All You Need to Know About Family Law For Divorced And Blended Families

Divorce reshapes everything. The house, the schedules, the holidays — even the way two people who once shared a last name now share a calendar. And when children are involved, or when one spouse remarries and a blended family forms, the legal complexity doesn’t fade after the final decree. In many ways, it just shifts.

Florida family law covers a wide territory, from the initial divorce process through the long tail of custody modifications, support obligations, and estate planning decisions that follow.

Understanding how the pieces fit together, and when you actually need a family lawyer in your corner, can make a real difference in the outcome of your case.

Common Family Law Practice Areas in Florida

When you picture family law, your mind probably leaps straight to divorce and custody disputes. For better or worse, those are the cases that most often bring people to a family law attorney, and they are certainly major parts of what family law is all about. However, there is so much more to it. Family law is an all-encompassing area in Florida that can impact:

• Divorce (dissolution of marriage)
• Child custody and visitation (Timesharing)
• Child support
• Spousal support/alimony
• Division of property
• Injunctions for Protection against Domestic Violence (Protective orders)
• Paternity actions
• Adoptions and terminations of parental rights
• Modification of orders once finalized
• Mediation / collaborative processes

These issues don’t always stay in their own lane. A custody battle can suddenly bring up child support. A disagreement about who keeps the house can hold up an entire divorce for months. An alimony agreement that made sense in 2019 may need an overhaul if one party is laid off or receives a major promotion.

How the Divorce Process Works in Florida

One thing many people don’t realize is that Florida grants divorce under a no-fault standard. There is no need to prove a party was unfaithful, deceptive, or negligent in their behavior during the marriage. All that has to be shown is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” which is not a very high bar to clear for granting a divorce.

Getting the divorce itself is the easy part. The harder part is dividing property and, if children are involved, working out the parenting plan and child support. If everything can be agreed to by the parties, an uncontested divorce is possible (and faster), but if there is a lack of agreement, a contested case proceeds to a circuit court judge.

Most courts have a mediation stage that happens before trial. The parties meet with a neutral third party who helps the litigants work out a settlement without having to incur the time and expense of a trial in court. Many, many divorces are settled at this stage. Once you reach the trial phase, having an attorney advocating on your behalf is a necessity.

Property Division, Spousal Support, and Alimony

Florida follows the doctrine of equitable distribution. That doesn’t always mean an even, 50/50 split. Factors the court considers include the duration of the marriage, the financial circumstances of each party, the non-monetary contributions of each spouse (like raising children or managing the home), and any intentional dissipation of marital assets by one of the spouses.

Generally, a spouse’s separate assets (those owned prior to the marriage, or received as a gift or inheritance during the marriage) are not subject to division. However, over the course of a marriage, assets and money can easily be commingled. Separate assets can take the form of cash in a personal bank account, or even a real estate deed, and if a bank account or home title is not clear on the nature of the asset at issue, it gets complicated. That is one of the most frequent issues our attorneys handle.

Another common area of concern is spousal support. Florida significantly revised its alimony law in 2023. Permanent alimony, notably, no longer exists as a legal option in Florida. Instead, the law now provides for four specific types of spousal support: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, and temporary alimony. Determining which type to award and the appropriate amount is grounded in an objective analysis of the marital standard of living, each party’s respective earning capacity, the duration of the union, and the assets and financial resources of both spouses. The objective of alimony is not to penalize either party, but to ensure that a spouse will not find themselves destitute after exiting a long marriage.

Parental Responsibility and Time-Sharing in Florida

Florida no longer uses the terms “custody” or “visitation.” While those are common terms in the legal parlance of other states, in Florida, the terminology is “parental responsibility” and “time-sharing” (what many people still call visitation). The law also strongly presumes that shared parental responsibility is in the best interest of the children, which a parent may seek to rebut with evidence. A parenting plan will detail the time schedule, how major decisions such as education, healthcare, and religious upbringing are made, how the holidays are divided, who provides the children’s transportation, and how the parents agree to communicate about the children. Drafting a detailed parenting plan is a wise use of money that can save countless hours and many additional dollars down the road.

