DIY Divorce in Florida

Florida Divorce: Do You Have What it Takes to Represent Yourself?

Avoiding the 3 Most Common Mistakes Divorcing Parents Make

Divorce can be very expensive. A trial can cost $20,000 or more. You want to save money and do it yourself. That's understandable. But not everyone CAN represent themselves in a divorce. To find out if you have what it takes, read our new Special Report - Do You Have What it Takes to Represent Yourself: Avoiding the 3 Most Common Mistakes Divorcing Parents Make. You can get it over in the column to the right of this post.

There's alot to know to have a successful do it yourself divorce. It's NOT just filling out some forms. Your divorce will change the rights and responsibilities you assumed when you got married. The process can be confusing if you haven't studied law. Self representation is not right for everyone.

To find out if you've got what it takes by reading our Special Report. sign up in the box on the right to get it now.

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Florida Divorce: Your Responsibilities When Representing Yourself

Florida Divorce: How Much Detail Do You Need?

Preparing Florida divorce documents for court filing is tricky business.Today, we discuss the rules for determining how much is too much information in your court document.   

In Petitions, you should add detail if you are requesting the court take action on any of the following issues:

•   Non-marital assets or debts that you believe were commingled or converted into marital assets
• Sole parental responsibility
• Contested primary residential parent
• Exclusive Use & Possession of marital home
• Waste, depletion
• Name change
• Partition

In Answers, you are only responding to the statements in the petition. No details are necessary. This is also true for Responses to Motions. The Answer or Response contains only statements such as,

Florida Divorce: Uncontested Cases

You can file an "uncontested" Florida divorce if you and your spouse agree on these 3 areas:        

• Your marriage is broken and you want a divorce
• How your property and debts will be divided
• Whether alimony will be paid, and if yes, how long and how much

and if you have children, you agree on: 

• How to split the children's time between parents (time sharing)
• What the child support will be
• How the parents will make decisions about the children
• How much child support will be paid (after consulting the child support guidelines)

You can write all the terms of your agreement into a Parenting Plan and Marital Settlement Agreement, you both sign and file them with a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage and other required initial documents. Your spouse then files a Waiver of Service and Answer. After that, your case can be set for final hearing.

In the Petition, you must claim that the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” that one of you has lived in Florida for at least six months before filing the Petition; and, that you both signed a Marital Settlement Agreement.

• If you have children, you will use Form 901(b)(1).
• If you have property but no kids, use Form 901(b)(2).
• If you  can't use the Simplified procedure and  have no property or kids, use Form 901(b)(3). 

DIY Divorce in Florida offers the most comprehensive Parenting Plan available. It not only meets the requirements of the new laws, it covers everything you need to consider as your kids grow. They don't stay little forever. Your Florida Parneting Plan needs to gorw with them. Check out the Florida Parenting Plan Map here.

Related Posts:

8 Documents You Need to File a Florida Divorce
Serving a Florida Divorce Petition
Served With a Florida Divorce Petition?
Your Responsibilities When Representing Yourself in Florida Divorce

Florida Divorce: Do You Have What it Takes To Represent Yourself?

Using The Florida Divorce Forms

The Florida Divorce forms offered on the Florida Supreme Court website can be used by do-it-yourselfers, but the forms are only a starting point. The forms meet the minimum legal requirements, but only that.

You will have to add information to some of the basic forms so they clearly give the facts of your case. If your case is contested, this becomes even more important. If you don’t ask for it, the court can’t give it to you.

So if you want to 

• stay in the house to raise the kids, you have to ask for exclusive use and possession of the marital home;
• restore your maiden name, you have to ask for it and state your former name in the petition;
• sell the marital home, you have to ask for partition of the property and provide specific information about the legal description, the owners, the mortgage, etc. 

you'll need to add special language into the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.

The sample forms cover only the most basic legal requirements to dissolve your marriage. If you make mistakes or leave out facts in the petition, the final judgment may be affected and you could wind up spending thousands of dollars for attorney’s fees to fix your pro se divorce.

To avoid that, you want to be sure that you get the education you need to do it yourself AND do it right. There's more than filling in simple forms when you represent yourself in a Florida divorce. To find out more, sign up in right column to get our Special Report: Do You Have What It Takes to Represent Yourself in a Florida Divorce: Avoiding the 3 Most Common Mistakes Divorcing Parents Make.

Related Posts:

8 Documents You Need to File a Florida Divorce
Serving a Florida Divorce Petition
Served With a Florida Divorce Petition?
Your Responsibilities When Representing Yourself in Florida Divorce