Parenting Coordinator Requirements

The parenting coordinator is not a judge, and he or she is not simply any unbiased third party.  The educational requirements for parenting coordinators in Florida are quite strict. To be a parenting coordinator, you must have a medical degree and be certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, or else you must hold a master’s degree either in family mediation or in a mental health field. You must have three years of professional experience working as a psychiatrist or mental health professional. You must complete a family mediation training program, in addition to a parenting coordinator training program; the latter program includes 24 hours of classroom instruction. Having previously been found guilty of child abuse or domestic violence disqualifies you as a parenting coordinator. Additionally, parenting coordinators must keep what is said at parenting coordination meetings confidential, and they must avoid conflicts of interest with any parties involved.

Do You Still Need an Attorney?

Parenting coordination is much less expensive than litigation, but it is not free. At the same time, while parenting coordinators know a lot about the emotional well-being of children and parents after a divorce, they are not lawyers. Divorce without lawyers is not possible for most couples.  Even the simplest divorces, in which the couple does not have children together and has very little in terms of marital assets, sometimes require the services of one or more lawyers.

While a parenting coordinator certainly has an informed opinion about what is in the children’s best interest and how to set and achieve goals based on that, a parenting coordinator’s advice is not really a substitute for professional legal advice. For one thing, parenting coordinators only help with agreements regarding the parenting plan.  hey do not deal with division of property, which is often the second most controversial issue in a divorce after issues related to parenting.

Contact Alan Burton About Child Custody Cases

Before you meet with a parenting coordinator, it is a good idea to discuss your case with a family law attorney. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for a legal consultation.

How Does a Get Work in Theory and in Practice?

A Get is a short document, consisting of only 12 lines, always written in the presence of a rabbi and signed by witnesses.  It declares that the marriage has been dissolved, and that the former spouses may enter into new marriages. Unlike a civil divorce decree, it does not contain any details about division of property or child custody.

According to Jewish law, a woman cannot enter a new valid marriage until her previous marriage has been dissolved by the issuance of a Get. If she has children with her new husband, they are not automatically acknowledged as members of the Jewish community and would need to go through a conversion process in order to marry within the faith.

The husband and wife need not both be physically present when the Get is drafted in order for it to be valid. Especially if they are estranged because of domestic abuse, one or both can send a representative to act on his or her behalf at the signing of the Get.

Florida courts do not require Jewish couples to obtain a Get at any point in civil divorce proceedings, just as they do not require Catholic couples to have the Church annul their marriages. Religious requirements rarely play a role in Florida family law cases.

Denomination Matters

A Get cannot take the place of a civil divorce, but how much civil divorce affects religious divorce varies from one denomination of Judaism to another. In Orthodox Judaism, the Get is, for all practical purposes, the only way to end a marriage. Even if an Orthodox Jewish couple gets a civil divorce, remarriage within the faith is not possible until a Get is issued. Several years ago, an Orthodox Jewish couple in New York, Yoel Weiss and Rivky Stein, were the subject of media attention when he refused to grant her a Get.

In Conservative Judaism, divorced couples still often end their marriages with a Get, but it is much easier to end the marriage without a Get than it is in Orthodox Judaism. If the husband refuses to grant his wife a Get, the Beit Din (rabbinical court) can annul the marriage, and the wife will be able to enter into a new Jewish marriage. Reform Judaism does not require a Get; it considers a civil divorce sufficient to end the marriage.

Contact Alan Burton About Divorce in Florida

Alan Burton is a family law attorney whose goal is to make divorce as painless as possible for couples who are going through it. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for a consultation about your divorce case.

The Lengths to Which Courts can Go to Collect Child Support Payments

The court system can go to great lengths to collect overdue child support payments. These are some of the ways that courts can take money from you and apply it to child support if you do not pay:

• Garnishing wages
• Seeking bank accounts
• Selling assets from your estate (even death cannot get you out of the obligation to pay child support)
• Additionally, the court can impose the following non-financial punishments for failure to pay child support:
• Contempt of court
• Suspension of driver’s license
• Suspension of passport

The Courts Generally Treat Child Support and Visitation as Unrelated

If you do not keep up with child support payments, the court can interfere greatly in your finances and in other aspects of your life, such as your right to drive and travel. What it cannot do is take away your right to spend time with your children. Parenting plans deal with every aspect of raising children after divorce except financial ones. For example, they specify which days, including which holidays, the children spend with each parent, and they specify which parent has the right to make certain decisions regarding the children’s education and health. The idea is that money comes and goes, but parent-child relationships are forever. Besides, the courts generally hold that it is in the best interest of the children to spend a substantial amount of time with both parents, regardless of financial circumstances. Conversely, having little or no visitation time with the children, even being estranged from them completely, does not erase child support obligations.

