Tampa Florida Family Law Blog

Divorce rocks the foundation of a family held together by both parents. Children are the most susceptible to the negative consequences of divorce. The reason for this is because they naturally lack the understanding and maturity to see a permanent separation in a healthy way.

It is important as parents to approach the conversation of divorce, new living arrangements, and how life will be expected to look afterwards with your children in a calm and considerate manner. If possible, come together in agreement on the reality they will face and remain open to hearing their questions and being emotionally authentic in response to the news.

Many states offer an alternative to divorce that is commonly known as "legal separation." Legal separation allows spouse to live apart but to not actually file for divorce. Where available, legal separation may be preferable to divorce for any number of reasons, ranging from health care coverage to income tax savings. Usually in a legal separation, the rights, duties and obligations of each spouse, as well as how property will be divided is laid out in a legal document.

The document is then ratified by a court and filed with the county. The separation agreement is a contract that can then be enforced in the courts in the event the event one spouse fails to live up to his or her end of the deal. For better or worse, however, legal separation is not currently recognized by statute or case law in the state of Florida. The Sunshine State is one of only eight states in the U.S. that does not recognize some form of legal separation.

Throughout Tampa, individuals attempt to prepare themselves and their family members by preparing estate plans that outline how their assets should be divided up when they are no longer alive to manage them. Through their estate planning documents, they may leave sizable inheritances to their children, spouses and friends.

Receiving an inheritance can be a special experience for a person, but that experience can quickly become a headache if their inheritance becomes a point of contention during a divorce. As with other financial matters related to high asset divorces, courts will look carefully at how the recipients of the inheritances came into possession of their inherited assets to decide if and how they should be divided.

Readers of this Tampa-based family law blog may be familiar with the terms "fault" and "no-fault" when it comes to preparing a pleading for divorce. Generally, if a divorce is based on fault then one of the parties is considered responsible for the failure of the marriage and is at fault for the dissolution. If a divorce is based upon discord between the parties without a specific element of fault then the divorce is considered a no-fault proceeding.

Florida does not recognize fault-based divorces; if a person wants to pursue a divorce, called dissolution of marriage, in the civil courts of the state then they must use the recognized no-fault grounds for ending their marriage. They do this by claiming that their marriage is irretrievably broken and meeting the other filing requirements of divorce.