Florida's new alimony law

Florida recently passes a law that allows termination of alimony in some situations. The person paying alimony can try to prove the person receiving alimony is in a "supportive" relationship, similar to marriage.

The law was passed within the past 30 days. I am starting to hear from more people interested if the law will help them. But most cannot prove what they really need to prove - that one person is supporting the other person financially.

Emergency pickup order for child

A person sent a child to Florida from another state - to spend the summer with a friend. The other parent originally abandoned the child, never paid child support, and never partipated in parenting. The other parent learned of the child's presence in Florida and got the local court to issue a emergency pickup order - based on danger to the child. Any time an emergency pickup order is issued by a court, a followup hearing is scheduled within 14 days to allow both parties to support or oppose the original order. In this case, the court decided that because the original parent/custodian was now with the child, the emergency was over. The court ordered the child to be returned to that parent.

Moral of the story: if you have a potential custody dispute in the near future, do not let your child out of your personal control - even for several days.

Website

www.18884mydivorce.com

The old hide the shell game

Sometimes I see a divorce where there is a family business. It reminds me of "the old hide the shell" game. A common technique of some business owners is to shift assets under someone elses name - to avoid the reach of a divorcing spouse. The assets end up under a variety of names in different combinations.

These cases are tough but they can be tackled. The trick is to "unravel" all the transactions and show they were done for fraudulent purposes. If the evidence is clear, a court can undo many types of transactions.

It is hard - but can be done.

A different kind of client in a divorce practice

Different people react very differently to a divorce. Some sit at my desk and cry. Some are so afraid they can barely talk. Others are mostly afraid of the expense. The common denominator is they all want to move on with their lives. The biggest step was walking into a lawyer's office. It takes a lot of courage to make that first step.