Contact Alan Burton About Enforcement of Child Support Orders

It can be frustrating if your former spouse does not make the child support payments that the court ordered as part of your divorce. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida to help get the child support money that is owed to you.

Q: What is a Financial Affidavit, and How is it Used?

A: A financial affidavit looks a lot like an itemized tax return. It is a document on which couples in the process of divorce list their income sources and expenses, and where they classify their assets and liabilities as marital or non-marital property. The purpose of the document is to determine equitable distribution of property, including spousal support payments, if any.  Couples with and without children must file a financial affidavit.

Q: What is the Difference Between the Long Form Affidavit and the Short Form Affidavit?

A: As their names suggest, the difference between the two affidavits is the length and level of detail. The long form affidavit is a multi-page document with much more detail. All divorces require a family law financial affidavit. If at least one spouse has an individual annual gross income of at least $50,000, the couple must file the long form affidavit.

Q: When Should You File the Financial Affidavit?

A: Ideally, you should file the affidavit of support with your petition for divorce. You must get the document notarized before you file it with the court. You must deliver a copy of the complete affidavit to your spouse within 45 days of filing for divorce.

Q: How Does Domestic Violence Affect the Financial Affidavit?

A: Even if there is domestic violence involved in a divorce case, the parties must still file a financial affidavit.  The difference is that, if you have a protective order against your spouse because of domestic violence, you are not required to list your address on the financial affidavit.  If this is the case, you must file a Petitioner’s Request for Confidential Filing of Address. In other words, you must disclose your address to the court, but not to your spouse.

Contact Alan Burton About Division of Property

Even in relatively uncomplicated divorce cases, it still helps to get a professional legal opinion.  Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for advice about your family law financial affidavit.

How do Florida Parenting Plans Address Holiday Timesharing?

People whose parents divorced in the 1980s and 1990s probably remember that life settled into a rhythm, usually including living with Mom during the week and with Dad on the weekends, but that sparks always flew at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when extended family members visited, or when one parent wanted to take the children to visit out-of-town relatives during a holiday.  This is one of the major issues that Florida’s new parenting plans address. The parenting plan template has questions to address every school vacation, including winter break, Thanksgiving, and spring break. Parents can choose, as soon as they divorce, where the children will spend each holiday each year. For example, they can specify that, in odd-numbered years, the children will spend Thanksgiving break with Mom until Friday afternoon and then spend the rest of it with Dad, but in even-numbered years, they will be with Dad until Friday afternoon and then go to Mom’s house. Parenting plans even allow parents to allot certain times for children to stay with grandparents, and they can choose to grant certain holiday days to the grandparents.

In some ways, Thanksgiving is the simplest holiday to plan because it is always on a Thursday.  What about Christmas, which is always on the same date, but on different days of the week?  What about Hanukkah, which sometimes coincides with winter break and sometimes does not?  What about Islamic holidays, which, because the Islamic lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, vary not only by day of the week, but by month?  (For example, this year, both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha were during summer vacation. In 2000, Eid al-Fitr was between Christmas and New Year’s.) Florida’s parenting plans were made to be customized.  You can specify that each parent gets the children for four nights of Hanukkah, and that if it falls during a school week, each parent gets one non-school night of the holiday.

Ambiguity Breeds Conflict: Avoid Holiday Confusion with Alan Burton

It might sound like micromanaging, but the best way to avoid holiday stress is to make your parenting plan as specific as possible. Once your parenting plan is set, you can build your holiday plans around when the children will be with you, and when they will be with your ex-spouse. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida to discuss the holiday timesharing aspects of your parenting plan.

Details of the Zelman Case

In 2014, Martin Zelman was in his 80s and suffering from dementia and short-term memory loss.  His son Robert Zelman petitioned the court to appoint him or one of his sisters (Martin’s daughters) as their father’s guardian. The petition also mentioned Lois Zelman, Martin’s wife to whom he had been married since 1993, among Martin’s “next of kin,” but it did not recommend her as a guardian and implied that she was an unsuitable choice to act as such. The court appointed Robert as Martin’s temporary guardian, in charge of his health and financial affairs.  As soon as the court appointed Robert as Martin’s guardian, Robert, acting on Martin’s behalf, filed a motion with the court to have Lois removed from the marital home, claiming that she had been abusing and neglecting Martin in his vulnerable state of health. In response, Lois provided the court with evidence that she and Martin were happily married and that she had remained true to her vow to care for him in sickness and in health. The court ruled that Lois must leave the couple’s apartment, and she complied, moving into another apartment in the same building.