Perhaps more than any other aspect of a divorce, the children present the biggest area of emotional contention. Florida courts apply a multi-factor best-interest-of-the-child test, as set forth in section 61.13 of the Florida Statutes, to determine the children’s best interests. This includes consideration of such issues as which parent has demonstrated a willingness to foster a close relationship between the children and the other parent, and the nature of the children’s connections to their home, school, and community. The mental and physical health of the parents also plays a role in the decision-making. The impact of domestic violence is given considerable weight in custody and visitation decisions.

How Florida Courts Calculate Child Support

The guidelines for the computation of child support in Florida use the Income Shares Model, which means the calculation depends on the parties’ net incomes, the number of overnight stays per year that each parent has, the cost of health insurance, and child care expenses. Florida has a set guideline for child support; however, courts can deviate from those guidelines when strict application would result in an inequitable outcome. Child support does not adjust itself. If a parent loses their job or has their employment significantly cut back, sees a raise or a drop in salary, or if there are substantial changes in the amount of time the children spend with a parent, the support must be modified through an action in court. Modifications to child support must be filed as a separate court action, and the process takes time — which is why acting promptly when circumstances change matters.

Blended Families, Estate Planning, and Financial Security After Remarriage

Remarriage brings many considerations to the table that a person may overlook. A stepchild, a child from a prior marriage, and a current spouse may now all have competing interests when it comes to ownership, parental rights, and inheritance. One fact that may not seem intuitive to some people is that in Florida, there are no legal inheritance rights between stepchildren and a stepparent’s family if one remarries and does not legally adopt the children. Under Florida’s statutory rules of intestate inheritance (the laws that apply when people die without a will), stepchildren are not legally considered heirs. Stepparents who have never legally adopted a child have no legal obligation to financially support those children, and the children have no claim to assets from the stepparent’s estate upon their death. If you are in a carefully structured blended family, and you want your estate planning to reflect those relationships, you need to document them in writing.

This is where family law and estate planning intersect. Following the dissolution of a marriage and a subsequent remarriage, there are a few essential documents to update, such as beneficiary designations, your last will and testament, healthcare surrogate designation, and power of attorney. This can feel overwhelming, and you don’t want to make a mistake. An attorney versed in both family law and estate planning will ensure all of the bases are covered. Rodolfo Suarez Jr., Esq. started Suarez Law in Miami in 2005 with a focus on these types of matters. Suarez Law’s estate planning practice focuses on long-term protection and asset management for you and your family.

Domestic Violence Cases and Emergency Legal Protection

Domestic violence cases differ from a divorce in terms of speed. Florida courts have the authority to issue emergency injunctions for protection against domestic violence even before the opposing party is aware that an action has been filed. Emergency injunctions can establish where either party shall reside and what parenting or visitation rights exist.

Emergency injunctions are a serious court order. In some instances, they can result in the loss of your right to own a firearm. If you are experiencing domestic violence, you should not rely on the divorce process to get yourself or your children to a safe place. The Florida legal system offers a number of emergency remedies, and you should be aware of them.

When to Contact a Family Law Attorney Near Miami

Not every divorce or family law case ends up in court. Some divorces are straightforward. When parties agree on the key elements of a divorce, they can reach an uncontested divorce relatively quickly.

However, some cases that start out feeling like “no-brainers” end up being quite complicated. Cases involving significant assets, business valuations, retirement funds, child custody issues, and more are complex, and those complexities often don’t become known until the legal action has been initiated. Clients who most often express regret that they did not seek legal representation from the start generally fall into one of the following situations:

• Signing a divorce agreement without having an attorney review it first;
• Agreeing to a parenting plan that turns out to be unenforceable; or
• Accepting a marital settlement that seemed fair at the time but wasn’t.

A court order, once signed by a judge, is very difficult to set aside or change. And when it can be done, the expense associated with modifying that judgment is considerable.

Suarez Law has been helping families in the Miami area since 2005. Pilar Villaverde Vazquez, Esq., handles family law matters that often follow a change in marital status alongside Rodolfo Suarez Jr. This includes guardianship matters and estate planning after a divorce and remarriage. Suarez Law can also help with incapacity planning. If these topics are on your mind during a divorce or after a remarriage, now is the time to start planning for the future. Suarez Law offers a consultation if you are interested in speaking with a qualified attorney about your legal rights. Call Suarez Law at 786.791.7881 to discuss your options. The firm represents clients in both English and Spanish.