Before anything gets filed, we decide what kind of case this is:

• Simplified dissolution — both of you agree, no minor children, no alimony, you've divided everything, and you both appear at the final hearing. Does not occur every often.
• Uncontested — you agree on everything and paper it up. This is the goal for most cases.
• Collaborative divorce — a statutory process (under FL. Statute Chapter 61) where both sides sign an agreement that the attorneys withdraw if it goes to litigation. Works well for people who genuinely want to settle.
• Contested divorce — An adversarial process where the parties are not in agreement on most issues. Even though the case is contested, that doesn't mean you'll go to trial; over 85% of contested cases settle.

The Petition for Dissolution of Marriage gets filed in the circuit court where either of you lives. Filing fee is roughly $410. If there are minor children, a UCCJEA affidavit goes with it documenting the child's residence history for five years. There are also a number of administrative forms that must be filed.

The petition states establishes the issues in your case and includes what you want as a result: dissolution of the marriage, a parenting plan and timesharing schedule, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, and an award for attorney’s fees. Florida is what is called a “general pleading” state. You are only required to generally site the issues in your case, so attorneys tend

to put all possible issues into the pleading. You can always ask for less later; asking for more later is harder.

Your spouse has to be formally served — we use a private process server — unless they sign an Acceptance and Waiver of Service, which cooperative spouses sometimes do. If you can't find them, there's a constructive service route by publication, but it limits what the court can order can do.

Once served, they have 20 days to file an answer, and usually they will file a counterpetition asking for their own relief.

This is the step clients underestimate, and its an area that can result in lots of unnecessary attorney’s fees and costs.

Florida Family Law Rule 12.285 requires – as in it is mandatory - both sides to exchange financial information automatically — no one has to ask for it. Within 45 days of service, you must provide:

• A sworn financial affidavit.
• Roughly 16 categories of documents: three years of tax returns, three months of pay stubs, twelve months of every bank and brokerage statement, credit card statements, retirement account statements, deeds, titles, loan applications, business records

Two things to know. First, it's a continuing obligation — if something changes, you supplement.

Second, the financial affidavit is sworn. People shade these, and they get destroyed on cross-examination when the bank statements don't match. Don't.

If there are minor children, both parents must also complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course — four hours, § 61.21, generally within 45 days of filing. The court will not enter a final judgment without both certificates.

A divorce with contested issues takes months. Meanwhile someone has to pay the mortgage, and the children have to have a schedule. So, we file a motion for temporary relief and get a hearing on:

• Temporary support (spousal and child)
• A temporary timesharing schedule
• Exclusive use and possession of the marital home
• Who pays which bills
• Temporary attorney's fees — § 61.16 lets the court equalize the parties' ability to litigate, so a non-monied spouse isn't outgunned

Many circuits also enter a standing administrative order at filing that freezes the status quo: no selling assets, no cancelling insurance, no moving the children out of state. Temporary orders are temporary and don't bind the final judge — but practically, a schedule that's been running for a year develops gravity. That's worth knowing when you decide what to fight for early.

If the case is contested, this is the long middle. Interrogatories, requests for production and admission, depositions, subpoenas to employers and banks. Where there's a business, a pension, a closely held interest, or a suspicion someone's hiding income, we bring in experts: forensic accountants, business valuators, vocational evaluators.

On the parenting side, the court can order a social investigation under § 61.20, appoint a guardian ad litem, or order psychological evaluations under Rule 12.360 — though that last one requires showing the person's mental condition is genuinely in controversy and good cause exists. It isn't handed out for the asking.

Nearly every Florida circuit requires mediation before it will give you a hearing on temporary relief and again before setting a trial date. We always use of “caucus” format for family law mediations, in which both parties and their attorney are in separate rooms, either virtually via Zoom, or physically if the mediation is done in person. A neutral mediator spends a half or full day shuttling between rooms. Everything that is said or that happens in mediation is confidential, nothing said in mediation is admissible in court later, which is the point — it lets people make offers they wouldn't make in front of a judge.

Mediation should be taken seriously, with proper preparation most cases resolve here, and a mediated agreement gives you control over the outcome that a you will never have in a trial.

If you settle, your agreement gets memorialized in a Marital Settlement Agreement and, if there are children, a Parenting Plan — which must specify the timesharing schedule, decision-making, communication, transportation, and how the children's activities are handled. Then a brief uncontested final hearing, often ten minutes.

If you don't settle your case, the next step is a pretrial conference. At that conference, the Court will establish the rules for the trial; when discovery is to be cut off, when the exchange of witness and exhibit lists will occur. It will also determine what issues will be tried. No jury trialsmare permitted in Florida family law cases.

Trials are expensive, you are not only paying an attorney to appear at the trial, but they also must prepare properly which means that they will spend 3 or 4 hours getting ready for trial for every hour of actual trial time. Trials are also slow to get on the calendar, meaning that they could be scheduled months from now. Finally, when you have to go to trial to finish your divorce, you are putting important decisions involving your life in the hands of a stranger who will only hear what the lawyers can present to him at trial.

After the trial, the Court will issue its ruling on the applicable issues involved in your case.

• Timesharing and parental responsibility (§ 61.13) — since 2023 there's a rebuttable presumption that equal 50/50 timesharing is in the child's best interest, which a party can overcome by a preponderance of the evidence. Shared parental responsibility is likewise presumed.
• Equitable distribution (§ 61.075) — marital assets and debts split, presumptively equally, with statutory factors permitting unequal division. Non-marital property premarital, inherited, gifted to one spouse — stays separate unless it was commingled.
• Alimony (§ 61.08) — substantially rewritten in 2023. Permanent alimony has been eliminated in Florida. What remains is temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational, with statutory caps tied to the length of the marriage.
• Child support (§ 61.30) — a guidelines calculation driven by both incomes, daycare, health insurance, and the number of overnights.
• Changing your name: the Wife, in a Florida divorce case, is entitled to have her name restored to her maiden name, so long as there are no criminal or bankruptcy proceedings occurring when the request is made. Certified copies of the Final Judgment are necessary to have your name changed where government documents are involved, such as your driver’s license, passport, social security card and the like.

The judgment isn't the end of the paperwork, in your case, you may also need a:

• QDROs to actually divide retirement accounts (a judgment saying "she gets half the 401(k)" doesn't move a dollar without one)
• Deeds, title transfers, refinancing deadlines
• Income Deduction Order for support
• 30 days to appeal
• Then, later: modification (requires a substantial, material, and unanticipated change in circumstances) and enforcement/contempt when someone doesn't comply