Lois argued that Martin was not sufficiently incapacitated as to require a guardian; she proposed instead that the court appoint a power of attorney and health surrogate for him and that he receive in-home health assistance around the clock. Many other petitions followed, filed by Lois and by Robert, disagreeing over details of the extent of Martin’s incapacity and over whom, if anyone, the court should appoint as his guardian. An attorney representing Lois alleged that Martin’s children were trying to force Martin to divorce Lois. The court ruled that, even if the court dissolved the marriage, such a dissolution would not count as a divorce, and that Lois would be entitled to the same assets from Martin’s estate, upon his death, as if they had still been married.

The Appeals Court’s Decision

The appeals court eventually ruled that the previous decisions of the lower courts were so convoluted that the only way to resolve the matter was to re-try the case from the beginning. For example, the court ruled that Martin was not competent to marry but was competent to file a lawsuit, which does not make sense. The issue of whether Lois was actually a “party” in any of the lawsuits or merely an “interested person” was also a hopelessly confusing issue.

Contact Alan Burton About Late-in-Life Divorce Cases

Cases like Zelman v. Zelman, when one of the parties is in poor health because of old age, make divorce even more complicated. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for a consultation relating to your elderly relative’s legal decisions.

The Marriage(s) of Alan and Lolita Grayson

Alan Grayson and Lolita Carson married in 1986; it was a second marriage for both. The couple went on to have five children together. In 1990, Lolita Grayson applied for United States citizenship, and Alan Grayson saw her citizenship application before she submitted it. On the application, she listed her marital status as “separated.” More than 20 years later, during the couple’s divorce proceedings, it was revealed that Lolita was still legally married to her first husband at the time that she married Alan Grayson. In 2015, a judge annulled their marriage, declaring it void because of bigamy. In other words, the court declared that the couple had never been legally married because Lolita was legally married to someone else when she and Alan Grayson married each other.

How Is an Annulment Different from a Divorce?

The Graysons’ divorce was complicated for many reasons. In addition to the couple’s acrimonious disputes over their assets, which were valued at approximately $30 million, Lolita accused her husband of physical abuse. The divorce proceedings ended up dragging on for years.

It was the revelation of bigamy that became the deciding factor in the court declaring the couple legally unmarried. According to Florida case law, bigamy is one of the most compelling grounds for annulment; it automatically means that the marriage is void. Florida law distinguishes between a void marriage (one that, legally, never existed) and a voidable marriage (one that is no longer legally valid). In some ways, an annulled marriage is like a divorce, but in some ways, it is different. For the Graysons, it meant that the court did not award alimony to Lolita. If their marriage had been valid, she might have been eligible for permanent alimony, as courts sometimes award permanent alimony in divorces that follow very long marriages. This is notable because the couple had fought bitterly over the division of their property during the divorce proceedings. At the time of the annulment, four of the couple’s five children were still minors.  Therefore, the parents were still financially responsible for them, as any parents, married, previously married, or never married, would be under Florida law.

Contact Alan Burton About Division of Property

Void marriages are an extreme case, but there is great variation when it comes to how Florida courts divide a couple’s property. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida about the division of property between you and your ex-spouse.

What is Annulment of Marriage?

The secular and religious definitions of marriage annulment are similar in their essence.  According to Florida law, an annulment is when a court declares a couple unmarried on the grounds that their marriage is not valid. It is different from a dissolution of marriage (divorce).  In a divorce, the marriage was real, but a judge legally ends the marriage at the request of one or both parties. The law considers the marriage to have begun on the day of the couple’s wedding and to have ended on the day the court issued the divorce decree. Courts make decisions about spousal support based on these dates. For example, courts rarely award permanent alimony in cases in which the couple was married for less than 17 years.

By contrast, in an annulment of marriage, the court declares that the couple was never actually married because their marriage was never valid in the first place or has become invalid. In practice, if the couple has children together, the husband maintains his status as the children’s legal father and does not need to take any further action to establish paternity.

