Family Law Attorney In Maitland, Florida

Central Florida Family Law Practice Areas

The Florida legislature passed a comprehensive set of rules and statutes that govern all legal issues encountered in family court. Florida’s Family Court Rules of Procedure dictate the process litigants, lawyers, judges, and other court users must follow from case initiation to resolution and even appeal.

Florida’s legislature also passed a complete set of statutes, known as XLIII-Domestic Relations. These statutes grant rights and impose responsibilities regarding marriage, childcare, child custody, and alimony, to name a few.

Family law attorneys also look to appellate decisions for guidance on statutory interpretation and constitutional implications of rulings made by lower courts. Consequently, knowledgeable, experienced, and successful Central Florida family law attorneys have the decisions rendered by Florida’s appellate courts at their fingertips.

Throughout Veliz Katz Law’s 60-plus years of experience serving clients in Florida’s family courts, we have established our law firm as one of the premier family law firms in Central Florida. We offer comprehensive legal services for all of your needs.

• Divorce – Dissolving a marital relationship is always hard. Although divorce might be in the best interests of both parties, the divorce is still heartbreaking. Our Orlando area law firm has represented thousands of clients in their divorce proceedings as well as the subsequent legal issues that can emerge. Divorce in Florida can be based on an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage or another reason such as mental incapacity of one spouse.
• Collaborative Divorce – A collaborative divorce is a method of resolving all the issues attendant to divorce by reaching an agreement. Collaborative divorces can save time, money, aggravation, and frustration for the divorcing spouses and their families, especially if children are involved.
• High-Asset Divorce – High-asset or high net worth divorces come with particularized challenges. High-asset or high net worth divorces are complicated legal matters that might involve analysis of the real property, personal property, securities, or intellectual property to determine the fair market value of the property in the present and the future.
• Contentious Divorce – Contentious divorces come with a set of unique challenges. A contentious divorce is typically founded on suspicion or proof of wrongdoing and a complete loss of trust. Resolving differences amicably might not be an option. The Central Florida divorce attorneys from Veliz Katz Law are ready to take the challenge of a contentious divorce head-on with aggressive, intelligent, savvy, and insightful representation.
• Military Divorce – Members of the U.S. Armed Forces who want to dissolve their marriage need representation so that their best interests are protected. One of the most contentious issues in Military Divorces is child custody and support. An active-duty Service Member could be deployed to a foreign land or another part of our country making child-rearing difficult on the single parent at home who must handle all of the parenting, and for the Service Member cannot be with his or her family.
• Timesharing Parenting Plans – Equitable timesharing plans are essential to children of divorcing parents and the adults alike. An equitable timeshare plan helps children maintain a relationship with and a connection to the parent with whom they no longer reside. Children who have a relationship with both parents grow up more well-adjusted and tend to have less emotional distress than their peers who have no or only fleeting contact with the non-custodial parent.
• Child Support and Child Custody – Child support and custody are vitally important issues in a divorce in Central Florida. Everyone assumes that the children will remain with the mother, and the father will only get to see their child every other weekend. The court, however, will do what it deems is best for the children. Parents must pay child support to the custodial parent in Florida. It is the right thing to do. However, many people become bitter about child support payments when they think they are paying too much, or their former spouse is using child support payments for something other than their child’s well-being.
• Alimony – Alimony is another contentious issue in Florida divorces. A judge has the authority to order alimony for a short amount of time to help one spouse, order alimony for a fixed amount of time, or order permanent alimony. A judge may base an alimony award on several factors, including the income of the two parties, the ability to earn, health, and other factors. Alimony payments can be modified or stopped entirely depending on the actions of the person receiving the support.
• Separation of Assets and Equitable Distribution – Equitable means “fair.” Equitable is not necessarily 50-50, although it might be. Every case is unique in that regard. You have the right to argue for your fair share and not just settle for half of all of the hard-earned assets you accumulated throughout your marriage.
• Mediation – Mediation is a great tool to resolve the differences among the parties and reach an agreement. A skilled mediator will try to reach common ground with both sides, so both parties may feel like they walk away winners. Mediation helps people maintain control because mediation is not final unless an agreement is formally reached, and the parties have a chance to speak without running afoul of court rules and protocol. In other words, mediation helps people have a voice and be an active participant rather than sitting silently and listening to lawyers make arguments to a judge who will decide the issue.
• Paternity Suits – A man in Florida can establish his rights to be a parent to a child born out of wedlock. Bringing a paternity suit will give you a legal basis to establish yourself as the rightful father of your children. Conversely, an unwed mother has the right to establish paternity so she can receive child support and other benefits from the father.
• Modification of Family Court Orders – Court orders may need to be changed from time to time after the underlying judgment of the court is final. However, circumstances change, which might render the original court order impracticable to follow. However, a party must show a substantial change in the circumstances since the final judgment was entered in order to file a Petition for Modification.
• Court Order Enforcement – Failing or refusing to follow an order of the court is contempt of court. You need to apply to the court for a contempt citation to compel your ex-spouse to perform the task he or she was ordered to do but did not perform. Contempt actions to enforce court orders can arise from numerous situations but most often arise out of a failure to pay child support, failure to observe child custody and timesharing orders.
• Relocation Orders – Moving out of Florida might be the best option for some families. However, when children are involved, the party moving out of state with the children must obtain judicial approval before moving out of Florida entirely.
• Pre and Post-Nuptial Agreements – Pre and post-nuptial agreements can spare divorcing couples stress if the documents are well-drafted and comply with Florida law. Entering into a nuptial agreement either before marriage or after getting married is not a harbinger of things to come. Instead, many people see it as a practical solution to a potentially thorny problem if the marriage dissolves.
• