Discretionary rulings must be supported by competent substantial evidence.  A court abuses its discretion if there is no logic or justification for a result.  An abuse of discretion exists when judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable.  Shared parental responsibility is preferred unless it would be contrary to the child’s best interest.  The law contemplates that parents will mutually confer on all major decisions affecting a child’s welfare and reach agreement.  Florida Courts have long held that a designation of ultimate decision making authority has the effect of getting one parent complete control over all the decision making and determines the intent of the child custody statute and shared parental responsibility.

The UCCJEA stands for Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act.  It is an act that is required for a court to take jurisdiction of any children’s issues.  The purpose of the UCCJEA is to avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict with courts of other states in matters of child custody.  This can be found in Florida Statue 61.502.  Courts recognize the longstanding and fundamental liberty interests of parents in the care and upbringing of their children free from the heavy hand of government paternalism.  This fundamental liberty interest in parenting is protected by both the Florida and Federal Constitutions. 

It should be known that all cases are different and anything can happen at any time.  The below are some results from some of the cases we have had across the state:

 We have nine offices across the state of Florida, different attorneys have handled different things.  One of our Jacksonville divorce attorneys handled a case with a 53 year marriage.  Client made around $8,000.00 per month and the wife made about $95.00 per month in social security.  Her last job was approximately 25 years ago. The total of about $325,000.00 in marital assets with no debt. We got a deal that the wife got $170,000.00 in equitable distribution of assets instead of the $162,000.00 that she likely would have received in court.  She pays her own attorney’s fees with no alimony! Client was very happy.

In a family law matter, there are so many things that can pop up in a case.  Rarely does one go to litigation on a single issue.  Even if you believe that there is one issue, there are several “rabbit trails” that can lead you in several different directions.  For example, if you are suing or being sued by somebody for child support.  Child support is not the only issue.  You also have life insurance to secure that child support. Many times in litigation if the husband is paying child support, he gets angry at having to pay life insurance.  Especially if the life insurance designates the beneficiary as the mother of the child or the former wife. 

In most family law matters in the State of Florida like a divorce or a Supplemental Petition for Custody or a Supplemental Petition for Child Support, mediation is required.  There are circumstances that mediation is not required, but for the most part, when you are going into this litigation, you should plan for mediation.  This is actually a good thing.  People are often shocked at how often a case actually does settle at mediation.  I have had people over the years come to me saying how unreasonable their wife is and that she will never settle a case.  They have asked me to do whatever I could to cancel or avoid the mediation because it is an unnecessary expense. First, you can’t avoid it.  Don’t even try.  Most Judges demand it.  Second, it is shocking how many of these “unreasonable” people actually settle the case by the time it gets to mediation.  This settlement avoids thousands and thousands of attorney’s fees and just the sheer headache of litigation.