Void and Voidable Marriages

Florida’s rules about annulment come from case law (precedents set in previous legal decisions) and not from Florida’s Constitution or statutes. They recognize a difference between void and voidable marriage. A marriage is void if there was a circumstance that, if the court had known about it at the time of the marriage, then it never would have legally recognized the marriage. In Florida, marriages are void if the spouses are close blood relatives or if one spouse was legally married to someone else at the time he or she married the spouse seeking the annulment. Florida courts have considered marriages voidable for a number of reasons, including the following:

• Duress – Someone forced or pressured one or both spouses into the marriage.
• Temporary inability to consent – One spouse was too ill or intoxicated to understand his or her actions at the time of entering into the marriage.
• Lack of parental consent – A spouse younger than 18 years old entered the marriage without the consent of a parent or legal guardian.

Contact Alan Burton About Marriage Annulment Cases

Alan Burton works exclusively with family law cases, including those that involve annulment of marriage. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida if a court has declared your marriage void or voidable, or if you think that it should.

Once you are the legal parent of a child, it is difficult to lose your parental rights. The courts acknowledge that parents are only human, and that it is almost always in a child’s best interest to stay with his or her own parents. For example, having a criminal record or a diagnosis of a mental illness or addiction does not, by itself, mean that the court will reduce or take away your right to spend time with your children or make decisions about them. Involuntary termination of parental rights only happens when it is impossible for the parent to provide adequate care for the child or when the parent has seriously endangered the child.

Bases for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights

These are some of the cases in which Florida courts can terminate a parent’s parental rights.

• Long prison sentences: Most prison sentences do not cost parents their parental rights. If the parent’s sentence is no long that the child will have turned 18 by the time the parent is released, the court may terminate the parent’s rights.
• Breach of case plan: If the parent has repeatedly failed to meet the requirements of a case plan set by the Department of Children and Families, the parent may lose his or her parental rights.
• Abuse: Physical and sexual abuse of a child can be grounds for termination of parental rights.  Depending on the severity of the abuse, a single incident can be grounds for termination of rights.
• Failure to comply with substance abuse treatment: If a mother gives birth to a child whose bodily fluids test positive for alcohol or illicit drugs, the court will require the mother to undergo addiction treatment. If she fails to comply with treatment, she can lose her parental rights. If she gives birth to a subsequent child, and this second child also tests positive for drugs or alcohol, she will automatically lose her rights to both children.
• Violent sex crimes: If the parent is convicted of a crime that requires the parent to register as a sexual predator, the parent will lose parental rights. According to Florida law, not every sex offender is a sexual predator. Florida also requires people to register as sex offenders for non-violent crimes such as failure to notify a partner of your HIV-positive status, even if you use condoms or take medications to reduce your risk of transmitting the virus, and “Romeo and Juliet” relationships, which are consensual relationships between teens who are close in age, but only one is a legal adult. Sexual predators are people who have been convicted either of violent sex crimes or sexual abuse of minors.

Contact Alan Burton About Parental Rights

It is possible to reinstate your parental rights after they have been terminated, but it is very difficult. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida to find out how Florida’s parental rights laws apply to your situation.

Details of the Miranda Wilkerson Case

Trista Crews and Donald Coleman met and began their relationship in 1997, when she was 14 and he was 38. They married when Trista was 16, with Trista’s mother Rita Manning giving consent for her underage daughter to marry. Nonetheless, Coleman eventually had to register as a sex offender because of the age difference in his relationship with Trista. They would go on to have three children together before separating in 2007.

Trista was separated from Donald Coleman at the time of Miranda’s birth, and he filed for divorce at around that time because he doubted that he was Miranda’s biological father. About a month later, Trista died in a car accident, and her mother Rita Manning assumed responsibility for Miranda’s care. After a long custody battle between Manning and Coleman, a judge finally awarded custody of Miranda to Coleman, who was then living in Georgia. Miranda was then three years old, and she had lived with her grandmother almost since birth. Miranda’s biological father has since tried to get custody of her, but currently available news reports offer few details about that aspect of the case.

What About Grandparents’ Rights?

To anyone who has never dealt with Florida’s paternity laws, the outcome of the case is very strange indeed. Why would the court take a child away from her grandmother, the only parental figure she has ever known, and give custody to a man who has never claimed to be her biological father? Does the fact that Coleman is registered as a sex offender for beginning a relationship with a teenager when he was nearly 40 not weaken his case at all? It sounds like a case in which the court gave more weight to the mother’s legal marriage than to anyone’s relationship with the child. In Florida, parenting plans can include clauses about children spending certain amounts of time with grandparents, so one can hope that Miranda has been able to continue to have a close relationship with her grandmother.

