General information on dissolution of marriage
Everyone knows that a Florida court can order a parent to pay child support up until the child is 18 years, or even beyond. But can a court order a parent to pay retroactive child support (child support that covers a period of time prior to the filing of a court action)?
Chicago family law attorney Richard Kulerski provides ten techniques that you can use to minimize the negative impact that a divorce can have on children:
An article from Ars Technica discusses a woman who secretly put a recording device in a teddy bear to prove allegations that her estranged spouse was mistreating their daughter. Not only did the family law court rule that the recordings were inadmissible, but the husband (“Duke”) sued the wife (“Dianna”) in federal court for, among other things, violation of the federal Wiretap Act. From the article:
When Duke filed the federal lawsuit against Dianna in 2009, he also rounded up five other plaintiffs whose conversations had been recorded by the bear. One plaintiff, a cousin of Duke’s, at one point had the bear in his van for several days after it was left there accidentally; the cousin, going through his own divorce at the time, was upset that his conversations had been recorded and eventually distributed to people involved with Duke and Dianna’s custody case.
Robert D. Flach of MainStreet.com provides the following advice regarding tax treatment of alimony:
To be deductible, alimony payments must be in cash (or check) and required as a condition of the divorce decree. You and your “ex” must not live together in the same household, and payments must end upon the death of the “ex.”
The following video from Uninterrupted TV provides advice to teens and parents about how to facilitate better intra-family communication:
An article from consumer website WalletPop.com discusses ways to protect your credit score as you go through a divorce. The following issues (from both the article and my experience) should be addressed in any marital settlement agreement and/or final judgment:
The following video from Uninterrupted TV provides advice on relationship building from both a parent and a teenager’s perspective:
I previous wrote about filing fees in Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, and Pasco County. In this post I review current filing fees in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Sarasota County, for common family law matters. A person who initiates a family law case (the “Petitioner”) will pay the following:
In the following dramatization from Aspen Publishing, child support guidelines are reviewed:
You should note that Florida utilizes the “Income Shares” approach (the second guidelines approach discussed) to determine a child support amount. However, in addition to including the pro rata share of income from each parent, the Florida child support guidelines also factors in deductions–such as daycare and healthcare expenses–as well as the amount of time children spend with each parent.
I generally shy away from celebrity gossip news, but Charlie Sheen has been plastering the airwaves in a pitched battle with everyone from his former wife, Brooke Mueller, to the president of CBS. Not surprisingly, his former spouse filed a petition for injunction against domestic violence against Sheen. The Smoking Gun has published the text of Mueller’s declaration in support of her petition.
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