Blog
Enforcing a Property Division Order After a Florida Divorce Is Final
The judgment said your former spouse owes you an equalizing payment. The deadline passed. Nothing arrived, no explanation came, and the obvious move seems to be a motion for contempt, because that is what people do when a court order is ignored. In Florida that motion...
When a Florida Juvenile Case Gets Direct Filed to Adult Court
Parents whose child has been arrested in Florida usually assume the case will be handled in juvenile court. That is where the diversion programs are, where the focus is on rehabilitation, and where a record can eventually be sealed. What almost nobody knows is that...
Modifying a Florida Parenting Plan When One Parent’s Schedule Changes
The parenting plan was built around a nine-to-five job that no longer exists. A promotion brought travel. A new position runs nights. A layoff turned into shift work at a hospital, and the Tuesday and Thursday exchanges the plan specifies now fall in the middle of a...
Employee Theft Accusations in Florida and How They Become Grand Theft Charges
A bookkeeper is called into a conference room where the owner, an outside accountant, and sometimes a lawyer are waiting. There is a spreadsheet on the table. The questions are calm and specific, and somewhere in the conversation comes a version of the line that ends...
Temporary Alimony During a Florida Divorce and How It Gets Decided
A divorce in Miami-Dade can take the better part of a year, and sometimes considerably longer. The question nobody asks at the consultation but everybody faces within about six weeks is how the household functions in the meantime, particularly where one spouse earned...
Grand Jury Subpoenas for Business Records and How to Respond
The envelope is addressed to the company, not to a person. Inside is a grand jury subpoena listing categories of documents and a return date a few weeks out. Nobody has been arrested, nobody has been charged, and the natural instinct is relief — this is about the...
Retroactive Child Support in Florida and How Far Back It Reaches
A parent moves out in March. Nothing gets filed for two years because the arrangement mostly works, money changes hands informally, and nobody wants a court involved. Then something breaks down, a petition finally gets filed, and the first order includes a number...
What Happens at a Federal Detention Hearing in the Southern District of Florida
In state court, bond is usually a number. Someone posts it and the defendant goes home. Families arriving at the federal courthouse in Miami expect a version of that, and instead they find a hearing where no amount of money is the question, the government may be...
Dividing Retirement Accounts in a Florida Divorce and Why a QDRO Matters
The account statement has one name on it. The contributions came out of one paycheck. The employer set it up, the employee funded it, and for twenty years nobody else thought about it. Then a divorce petition gets filed and that account turns out to be one of the...
What the DHSMV Formal Review Hearing Does for Your Florida Driver License
Two separate cases start the night of a DUI arrest, and only one of them happens in a courtroom. The criminal case gets a court date weeks out. The other one is administrative, it belongs to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and it runs on a clock...
Supervised Time-Sharing in Florida and What It Takes to Lift It
An order comes out of a hearing and the time with your children is now conditional. A third party has to be present. The visits happen at a center, on someone else's schedule, with someone taking notes. For a parent who expected a schedule and got a supervision...
Constructive Possession in Florida Drug Cases and Why Proximity Is Not Enough
Four people are in a car. An officer finds a bag under the passenger seat. Everyone says it isn't theirs, and by the end of the night everyone in that car has been arrested. The natural reaction is that this cannot possibly be how it works, because three of those four...
Hidden Assets in a Florida Divorce and How They Get Uncovered
The financial affidavit arrives and something about it does not match the life you lived together. The income figure is lower than the lifestyle. An account you remember does not appear. A business that supported a household somehow shows almost no profit. Suspecting...
Withhold of Adjudication in Florida and What It Does Not Erase
A withhold of adjudication is one of the most valuable outcomes available in a Florida criminal case, and one of the most widely misunderstood. People walk out of the courtroom believing the case is over, the record is clean, and they can honestly say they have never...
Why Married Couples in Miami Sign Postnuptial Agreements
Most people have heard of a prenuptial agreement and assume the postnuptial version is the same document signed later. It is not, and the difference is not cosmetic. Florida has a statute governing premarital agreements. That statute does not apply to agreements...
How to Fight a Risk Protection Order at the Final Hearing in Florida
There is no arrest, no charge, and no criminal case. A law enforcement agency filed a petition, a judge signed a temporary order, and your firearms are gone. Now there is a hearing date on the calendar, and what happens at it determines whether the order becomes final...
Temporary vs Final Injunctions in Florida and What Happens Between the Two Hearings
A judge signed something the same day it was filed, without the other side ever knowing a petition existed. A deputy showed up with paperwork that says you cannot go home. Somewhere in that stack is a hearing date roughly two weeks out. What most people do not realize...
What to Bring to Your Injunction Hearing in Miami-Dade County
The notice gives you a date, a courtroom, and not much else. For most people this is the first time they have been inside a courthouse for anything, and the hearing that decides whether an injunction is entered against them — or whether the protection they asked for...