Contact Alan Burton About Child Custody Cases

In determining child custody, judges are required to base their decisions on the best interests of the child. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida if you think that a family court has put your child or grandchild in a custody situation that is not in his or her best interest.

Details of the Angeli v. Kluka Case

When Alexander Girgis was 3 years old, he underwent adenoid removal surgery. (Adenoid removal surgery is a non-emergency surgery; it is quite common for children who suffer from recurrent ear infections or sinus infections when other treatments fail to resolve the problem.)  Dr. Evelyn Kluka is the surgeon who performed the surgery, and Alexander recovered without any complications. At the time of the surgery, Alexander’s parents were in the process of getting a divorce. Alexander’s mother was the legal guardian who consented to the surgery, since medical treatments on minor children require a parent’s consent.

Five days after the surgery, Dr. Kluka called Alexander’s father, Imad Angeli, to follow up about Alexander’s recovery. Alexander’s father said that he had never given his consent for the surgery and that he planned to file a lawsuit. In the lawsuit, he alleged that his ex-wife had misled the doctor about the father’s consent. It was not a typical malpractice suit because he did not allege that Dr. Kluka had performed an unnecessary surgery or that she had done the surgery incorrectly. The court did not accept the father’s complaint.

What the Law Says About Parental Consent for Medical Treatment of Children

Florida’s case law contains few examples of parents disagreeing about consenting to a child’s medical treatment. The examples that are present are unanimous in saying that the consent of one parent is sufficient to proceed with the treatment. Non-emergency medical treatment is one of the most important items in the Florida parenting plan agreement for exactly this reason. Parents must agree ahead of time which parent has the final say about non-emergency medical treatment for the children. Emergency medical treatment is a different matter. Decisions need to be made quickly, and whichever parent is present when the emergency situation arises has the authority to consent to the necessary treatment.

Contact Alan R. Burton About Parenting Plan Agreements

Drafting a parenting plan can involve many thorny issues, not least among them medical treatment. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida about how to draft a parenting plan that will effectively avoid conflicts between parents.

Unfortunately, though, things can get ugly in a divorce, especially when parents disagree about child custody arrangements. One parent sometimes argues that the other parent is unfit to spend a majority of the time with the children because of a pre-existing diagnosis of a mental health condition. If your former spouse does bring up your mental health history during divorce proceedings, will it affect the outcome of the case? Usually, it does not.

When Your Mental Health History Does Not Affect Parenting Plan Decisions

Under Florida’s current system of parenting plans, no two custody agreements are alike. The parenting-plan form is a multi-page questionnaire as long and complex as the longest tax forms.  Each decision regarding the children is a separate question; it is not simply a matter of one parent getting all or most of the custody of the children. The parents’ private health information usually does not factor into which decisions the judge approves in the parenting plan. The main goal is to cause as little disruption in the children’s lives as possible. Consider that, if a parent were undergoing treatment for a physical illness while the parents were married, most of the time it would not be a factor in the parenting agreement. The same usually applies to mental illnesses.  Furthermore, the parent’s psychiatrist cannot be asked to reveal the parent’s private health situation in court, except in the case of a true emergency, such as a suicide attempt or involuntary hospitalization.

When Your Mental Health History can Affect Parenting Plan Decisions

As stated above, a mental health emergency that happens during the divorce proceedings can become a factor in the case. Simply being treated for a mental illness currently or in the past is none of the court’s business. There is a considerable gray area where addiction is concerned, but if you are compliant with your addiction treatment and have a long record of sobriety since being diagnosed with an addiction, it should not preclude you from being able to spend a substantial amount of time with your children and having a strong voice in parenting decisions.

Contact Alan R. Burton About Child Custody Cases and Parenting Plans

If you think that a judge has unfairly used your mental health history against you, you can still seek to modify your parenting plan in a way that is more favorable to you. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida about amending your parenting plan.

What You do and Do Not Owe After Filing for Bankruptcy in Florida

Bankruptcy can free you from many of your debts. Debts that are “discharged” during bankruptcy are no longer your responsibility to pay. It does not, however, free you of all your financial obligations. With car loans and home mortgage loans, the car or house is collateral, meaning the lender can repossess it if you do not pay. If you declare bankruptcy, the lender can no longer pursue you for payments, but they can take back your car or house that is securing the loan.

