There’s a version of divorce in Florida that skips the financial discovery, skips the drawn-out hearings, and can be finished in a single trip to the courthouse. It’s called simplified dissolution of marriage, and the moment people hear about it they want to know one thing: can we do that? For most couples the honest answer is no, because the rule that creates this option is narrow on purpose. But for the couples who fit inside it, this is genuinely the fastest and cheapest way to end a marriage in this state. Here’s what it requires, what you give up in exchange, and what to do if you don’t qualify.
What Simplified Dissolution Actually Is
It’s a procedure created by Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.105, and it works differently from a standard case at nearly every step. Instead of one spouse filing a petition and serving the other, both spouses sign a joint petition and file it together. Instead of exchanging financial documents under the mandatory disclosure rule, you skip that entirely, because simplified dissolution cases are specifically excluded from mandatory disclosure. Instead of a series of hearings, there’s one, and both of you attend it.
If the judge is satisfied that the requirements are met, the final judgment gets signed at that hearing and the marriage ends.
The Requirements, Stated Plainly
Both spouses have to certify under oath that a specific set of facts is true, and every one of them has to hold.
No Children and No Pregnancy
The parties can’t have any minor or dependent children together. The rule also requires that the wife has no minor or dependent children born during the marriage, and that she isn’t currently pregnant. This is the requirement that disqualifies the largest number of couples, and there’s no way around it. If children are in the picture, you’re filing a regular dissolution so the court can address a parenting plan and support.
Property Already Divided and No Alimony Sought
You have to have divided your property already and agreed on how joint debts get paid. The court isn’t going to sort that out for you in this procedure. Neither spouse can be asking for alimony either. If support is on the table at all, this route closes.
Residency and Appearance
At least one of you must have lived in Florida for six months before filing, the same requirement that applies to every Florida divorce. It has to be proven, usually with a Florida driver’s license, identification card, or voter registration issued at least six months before filing, or with testimony from someone who can confirm your residency. Both of you also have to appear at the final hearing.
What You Waive to Get the Speed
Speed has a price, and you should understand it before you take the deal. Using this procedure means waiving the right to a trial and the right to appeal.
Skipping discovery means skipping verification. In a standard dissolution, both parties exchange financial affidavits, tax returns, and bank statements, and that exchange exists so both people actually know what they’re dividing. Here there’s none of it. If you aren’t fully confident you know what your spouse owns, what they earn, and what debts carry both your names, you’re agreeing to a division based on trust rather than documentation.
Waiving appeal makes that permanent. Discover six months later that a retirement account was never mentioned, and your options narrow considerably. And giving up alimony means giving it up for good — you can’t circle back later and ask for support you already waived.
For a couple with a short marriage, separate finances, no real estate, and nothing complicated between them, none of that may matter. For a couple where one spouse handled all the money and the other is signing based on what they’ve been told, it matters enormously.
The Privacy Advantage Most People Miss
Because the procedure bypasses mandatory disclosure, couples who use it generally don’t put a detailed financial picture into the public court file. For people who care about keeping their finances out of the public record, that’s a real benefit, and it’s one of the reasons some couples with straightforward finances choose this route deliberately rather than by default.
Simplified Is Not the Same as Uncontested
People conflate these two constantly, and the distinction matters.
Simplified dissolution is the specific procedure with the strict eligibility rules described above. An uncontested divorce is broader. It simply means both spouses agree on the outcome. You can have children, you can have alimony, you can have a house and retirement accounts to divide, and still resolve all of it by agreement through a marital settlement agreement without ever fighting in front of a judge.
An uncontested case takes longer and involves more paperwork, including financial disclosure. But it’s available to couples who fall outside Rule 12.105, and it still avoids the cost and stress of litigation. Most cooperative divorces in Miami-Dade land here rather than in a simplified dissolution.
Where an Attorney Fits in a Simple Case
It sounds backwards to involve a lawyer in the version of divorce designed to work without one. The value isn’t in the filing, though. It’s in the review.
An hour spent confirming that you actually qualify, that the division you worked out at the kitchen table accounts for everything including retirement accounts, and that you understand exactly what you’re waiving, is an hour that prevents a problem you can’t undo. Retirement accounts in particular get overlooked constantly, because they don’t feel like property the way a house or a car does.
If a review turns up a dependent child or an unresolved joint debt that takes you outside the rule, it’s far better to learn that before you file than to have a judge dismiss the case after you’ve already made plans around it.
Choosing the Right Path Before You File
If you and your spouse are on good terms and want to end things cleanly, that’s worth protecting, and the goal should be doing it in a way that holds up years from now. Sometimes that means the simplified route. More often it means an uncontested case with real disclosure behind it.
Either way, the decision is easier once someone has looked at your actual circumstances and told you which procedure fits, which is the kind of straightforward assessment our team at Reynoso Erickson Trial Law, P.A. gives people at the outset rather than after the paperwork is already filed.