The judge will use a mathematical formula, which is based on 30 percent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes at the time the order is created, to come up with an amount. The judge will look at the “reasonable need” of the person receiving alimony and come up with an amount. The judge will order the lesser of the two amounts. 1
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Feb 09, 2019 · Nominal Alimony is a concept known to attorneys and judges and is used in situations where there is a strong claim for alimony and absolutely no way for the other person to pay alimony. In those situations the court may award “nominal alimony” in the amount of $1 per month – or some other low amount. Nominal alimony keeps the “alimony ...
There is no formula for judges to use when deciding how much and what type of alimony is appropriate. In addition to the above factors, the court must also ensure that the paying spouse's net income is no less than the supported spouse (unless there are extraordinary circumstances.)
Feb 03, 2017 · After a divorce it's possible that you may need a Florida divorce modification lawyer to settle future disagreements. Steven Miller can help (877) 348-3354. TOLL FREE ... Modification of Alimony in Florida. ... payment of attorney fees, costs, loss of license or in extreme cases, jail time. ...
The bottom line in Florida Divorce is that if you and your spouse cannot agree on one or more issues, the Judge will decide for you. One party can end up satisfied (once in a while both), or both can end up miserable and wishing they had compromised with each other. The Judge in a Florida divorce is going to tell you what the story will be with the division of property and debts, …
Florida divorce law does allow for the opportunity to receive alimony. The law applies a two-part test to determine if alimony is appropriate. Firs...
The amount of alimony depends on the specific details of each individual case. There is no mathematical formula to determine the amount of alimony....
Under Florida divorce law, alimony payments may be modified if there has been a substantial change in circumstances of either party. The modificati...
If you need to lower or stop alimony, a petition to modify alimony should be filed. Florida law does not allow a person to unilaterally change the...
In Florida, adultery will usually not be relevant to a judge’s determination for alimony. However, if marital funds were used to further the adulte...
Yes, the length of the marriage will impact the judge's decision on alimony. Generally, short term marriages are only eligible for short term forms...
Most often, permanent alimony is only available for marriages that have lasted at least 17 years. This type of alimony is intended to provide for t...
There is no minimum amount of time you must be married in order to receive alimony. However, the length of the marriage will be a factor in determi...
In many instances, remarriage can be grounds to modify or terminate alimony. Additionally, being in a supportive relationship may be enough to term...
If your ex has stopped paying alimony without court approval you may have grounds to file a motion for contempt. If the motion is granted, the cour...
When one or both parties have requested that they be awarded reasonable attorney’s fees, the court must determine whether the request should be granted . In doing so, the court will look at a number of factors to gauge whether such an award is warranted. The list of factors a court can consider is broad, and a court can assign whatever value or importance to any individual factor.
An attorney filed frivolous motions and pleadings or a party engaged in stalling tactics. An attorney has a general obligation to only file those motions and other documents with the court that have some merit to them (not necessarily the same as motions and documents that have a chance of success).
This is a subjective determination the court must make after holding a hearing on the matter. At the hearing, the court will receive evidence and testimony regarding the attorney’s rate, the work performed, and the total fees being requested.
It is true that some divorces can be expensive. But this should not discourage or dissuade someone from filing for divorce. Courts are empowered by Florida statutes to award one party reasonable attorney’s fees, both on a temporary and a permanent basis. The purpose of this is to ensure that both parties have access to legal counsel that is of the same general caliber. It would be obviously unfair if one party had the means to afford a high-profile divorce lawyer to have the other party “make do” with less-qualified counsel simply because he or she could not afford better counsel.
Attorney’s Fees Must Be Reasonable . Even if a court finds an award of attorney’s fees to be appropriate, the court must then determine what fees are reasonable. The court will not award attorney’s fees that it finds unreasonable or excessive.
Florida provides five types of alimony: temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent. Couples can negotiate the terms of the alimony award, including the type, duration, and amount of support. However, if you can't agree, the judge will evaluate your circumstances and decide for you.
Alimony is a court-ordered payment made by one spouse to the other during and/or after a divorce. The concept of alimony developed during a time when it was common for one spouse to work full-time while the other stayed home to raise the couple's family or care for the household. When one spouse files for divorce, ...
Temporary support will help the lower-earning spouse remain financially stable during the lengthy divorce process and ends when the judge finalizes the divorce.
Support may not last longer than the marriage. For example, if you were married for 10 years, your alimony award may not exceed 10 years. Permanent alimony is rare, and the court reserves awards for spouses who need financial assistance and are unable to become self-supporting in the future.
Florida is one of few states that offer bridge-the-gap alimony, which helps the recipient spouse meet legitimate short-term needs while transitioning from married to single. Durational support is like rehabilitative support in that the court sets a time limit for the alimony.
The court awards rehabilitative support in cases where one spouse can become self-supporting but needs time and financial assistance to redevelop previous skills, or to acquire education, training, or work experience necessary to develop necessary skills and enter the workforce.
the length of the marriage (seven or fewer years is short-term, severn-17 years is moderate-term, and 17 or more years is long-term) each spouse's age and physical and emotional health. both spouse's financial resources, including the nonmarital and marital property, assets, and liabilities.
After the final judgment of divorce or paternity is entered, the parties are obligated to abide by it and the terms of the marital settlement agreement. Hopefully, life will go on as uneventfully as possible for you and your family. No one knows what the future holds. Circumstances may cause a person to seek a modification of alimony, ...