Some debts, however, are non-dischargeable, which means that you still owe them even if you declare bankruptcy. Many non-dischargeable debts are obligations imposed on the debtor by a ruling in court. The following debts are non-dischargeable according to Florida bankruptcy laws:

• Child support and alimony, including back child support
• Settlements you must pay if you are held liable in a personal injury case
• Fines for illegal acts, including everything from speeding tickets to fines included as part of a sentence for a criminal conviction
• Most tax debts
• Student loans

Is it Ever Possible to Get Out of Paying Child Support?

It is virtually impossible to get out of back child support obligations except by paying them. You can, however, avoid accruing new child support obligations under the following circumstances:

• The child for whom you were paying child support becomes a legal adult or becomes legally emancipated.
• You voluntarily terminate your parental rights. One example of this happening is when a stepfather legally adopts a child and the child’s biological father legally terminates his parental rights.
• One parent submits a statement to the court, certifying that he or she does not need additional financial support from the child’s other parent.

In general, Florida regards financially supporting a child as a nearly inalienable obligation on the child’s parents. As long as you are the legal parent of a minor, you have an obligation to financially support your child. If you declare bankruptcy, it will not make your child support debts go away. You can, however, show the judge your declaration of bankruptcy as proof of your financial hardship. Some family court judges may take this as grounds to modify the payments you owe, at least temporarily.

Contact Alan R. Burton About Child Support Cases

Alan R. Burton deals exclusively with family law cases. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida if you think that your financial situation warrants modification of your child support obligations.

The Children’s Best Interest

Every question related to a parenting plan is, at its core, about the best interest of the children.  Education is one aspect of child-rearing about which parents are likely to have strong opinions.  Some parents feel that sending children to a private school, even if it requires great financial sacrifice on the parents’ part, is the only way to ensure that the children study in a safe environment where teachers are genuinely invested in the children’s success. Others feel that private school tuition is an unnecessary expense and that parents could help their children more simply by saving money to help them with college tuition and other expenses related to early adulthood. The education issue is a perfect example of why parenting plans are individualized and not one size fits all.

In determining whether it is in a child’s best interest to continue attending private school after the parents divorce, judges tend not to take a position on whether the education the children will receive at a private school is better than what they would get at a public school. Rather, their aim is to cause as little disruption to the children’s lives as possible. If the children are already attending a private school, they have probably already formed friendships with their classmates and gotten used to having the teachers and school staff as a presence in their lives. Making them move to a different school would add another difficult adjustment to an already disruptive period in their lives.

Maintaining the Standard of Living

In determining amounts of spousal support and child support, judges take into account the family’s standard of living before the divorce. The idea is that it is not fair for one spouse to have to live much more modestly after the divorce than during the marriage, while the other spouse goes on with life as normal. Likewise, spending less time with the children after a divorce does not mean that you have less of a responsibility to support them financially. Forrest v. Ron was a Florida case involving child support obligations related to private school tuition. The court ruled that the parents had agreed to keep the children in private schools until they completed third grade; therefore, the children’s expenses, on the basis of which child support obligations were determined, reflected this.

Alan R. Burton can Help with Parenting Plan Questions

Every family is unique, and therefore, so is every parenting plan. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida if you think your parenting plan should be modified to better reflect your family’s needs and goals.

Who Are Burt and Lovey Handelsman?

Even if you have not heard the names Burt and Lovey Handelsman, their business dealings play a role in the lives of many Floridians. The Handelsmans own approximately $750 million in commercial real estate in Florida and New York state. Among their most famous holdings are the upscale shops on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. Burt and Lovey are both in their late 80s; they have gradually built their real estate empire over the course of their 67-year marriage, and their three children are also involved in the family business.

In 2016, Lovey filed for divorce, convinced that Burt was having an extramarital affair with Jane Rankin, a friend of the Handelsmans who has also been involved with the family real estate business.  Burt denies the affair; he believes that the couple’s children have intentionally alienated Lovey from him, thinking that they will gain more of the family wealth sooner if their parents divorce. The couple’s son and two daughters deny these claims.

What Is Notable About the Handelsmans’ Divorce?

