Author: Elf
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The Dependency Exemption for Minor Children: When Following the Rules Pays Off
In 2011, about 84 million people claimed tax deductions for their kids. These deductions can help lower your taxes and give you other tax benefits. The deduction amount changes each year based on inflation, and it gets smaller for high earners. When parents split up and argue over who gets to claim the deduction, it…
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Recurring Issues with Florida’s Municipal Pension Plans in Family Law Cases
In Florida, a law says that municipal pensions and benefits are exempt from taxes and cannot be divided through a court order (QDRO). Courts have said that the only way for a nonparticipant spouse to get their share of a pension is by asking the participant spouse to make direct payments. This can cause problems…
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The Gay Divorcee: Marriage Equality in Florida and the Nation
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court made an important decision about same-sex marriage in the case United States v. Windsor. This decision marked a new era for marriage equality. The issue of same-sex marriage is still being debated, but it will likely be resolved soon when the Court decides if state laws banning same-sex marriage…
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The Commingling of Nonmarital and Marital Funds: Untangling the Changing Character of Assets in Equitable Distribution
When a married couple combines their money, it can be complicated to figure out who gets what if they decide to divorce. In Florida, the law says that assets should be divided equally, but there are exceptions if one person can prove that the money used to buy something was theirs before the marriage. The…
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Relocation: A Moveable Feast?
Summary: This is a legal case about a company that is being sued for not paying its employees properly. The employees say they were working overtime but not getting paid for it. The court decided that the company has to pay the employees for the overtime they worked. In the 1980s, laws changed so that…
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An In-Depth Look at Active Effort in the Appreciation of Nonmarital Assets
When a couple gets married, any assets they acquire are considered to be owned by both of them. If one spouse wants to prove that some assets are not shared, they have to show evidence that they kept those assets separate from everything else. This could mean keeping them in a separate bank account or…
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What the Abacus Can Teach Us About Technology (And Other Valuable Lessons About Innovation and Collaboration)
Access to justice, or the ability for everyone to have a fair chance in court, has been a big issue for a while. Many people can’t afford to hire a lawyer and get turned away from legal help. This is a big problem because everyone deserves a fair shot in court. The Florida Supreme Court…
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Homeschooling and the Perils of Shared Parental Responsibility
More and more kids in Florida are being homeschooled, with over 75,000 currently doing it. Florida is known as a good place for homeschooling. Families have options for homeschooling that are recognized by the law. Homeschooling is a big lifestyle change for parents and kids. When parents who homeschool get divorced, it can be hard…
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The Collaborative Law Process Act: The Future Is Now
In 2016, Florida passed a law called the Collaborative Law Process Act that allows families to work together to solve their problems without going to court. This helps everyone involved to communicate better and find solutions that work for everyone. The Florida Supreme Court is still working on the rules for how this process will…
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Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: An Update on Grandparent Visitation
Grandparents in Florida have been fighting for the right to visit their grandchildren for a long time. The state’s government branches, like the legislature and the courts, have been arguing over whether or not grandparents should have this right. Recently, the Florida Supreme Court made a decision that allows grandparents from out of state to…
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Putting a Milking Stool Behind a Horse Does Not Make it a Cow: Accountants’ Charging and Retaining Liense in Florida
In family law, lawyers often try to secure payment of their fees by filing notices of charging liens. This is common practice. However, it’s unusual for an accountant to do the same thing. Recently, an accountant involved in a family law case filed a motion claiming they have a right to be paid. This was…
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The Collaborative Law Process Rules: This Is How We Do It
In May 2017, the Florida Supreme Court made new rules for how lawyers work with clients in family law cases. These rules go along with a new law called the Florida Collaborative Law Process Act. The new rules and law started in July 2017 and will change how lawyers handle family law cases in Florida.…
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Goodwill Hunting for Equity: The Florida Supreme Court’s Unintended Result of the Thompson Case, Part I
In Florida, when a married couple’s business is being divided in a divorce, the court has to figure out how much of the business’s value is considered marital property. They don’t count the value of the business that comes from one spouse’s reputation or skills, because that’s called “personal goodwill” and it’s not included in…
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The Issues Under Florida Law Relating to Personal Goodwill in a Dissolution of Marriage, Part II
In Florida, there’s a law about how to divide property when a couple gets divorced. One issue is how to divide the value of a business or one spouse’s share of a business. It’s been hard for lawyers and experts because they can’t use certain evidence to figure out the value of any personal goodwill…
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Ending Permanent Periodic Alimony: A Crisis for Enforcing Equitable Distribution Waiting to Happen
The Florida Legislature is trying to end permanent periodic alimony, which could affect how assets are divided in a divorce. This includes things like retirement plans and bonuses from work. The courts have made decisions that make this issue more complicated, and the legislature is trying to find a solution. After a divorce, there can…
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Protecting an Inheritance in the Event of Divorce
Planning for passing on wealth to future generations can be a difficult and emotional task, especially when considering how to protect the inheritance from a descendant’s divorce. Clients want to make sure their children and grandchildren are taken care of, but they also want to keep the inheritance within the family and out of the…
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Mental-Health Issues in Florida Family Law, Part 1
Mental health plays a big role in family law cases. It’s important for the well-being of both parents and children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines mental health as how we think, feel, and act, and how we handle stress and relate to others. It’s important at every stage of life. Sometimes…
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Mental-Health Issues in Florida Family Law, Part 2
In the second part of this series, we are discussing whether a person’s mental health issues are relevant to a family law case. In simple terms, this means that if a person’s mental health affects their ability to earn money or take care of a child, it may be important in a family law case.…
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Like Home: The New Definition of Habitual Residence
The Wizard of Oz story about Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers to go home is kind of like how lawyers are trying to help kids who have been taken to a different country by a parent. But it’s not easy, because different courts have different rules about when a child is considered to be living…
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Blueprint for a More Effective Family Court Intake Process and Beyond: Opening the Umbrella to Process Family Court Cases
The Florida family court system is working on improving the way they handle cases involving families. A task force was created in 2017 to come up with better ways to help people navigate the court system. They looked at what other places are doing, did some research, and got input from people who work in…
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Beat the Clock: Deadlines in a Military Divorce Case
In military divorce cases, it’s important to meet deadlines to ensure eligibility for federal and military benefits like survivor benefits and medical care. For military pension division orders, there’s no specific deadline, but delays can lead to problems like back payments and a reduced share of the pension for the spouse. There’s also a risk…
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Domestic Relations Obligations: Dischargeable or Not in Bankruptcy?
This article explains how bankruptcy law and state laws determine whether family court obligations can be discharged in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court looks at the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and relevant state laws to make this determination. There are two main sections of the Bankruptcy Code that deal with matrimonial debt, and they were changed in…
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Estate Planning Issues in a Divorce Situation II: An Update and Standing Orders
In 2012, Ms. Brunner wrote an article in a journal about the rights of married couples in the process of getting a divorce and after the divorce is finalized. The article discusses how automatic orders in divorce cases may give more rights to the spouse who files for divorce than to the spouse in a…
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Concurrency and Moratoria
In Florida, there’s a rule that new development can only happen if there’s enough infrastructure in place to support it. This rule, called “concurrency,” was made in the 1980s. During a real estate recession, not much development happened, so the rule wasn’t really tested. There hasn’t been a case in Florida where a court decided…