As you can imagine, getting divorced in Florida or any other state is quite stressful. This Florida Family and Divorce Law post should help you maneuver the complexities of providing your attorney the necessary documents in order to assist them assist you in the process of a divorce. The starting point in any divorce or family law matter in Florida starts with the financial affidavit. In Florida, there are two types of financial affidavits. There is the “long form” financial affidavit for people who earn over $50,000 per year and the “short form” financial affidavit for people who earn less than $50,000. Depending upon your earnings will decide which financial affidavit is required by the court. Also, under Florida Rules of Family Procedure 12.2.285, parties to a family law or divorce matter must automatically produce certain documents such as 3 years of tax returns, credit card records, pay stubs, insurance cards, corporate tax returns if a party owns over 30% of a company, pension plan, 401k, and IRA statements. For a more detailed showing of the complete documents to be provided under Florida’s mandatory disclosure rule you can cut and paste the attached link. https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/345287/3052131/01-2344_rule.pdf
As you can see, there are very specific documents and deadlines concerning documents which must be produced. If you are a client of our law firm, the sooner you get us the required documents, the sooner we can try to schedule either a settlement conference or mediation of your divorce or family law matter. As a side note, mandatory disclosure rules apply to paternity cases as well as divorces.
Although Rule 12.285 requires certain documents, the Weston and Coral Springs based divorce and family law attorneys at Schantz and Schantz can require the other side to produce much more extensive records. The more extensive records could include many years of bank statements, years of credit cards statements, safety deposit account records and many more extensive records which will help you achieve the best possible result. At after 38 years of law practice, the attorneys at Schantz and Schantz we have the skill and knowledge to help determine the best way forward as it relates to discovery issues.
So how can you help your attorney? The first thing you should do is to provide your family law attorney with your mandatory disclosure documents as soon as possible. Also, if the other side requests additional documents from you, you should try to obtain the records as soon as possible. By providing the requested records, you will be helping your attorney prepare your case for either a trial, settlement meeting or mediation. None of these procedures will take place if the other side claims they are missing records. Therefore, getting your family law attorney records is so crucial to success.
If something significant changes in your life during the divorce process you should immediately contact your attorney in order to discuss this important change. Things that could change are such things as losing a job, getting a pay raise, your spouse’s refusal to pay temporary marital expenses, failure to allow access to children, inheritances, domestic violence issues and many other issues that are way too numerous to detail in the post. In all events, if the change is important to your life, you should let your attorney know of this change.
You can also help your attorney by staying in touch with them. Many people try to stick their head’s in the sand in order to avoid the stress of their divorce or paternity case. Unfortunately, not keeping in contact with your family law attorney makes it that much harder for the attorney to properly represent you. For this reason, your should call your lawyer back should they leave you a message. Nothing is more frustrating to an attorney is a client who does not call them back. Please understand, at Schantz and Schantz we only will call you if there is an important reason to do so.
This post should show you just some of the ways in which your cooperation with your attorney will save you time, money and stress during the litigation process. It is super important for you to realize that cooperation with your family law attorney and their support staff is the key to your success.
If you have a Florida Divorce or Family Law question please feel free to contact the attorneys at Schantz and Schantz. We will be happy to meet you at one of our offices in Weston and Coral Springs, Florida. Also, we are more than happy to schedule a meeting via Zoom. Feel free to call us at 954-385-1536 in order to schedule your appointment.
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