First, there are long marriages, and then there is 67 years. There is wealthy, and then there is $750 million dollars, including some of the most stylish hangouts in Delray Beach, Key West, and Palm Beach. Burt is not the only person surprised that an 88-year-old woman would decide to divorce the man to whom she has been married since her early 20s, after they have had children and grandchildren together and have gone from modest means to being some of the wealthiest people in Florida. From a legal standpoint, though, perhaps the most notable thing is that Lovey’s attorney requested to have the judge issue a decree of dissolution of marriage quickly, even before financial matters have been resolved. It is possible for judges to finalize divorces which postponing decisions about division of property, but this usually happens when one party has a terminal illness. Because the Handelsmans are very healthy for their age, the divorce trial will begin in February 2018.

Contact Alan Burton About High Asset Divorce

You do not have to own the fanciest shops in Palm Beach for division of property to be complicated and confusing. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida with questions about your divorce case.

Details of the Mills v. Mills Case

During the 37 years that he was married to his wife Brenda, Barry Mills entered into a number of investments, many of which turned out to be profitable. In 2007, Barry and several other investors attempted to form a startup bank. In order to cover his share of the startup capital, Barry took out a home equity loan in the amount of $100,000 dollars; as per the terms of the loan agreement, he pledged the couple’s house as collateral to secure the loan. Certain that Brenda would refuse to sign for the home equity loan, and knowing that he would not have sufficient funds to participate in the startup bank project without the loan, Barry signed Brenda’s name on the loan documents without her knowledge. When the startup bank applied for a state charter, the state refused to issue one, meaning that Barry lost his investment, which totaled more than $245,000. When the lenders required the Mills family to repay the loan, they repaid it using money from Barry’s retirement funds.

When the couple divorced, the trial court classified the loss resulting from the startup bank project as a non-marital liability. The court’s reasoning was that, except in cases of misconduct, all assets and liabilities taken on during the marriage count as marital property. Brenda appealed the decision, arguing that a forged signature qualifies as misconduct.  Barry did not deny forging Brenda’s signature on the loan documents. The appeals court sided with Brenda and re-classified the loss as a non-marital liability.

What Is Misconduct in the Context of Equitable Distribution?

One of the only reasons that a Florida court will classify a debt incurred during the marriage as a non-marital liability is if one spouse can prove that the debt is the result of misconduct on the part of the other spouse. This often takes the form of one spouse sabotaging the couple’s finances in order to reduce the amount of spousal support that he or she will have to pay when the couple divorces. Another type of misconduct commonly cited in divorce cases is when one spouse spends or borrows money to support an extramarital affair partner. The appeals court in the Mills v. Mills case ruled that forging a spouse’s signature in order to obtain a loan without the spouse’s knowledge qualifies as misconduct.

Contact Alan R. Burton About Division of Property

Finding out that your spouse has been deceiving you about finances can be one of the worst parts of divorce. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida with questions about the classification of marital and non-marital property.

Alimony and Stay-at-Home Parents

Permanent alimony in Florida is the stuff of legend, but it is neither a given nor terribly elusive.  It all depends on the specific circumstances of the family. Typically, the recipient of permanent alimony is someone who was married for at least 17 years and did not earn an income for most of the marriage. Besides chronic illnesses, being a stay-at-home parent is the most common reason for not working during a long marriage. These are some recent cases where stay-at-home parents have requested alimony; in some cases, the courts awarded it.

• Brezault v. Brezault: Both parents worked during the marriage, but the husband reduced his working hours after the child was born. He continued to work fewer hours in order to spend more time with the child. Therefore, the court ruled that the wife, whose income was higher, should pay him durational alimony.
• Dickson v. Dickson: The wife was out of the workforce for 20 years, beginning in her early 20s, raising the couple’s three children. The trial court awarded her rehabilitative alimony, as she was studying to become a surgical technician at the time of the divorce. On appeal, she successfully argued that she had lost a lot of her earning potential during two decades as a stay-at-home parent. The appeals court granted her request for permanent alimony.
• Hua v. Tsung: The wife requested permanent alimony, as she had been a stay-at-home parent during most of the couple’s 17 years of marriage. The court instead awarded her rehabilitative alimony, so that she could become certified as a nurse; it imputed an annual income of more than $50,000 per year to her after receiving her certification and determined that she did not need permanent alimony.

Contact Alan Burton About Your Need for Spousal Support

Florida courts are in agreement that stay-at-home parents are entitled to alimony, but they decide what type of alimony on a case-by-case basis. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida with questions about divorce and spousal support.

