wife gives to Postal Worker each Christmas).

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Message from Partners for Life Police Appreciation Run

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I thought I would share the following message I received from the Partners for Life Police Appreciation Run.  I completed the 10K, which followed the waterfront and downtown streets of Saint Petersburg and was held in memory of fallen police officers Jeff Yaslowitz, Tom Baitinger, and Dave Crawford.
 

The three reasons you joined us:
Tom, Jeff, and Dave

PARTNERS FOR LIFE
POLICE APPRECIATION RUN / WALK
A GIANT THANK YOU!

 

to the 1,170 athletes who joined us for our Inaugural Partners for Life Police Appreciation Run last month. I can only hope we exceeded your expectations in producing these races.

From our perspective, it was a magical morning as we memorialized our fallen officers, showed appreciation to our law enforcement officers, and raised funds to establish the Partners for Life Foundation.

With your participation, the net proceeds after expenses were right at $20,000 for Lorraine Yaslowitz to establish her Partners for Life Foundation in memory of her husband Jeff and fellow officers Tom Baitinger and Dave Crawford.

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Where Is Your Prenuptial Agreement?

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The following is sound advice from Mark Chinn regarding keeping track of legal documents (such as prenuptial agreements and final judgments):

I recently heard of a case where the parties are in the midst of a divorce and the prenuptial agreement signed by the parties cannot be located.  It may have been part of an “old document purge” by the law firm that drafted it.  I suggest that clients retain the originals of important documents and that they place them in a bank safe deposit box or a home, fire proof, safe.

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Is Florida the Correct State for My Child Custody Issue?

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Under chapter 61, Florida Statutes, a Florida court generally has jurisdiction for a new custody case (such as (i) divorce involving children’s issues/parenting plan, (ii) paternity/ establishment of time-sharing schedule, or (iii) temporary or concurrent custody of a child by a relative) only if one of the following is true:

  • The child has lived in Florida for at least six months immediately prior to the case being filed (even if the child is or has been temporarily absent from Florida);
  • The child has moved from Florida within the past six months, but prior to that lived in Florida for at least six months; or
  • No other state or country has jurisdiction over the child (or the court of the child’s home state or country has declined jurisdiction) and the child has significant connections to Florida.

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How Do I Discuss My Divorce With My Child?

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Once a couple makes the decision to separate or divorce, one of the most difficult steps will be to discuss this decision with a child.  Risa Garon, a licensed clinical social worker, certified mediator, and Executive Director of the National Family Resiliency Center, Inc., provides the following advice regarding how to discuss an impending separation or divorce with a child:

1. Before you tell the children, speak to your spouse and decide what you will tell the children. Both parents should have the opportunity to speak.

2. Say what you think will be most helpful to them. Many parents want to tell exactly what happened in their adult relationship to their children. Parents can explain to their children how what they want to tell them will help them in understanding the separation.

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Ten Tips To Make A Good Impression In Family Court

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Jeanie Goldstein over at the Divorce Saloon provides a female’s perspective on ten things you can do to make a good impression in a family law courtroom:

1. Wear the right colors – by this I mean the right color for you. There is a science to this. When you wear the right color for you, you are more attractive and tend to have a more favorable impression on people. So don’t wear bright yellow if you can’t pull off that color. Don’t wear black if it makes you look depressed. Don’t wear white if it makes you look washed out. That sort of thing. Get the idea? Wear the right color for you.

2. Wear the right outfits – Don’t go into court looking like a trollop or like an ax murderer. It is an important and impactful event, your divorce, and you should dress respectfully. Think Lindsay Lohan. The girl might be clueless about proper life decorum but have you seen her when she has a court appearance? Very ladylike and stylish I must say.

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Equitable Distribution: How to Divide My IRA?

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In a divorce proceeding, the court will divide the parties’ marital property and debts in a process called “equitable distribution.”  The court starts with the presumption that property should be divided equally, but it may adjust the distribution based on various factors including (i) the relative economic circumstances of the parties, (ii) any interruption of personal careers or educational opportunities, and (iii) the intentional waste or destruction of assets.

Retirement accounts require special attention during the equitable distribution process.  George Saenz at Fox Business News discusses this:

Not only are you getting separated from your spouse, but also your money. An individual retirement account, or IRA, belongs to the spouse that established it. You generally cannot transfer money from one spouse’s IRA to the other spouse’s account. An exception exists in the case of a divorce.

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Divorce Saloon: Top 10 Things A Gentleman Should Do (Or Avoid) During Divorce

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Divorce Saloon offers an interesting top 10 of how a gentleman should act during divorce:

1. Don’t call your soon to be ex-wife and her (female) lawyer by choice names.

2. If you are a public figure, refuse to air dirty laundry and speak about your wife’s private parts (Roseann Barr’s ex Tom Arnold, for example, made some references to her privates that very much were ungentlemanly, to say the least).

3. Don’t respond to violence from your spouse or with violence to your spouse.

4. Gentlemen can curse, but don’t go Mel Gibson.

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Polygamy: A Basis for Annulment

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Rose McDermott at the Wall Street Journal reports that cases of polygamy are becoming more common in Western countries:

Polygamy—or more specifically polygyny, the marriage of one man to more than one woman—has been widespread in human history. And it is becoming increasingly common, particularly in Muslim enclaves—including in Paris, London and New York.

A 2006 report by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights reported that approximately 180,000 people were living in polygamous households in France. For decades, France allowed entrance to polygamous immigrants from about 50 countries where the practice was legal. When the French government banned polygamy in 1993, it tried to support the decohabitation of such couples if a wife wanted to move into her own apartment with her children.

In Britain, where immigration laws have banned the practice for longer, there appear to be about a thousand valid polygamous marriages, mostly among immigrants who married elsewhere, such as in Pakistan. Such families are allowed to collect social security benefits for each wife, although the government has apparently not counted how many are doing so.

In the United States, where numbers are more difficult to come by, anecdotal reports indicate underground communities of polygamists in New York City, particularly among immigrant communities from West Africa.

In Florida, one person cannot legally marry someone who is currently married to someone else.  Further, Florida does not recognize polygamist “marriages” that occur outside of the state or country.

So, does a person who has been in such a relationship, either knowingly or unwittingly (i.e., one party did not know that the other party was already married), have legal protections?

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