It would seem that in today’s world, if you are not a lawyer, you can basically do an entire lawsuit yourself.  With the help of the internet, truthfully, pretty much everything is available to a pro se litigant. The problem is, there are so many small nuances in the law.  I know how self-serving this sounds, but there is no question, you are much better off to get an attorney during and for a lawsuit than to not have one.  Such as our divorce attorney in Tampa, or a divorce attorney in Hillsborough County.  We have attorneys that do divorce all throughout the State of Florida.  So, I understand how self-serving this blog is, but it is simply truthful. I cannot tell you the amount of people who have come in front of me and have our firm trying to fix things that they screwed up because they thought they could do it themselves. 

An Injunction or a Temporary Restraining Order in Florida is used when you need to get immediate protection from the Court.  There are several ways you can do this in a family law action and several things you can use it for.  You can use an Injunction in a divorce matter to protect assets, bank accounts, or even property such as keeping people away from the marital home or other land or houses that you may own.  An Injunction in a divorce or family law matter can be used to keep the other person away from your car or work environment or many different things.  It can also be used to help with children such as preventing one spouse from leaving the jurisdiction with kids or even having them have supervised visitation because you are in fear that you could hurt the children.

There are many types of temporary relief that you can get in a divorce or dissolution matter.  During a divorce, many times people cannot get along.  Someone will hold back money or someone will hold back visitation so the court needs to be involved.  A divorce can last anywhere from six months to a few years if people are highly litigating and the court system is bogged down.  Because of this a temporary order is important. 

When you are preparing pleadings for a divorce case you need to make sure to ask for everything that you want.  In Florida, you have to give notice.  The other side has to have notice of what you are seeking so they have an opportunity to defend.  This is not like television where you can sneak up and throw stuff out there and surprise everybody and have that Matlock moment.  The person you are going against, whether you are the husband or wife, needs notice when you are preparing pleadings in a divorce in Florida. 

Proper pleadings is particularly significant in a dissolution of marriage proceeding because of the types of relief that may be sought.  One has to put what they are asking for in all pleadings.  This is basic due process notice.  A husband and a wife must say what they are asking for so a Court knows and the opposing party knows so that they may defend it.  If a person asks for something that they did not plead for in their divorce proceeding or dissolution papers, a Court could say that they cannot get that relief requested because no one knew you were asking for it.  The pleadings must put all parties on notice as to what they are asking for. Sometimes, a Court may allow something to be argued by “implied consent”. Do not count on this, however.  This is when an argument is made and the opposing party basically does not object.