Courts also sometimes award permanent alimony after a long marriage when the supported spouse is young enough to have a career ahead of her. Kimberly Dickson successfully argued before an appeals court that, because of the 20 years she had spent as a stay-at-home parent, her earning potential was considerably less than if she and her former husband had not agreed that she should stay home for all those years. In other words, courts take into account a spouse’s contributions to a marriage that are not in the form of currency and other material assets. Kruse v. Levesque is another case where an appeal court awarded permanent alimony to a woman in her 40s; in this case, the marriage had lasted only 11 years, and the court ruled that permanent alimony was appropriate because of the wife’s disability.

Details of the Kruse v. Levesque Case

Jennifer Kruse and Martin Levesque were married from 2002 until 2012; they were in their 40s at the time of the divorce. Martin had a lucrative job in the computer industry throughout their marriage. Jennifer worked as a psychologist until 2007, when health problems made it necessary for her to quit working; she received disability payments after that.

The court followed the standard procedure in determining alimony. First, it determined that Jennifer was in need of spousal support and that Martin was able to pay it. Next, it determined what kind of alimony to award. It ruled out bridge the gap alimony because that is only for temporary, divorce-related expenses, and rehabilitative alimony because that is for preparing to reenter the workforce, which Jennifer’s disability prevented her from doing. Instead, the trial court awarded durational alimony, a series of monthly payments with a pre-set end date.  Durational alimony is the standard in medium-term marriages. Jennifer appealed the ruling, arguing that permanent alimony was the most appropriate type because her need was ongoing.  She had no other way of bringing in an income besides her disability payments, which did not cover all her expenses. The appeals court ruled in her favor.

Contact Alan Burton About Alimony Cases

With six types of alimony recognized in Florida, there is plenty of room for discussion and disagreement. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for another opinion on your alimony arrangement.

The Child Support That Most People Have to Pay

Florida has standard child support guidelines. The main criteria determining how much you must pay are your net income and the number of children you must support. Judges usually follow the child support guidelines closely. In fact, when a judge orders a child support amount that differs from the amount determined by the guidelines by more than 5%, the judge must file a written statement explaining why he or she decided on this new amount.

Exceptions to the Standard Child Support Guidelines in Florida

The most common reason that a court allows a parent to stop paying child support on a child is that the child becomes a legal adult. This usually happens on the child’s 18th birthday, but it can happen sooner if the child becomes legally emancipated as a teenager. If the parent’s parental rights are terminated, the parent can also stop paying earlier. A common reason for termination of parental rights is that another adult adopts the child. For example, if the mother remarries and the stepfather legally adopts the children, the biological father no longer has to pay child support, but he also no longer has a legal right to a relationship with the children.

Courts can terminate support agreements for reasons other than termination of parental rights. If one parent dies or is sentenced to a prison term, the judge can terminate the support agreement.  In the case of incarceration, judges do not always terminate the agreement; sometimes courts impute income to the incarcerated parent, who must resume paying child support upon his or her release.

Finally, you can be exempt from paying child support if you and your ex-spouse agree in writing that the support is not needed.  This usually happens when the parent who spends more time with the children has a higher income than the non-custodial parent.

Contact Alan Burton About Child Support Cases

To stop child support payments completely, the circumstances have to be quite extreme.  Modifying child support orders, however, is more common. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida for help with your child support case.

What has any of this to do with divorce in Florida? It turns out that many Florida divorce cases require parenting classes. In fact, mandatory parenting classes in Florida divorce cases are almost as routine as the one-day class for new drivers in Florida.

Mandatory Parenting Classes in Florida

It is common for Florida family courts to require Florida couples going through a divorce to complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before the judge will sign the final divorce decree. In fact, Florida courts require it of every divorcing couple that has minor children. Additionally, when a man who is not married to his child’s mother establishes paternity, the court requires both parents to complete the course.

If a court requires you to take a parenting course, it does not mean that the judge thinks you are a bad parent. It is simply to make sure that both parents understand the legal requirements and basic principles for co-parenting a child when the parents are not married to each other. In fact, the courts do not require the class for just one parent; they always require it for both parents.  The parents do not have to attend the class together, though, and in fact, they usually do not. The course is designed not to be a major burden on parents. The minimum length for the course is four hours; most of the time, the courses last just one afternoon or evening. While the law does not specify a price for the course, the course must not be prohibitively expensive. In practice, the usual price for a Florida parenting course is between $18 and $39.

Alan R. Burton Works With Family Law Cases in Florida

Completing a required parenting course is just about the only thing that is easy about divorce when you have minor children. For everything else, you need the help of an experienced family lawyer. Contact Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, Florida about divorce and child custody.