Getting a Divorce in Florida? How to Avoid Common Mistakes:

Divorces can turn nasty for couples who are not keeping sight of the important aspects of life. In most divorce cases, couples are not thinking about their financial situation or their family, due to their feelings being hurt that the marriage ended. After all, no one got married with the intent on divorcing the person a few years down the road. As a family law attorney, I have dealt with several couples who are going through a divorce. Over the years, I have found that for those who think with their brain, instead of their heart, their divorce will likely work out better for all involved.

There are several aspects that I encourage my clients to consider when they are going through a divorce. They do not need to think about what happened to make their marriage end in this way, as this can get emotions high. Instead, I encourage my clients to look at:

1. Family:

If you have children, they must be considered first in the context of a divorce. Your time should be devoted to ensuring that their needs and welfare are met and not just yours. Remember that children are innocent bystanders and completely dependent upon their parents. I also encourage couples to consider their visitation/timesharing, talk with one another about their children, and even seek out counseling/therapy to ensure their family is not suffering from this decision.

Protect your children from the divorce as much as possible. While there may be an urge to say something negative about your soon-to-be former spouse while in the presence of the children, never give in to that temptation. Children are much more insightful than people realize. They will internalize the negative comments that you might make about the other party. Children realize that they are one-half mom and one-half dad. So when the children are with mom, and they hear mom describe their dad as being no good, the children hear that as mom saying that they are no good.

2. Finances:

This is the time to be smart about your finances. Once a divorce in Duval, Clay, Nassau, or St. Johns County has been filed, the case is governed by a standing family law court order. That court order directs neither party to do anything that is going to negatively impact the other party outside of the normal course of business. In other words, don’t hide money, don’t empty out savings accounts, don’t take out unusual loans against your 401(k), don’t transfer title of assets such as cars and boats, don’t deed properties out, and do not cancel insurance policies without the written permission of the other party or an order from the court.

Also, neither party should even attempt to hide assets. Attempting to hide or dispose of assets is something that can really get you into hot water with the court. In Florida, each party is entitled to one-half of the marital estate, both assets and debts, regardless of how the marital assets were acquired. Additionally, in Florida, there are rules of procedure requiring mandatory disclosure of financial documents. Not only does this make it very difficult for a person to hide financial assets, but if caught, it could be viewed as an attempt to commit a fraud upon the court. At that point, the court may possibly determine that the person attempting to hide or dispose of the assets is no longer deserving of their presumptive half of the marital estate. In other words, if the court finds that there was fraud committed by one of the parties, then the court has the discretion to award an unequal distribution at the expense of the party committing the fraud.

3. Lifestyle:

I highly encourage my clients to look at their current lifestyle and factor in how divorce is going to change this, then start adapting to a new lifestyle. During your marriage, you and your spouse may have been each working and sharing expenses. After your separation, it is likely that while your income will not increase, your expenses will. This may mean that you have to downgrade your home or budget a bit more carefully if there is only going to be one income in the family.

As your Family Law & Divorce Attorneys, the offices of Makofka & Makofka, work to ensure that your divorce proceedings are going to be fair to you. We take into consideration the type of lifestyle you have lived, your finances, and most importantly your family when helping you to come up with a plan that is going to work for you. However, we strongly encourage couples who are seeking divorce to remain civil with one another. Divorce is hard enough as it is, there is no reason to add to the stress and pain by being vindictive and unreasonable.

If you are considering or perhaps even already going through a divorce, and live in the Jacksonville area, call us at 904-355-2700. The offices of Makofka & Makofka are here for you and will help you through this tough time.