It is the beginning of a new year.  For each new year comes our best intentions in the form of New Year's resolutions.  Among those resolutions are the ones that deal with self-care and self-help.

            This is a busy, hurly-burly world where parents have increasing demands and pressures placed upon them.  Those pressures increase when you are going through a divorce.  The Verywell Family magazine recently provided a number of ways in which parents may reinvigorate and refresh themselves.  They include:

On January 1^st of each year, the majority of people wish each other a Happy New Year.  However, among divorce attorneys, January 1 commences an upsurge in the filings and potential clients seeking to file for divorce.  Divorce attorneys are kept busy after the holidays.  While it is not an official designation the way that Women's History Month is, January has earned this nickname in the legal circles.

            Among the many reasons for the increase in divorce filings in January are the following:

Whether you are going through a divorce or are divorced, the holidays often present a daunting challenge.  The most difficult part for parents is often finding a balance for their children.  Some couples can co-parent easily, while others seem to fail dismally. 

The collaborative divorce facilitator (CDF) is a neutral professional who is often utilized as a collaborative divorce team leader and communication specialist within the collaborative divorce process.  A facilitator generally has been educated and is licensed in the areas of marriage and family counseling, mental health therapy, social work, psychology, or psychiatry.  However, a CDF does not engage in therapy during the collaborative divorce process.  Instead he or she will usually take on the following roles.

  A divorce can create havoc on a family regarding its finances, it can also exact an emotional and psychological toll upon its members.  Nonetheless, 90 to 95 percent of all divorce cases settle.  After legal costs, privacy concerns are probably one of the biggest reasons why divorcing couples settle.  No one wants their financial history laid out, or their dirty laundry aired out for public consideration.  However, because a divorce proceeding is a public proceeding all information within, you’re a divorce court file is available to the public.  It is rather inexpensive to obtain copies of court filings from the courthouse and in some states, they are even available to be downloaded online.  The following are some tips regarding protecting your privacy during a divorce:

  In a recent interview for Vogue Magazine, Kim Kardashian-West stated that she was going to be sitting for the California Bar exam in 2020.  This is an auspicious goal for someone who does not have a college degree or a law school degree.  However, California is one of four states in the United States where one can study the law as "apprentice" and then take the bar exam along side law school graduates.  Under California law, Mrs. Kardashian-West will have to study in a law office for 18 hours a week for 4 years.  Five hours of the study must be directly supervised.  In addition, Mrs. Kardashian-West will be subjected to monthly exams and a bi‑annual progress report submitted to the California State Bar.  The task, although not impossible, is formidable.  The obstacles faced by Mrs. Kardashian-West in her quest to become a member of the California Bar include the following:

     In March we are besieged with "March Madness" – the NCAA National Basketball Championship were sports enthusiasts, who are avid supporters of the participant universities, sit on the edge of their seats during the weeks of March to see who will eventually be crowned National Champion.  While the United States is beset with March madness, in England they have Crufts.  Crufts is proclaimed to be the greatest and largest dog event in the world.  Tens of thousands of dogs participate in hundreds of categories. The Crufts International Dog Show not only deals with the best of breed.  It also contains agility trials, rescue dog agility trials, obedience trials, and many other contests in which the canines participate.  Crufts has been going on for over a hundred twenty years.  Anyone who loves or is dedicated to their pet canine can understand the frenzy and support that this International event garners.

Will the Florida Legislature pass 50/50 time-sharing/visitation?  Many individuals (including a number of experienced family law attorneys) erroneously believe that Florida law provides for 50/50 timesharing/visitation of a divorcing couple's children.  That belief is not correct.  Currently, Florida Statute 61.13 provides that the trial court may award 50/50 timesharing to a divorcing couple, if the trial judge finds that such a timesharing/visitation schedule is in the minor child's best interest.  Many family court judges in Florida start with this presumption.  However, it is not required by statute. At the same time, many other family law judges do not.

You finally made the difficult decision that the marriage is over and you need to proceed with a divorce.  However, you feel some trepidation by proceeding forward.  Understandably, there are stories of divorce cases that have bankrupt families, have lasted for years and years in court with high levels of animosity frequently appear in the news. I’m sure you are asking yourself, “Is our divorce going to end up that?”. 

Pursuant to the Federal Tax Code changes, which went into effect earlier this year, the deductibility of alimony will be abolished in all divorces which are not concluded before January 1, 2019.  All divorces or decrees containing an alimony award prior to January 1, 2019 will retain the deductibility.  This change will cost individuals, who cannot conclude their divorce or obtain an alimony decree before the end of this year, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Currently, alimony is an "above the line deduction".  This means that for every dollar you pay in alimony, you are able to deduct a dollar of income.  For example, if you pay $10,000.00 a month in alimony, you get to deduct $10,000.00 of your income.  If you are in the 40 percent tax bracket, you would pay $4,000.00 from every $10,000.00 income that you earned.  Consequently, if you get to deduct $10,000.00 for your alimony payment, then you would be saving $4,000.00.

Everyone thinks the final judgement signed by the courts is the conclusion of the divorce. However, nothing can be further from the truth. After the final judgement has been entered there are a number of task that each party must finish. At the conclusion of your divorce case, the first thing you should do is obtain several certified copies of the Final Judgment.  You must also review the Final Judgment and/or Settlement Agreement carefully with your attorney to ensure that you understand what you must complete under the terms of the Settlement Agreement and/or the terms of the Final Judgment. 

The overwhelming majority of divorces result in parties agreeing to shared parental decision-making subsequent to their divorce.  Shared parental decision-making is defined as parents discussing and agreeing upon major issues in their children's lives including, but not limited to education, non‑emergency healthcare (for example orthodontics/braces), and extracurricular activities which would occur on both parents' (both parents' timesharing/visitation).

When selecting your divorce lawyer, there are certain considerations you should make to help ensure you have the best representation for your situation. These include: