The divorce process in Florida can vary slightly depending on the county you reside in. While everything is laid out in great detail in the Florida Family Law Rules Of Civil Procedure, which is 175 pages long, we’re going to summarize some of the important things you should be aware of if you’re facing a divorce trial, or are thinking about getting a divorce.
Divorce vs. Parentage
Married couples are able, by law, to get divorced and uncouple their relationship as well as property, assets, debts, and the like. If they have had children, custody, support, and parenting time must also be worked out.
There is another item though, that many people don’t know about, and it’s call parentage. Parentage is sorting out the custody, support, and parenting time of non-married couples who are challenged for said issues.
Otherwise, in Florida, non-married couples are treated as though they were strangers. The defining factor is if children were born unto them. The non-married couples can only use these laws for determining parenting time and child support. Other issues, such as property, debts, assets, are all to be handled civilly, as if they were business partners.
Florida Does Not Recognize “Palimony”
If you’ve lived with your significant other for years, but never tied the knot, then there is nothing that can be done for you from the family law side of things. There is no common law marriage or palimony in Florida. Either you’re married or you’re not.
What if my girlfriend and I bought a house together?
The law treats you as if you were just two business partners who bought a house together. The matter would have to go to civil court for you to sort out your affairs just like two business partners would.
How Does the Case Get Started?
It all starts with a pleading request for relief. Pleading to the court is basically submitting a letter to the court asking the court to do something such as grant me a divorce, award me alimony, grant me full custody of my child, etc.
Where Do I File My Case?
Your case will be filed in the county in which you live. You can only file your family law case here in Florida if you have lived in the state for a minimum of six months.
Filing Fees for Pinellas County Divorce
In Pinellas County, Florida the filing fees for a divorce are $397.50. The filing fees for a parentage action are $300.00.
Serving Notice
The two parties in a family law case are known as the petitioner and the respondent. The petitioner is the party that files the initial suit, while the respondent is the party that must respond to the complaint that was levied.
Once a case is filed, the respondent must be served notice of the case being filed. Service or “being served” is the presentation to the respondent from the petitioner that a suit has been filed. This is typically done when a process server presents the respondent with the notice that they are a now party to a lawsuit. In most cases, a licensed process service company is hired by the petitioner to serve the notice to the defendant. Once the notice has been served, the process server then fills out an affidavit that the respondent was served, known formally as an “Affidavit of Service.” The petitioner’s attorney then files that affidavit with the court to show that the respondent has indeed been notified of the suit.
Once notice has been served, a respondent has only 20 days to formally reply to the suit.
What if the Respondent Can’t Be Found or Served?
In some cases, a petitioner may not know where the respondent lives. While it may sound strange, there are some relationships that have become quite estranged, but never formally, or legally divorced. In cases like these, it’s not uncommon for a petitioner to not know where the respondent lives or works.
In this instance, the petitioner must file an “Affidavit of Diligent Search and Inquiry” where they must testify that they have attempted to track down the whereabouts of the respondent but have no knowledge of where they can be found to be served.
Once this affidavit of diligent search has been completed and filed, the petitioner can publish notice of the divorce or family law case in the local newspaper. This is called “Service by Publication” and will allow the petitioner to divorce and even grant custody of the children. All other issues are considered on hold until the respondent is eventually served or files their appearance.
If the respondent fails to answer the petition after being served, and nothing else is filed with the court as an indication that they will be part of the process will be considered defaulted after 20 days.
Defaulting on a divorce or parentage complaint means the petitioner gets to enter final orders based on what they asked for in the pleading which was served.
In part two, we’ll get into pleadings, responses, and required court documents leading up to the trial.