Just like the initial proceeding, you must file a lawsuit, pay the filing fee, have the other side served, wait 20 days for a response, subject yourself and your finances to the discovery process, go to mediation, wait for a hearing, pay your lawyer, get frustrated by the delay, the other lawyer, your ex, etc. etc.
Most forms of alimony can be modified if you can establish that there has been an a substantial, unexpected and involuntary change of circumstances that affects the issues that were addressed in the original case: need and ability to pay.
Find out what a judge considers when determining the appropriate amount of alimony one spouse must pay to the other.
In many states, the law specifies that in setting alimony, the judge should consider how much support it would take each party "to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage." This can raise questions about how a court should set and evaluate a particular standard within the "standard of living."
As noted, alimony is generally based largely on what each of the divorcing spouses "reasonably earn." That means that if a person is deliberately working at a job that pays less than what he or she could earn, the courts will sometimes figure the alimony amount based on a higher figure, in what is referred to as imputing income for support.
Attorneys’ fees is the single most litigated issue in civil courts. As a result, trial courts are adept at handling this issue. After six months on the civil bench, a judge has heard enough testimony to qualify as an expert on the reasonable value of legal fees in his or her community.
As noted above, the use of expert testimony is often duplicative of testimony given by the attorney who performed the work, and often adds little to that which the trial judge already knows about prevailing rates in the community and about the issues raised and argued in the underlying litigation on the merits.
Island Hoppers was a wrongful death action against a dive operator and two of its instructors, in which the sole appellate issue was the amount of an attorneys’ fee award to which entitlement had already been established and affirmed pursuant to Florida’s proposal for settlement statute. 1. Appellant Island Hoppers argued ...
The rigid rule requiring the testimony of an expert fees witness in every case in which attorneys’ fees are sought is unnecessary and should be changed. Just as in other types of evidentiary hearings, the parties should instead decide for themselves whether an outside expert would assist them in presenting their best case for or against the award of attorneys’ fees. 33
Further compounding the burden of fees hearings is the law in Florida that attorneys’ fees expended in litigating the amount of, rather than the entitlement to, attorneys’ fees to be awarded generally are not recoverable, 22 denying a successful litigant the “make whole” remedy to which he is obviously entitled. The justification for this principle is that “the attorney’s time spent litigating the amount of attorneys’ fees inures solely to the attorney’s benefit.” 23 However, this rationale has been justifiably criticized. 24 The amount of attorneys’ fees awarded in a fee-shifting hearing obviously benefits the client, because often it determines how much the client will be responsible for paying his or her attorney. In many instances, the fees hearings themselves, because of their complex requirements, can cost close to the amount of attorneys’ fees at issue in the underlying matter.
marital fault (as defined by law ), but only if that fault: caused the breakdown of the marriage; and. either: caused substantial physical or mental pain and suffering; or. resulted in substantial economic loss to the marital estate or the injured party;
vocational skills, occupation, benefits available from employment, and the present and future employability of both parties; voluntary unemployment or underemployment of either party; any special needs of a minor or adult child of the parties; property awarded as part of the divorce;
health, including disability, chronic or severe mental or physical illness, or other unusual health circumstances of either party; the amount of any financial dependency of one party on the other and the length of time of this dependency;
Many contested divorces involve sensitive issues and high emotions on both sides. If children are involved, that takes it up another level. Judges want the parties to negotiate and settle the issues between themselves. Judges don't want to decide how you live your life for you.
Depending on how contentious your divorce is, you may get to appear before your judge a few times, or more times than you care to count.
Judges wear a trendy black robe and sit higher than everyone else, but in the end they are just a person, like you and me. That means, like you and me, they have opinions, biases and personal drama that they deal with on a regular basis.
Yes, they are supposed to be neutral and abide the law when making decisions about your life, but judges are not machines. Maybe they should be... If your judge forms a negative opinion about you early in your divorce, you could be in for a long, stressful and dissatisfied ride. Advertisement. That being said, here are five things your divorce ...
This means who will have physical custody of the child. The judge may order joint custody in which both parents will have the child for much of the time. Conversely, the judge may award one parent primary custody and the other parent visitation rights.
The judge may have to make important decisions such as which spouse will receive the family home if this issue is in dispute and how the other spouse will be compensated for his or her share of the property. He or she may decide how debts will be handled, how retirement accounts will be divided and whether a spouse is entitled to ...
A number of states use a community property system in which all property acquired during the marriage unless there is a specific exception is treated as community property to which each spouse has a 50 percent interest. The judge may have to make important decisions such as which spouse will receive the family home if this issue is in dispute ...
Some states require that a parenting plan be put in place for cases involving child custody. A parenting plan often sets out when the child will be physically present with the child, how holidays will be celebrated, how childcare decisions will be made, how a parental move will affect custody, how important decisions will be made regarding the children and how disputes will be resolved. Some states require parents to attend mediation in order to establish some of these guidelines.
For example, a child with special needs may require a greater amount of child support . Some states take extraordinary expenses in relation to visitation into account. Some states also allow for support orders for college expenses.
Child Support. The judge may also determine whether to award child support. This is largely based on child support guidelines determined by the state. These guidelines indicate the presumed appropriate amount of support based on the parents’ incomes and the number of children to support.
Spousal support is not usually automatic. Instead, the requesting spouse must prove why spousal support should be ordered . The judge considers factors specified in the state statute, such as the earning capacity, work history, age and health of both spouses in order to determine whether spousal support should be awarded and in what amount.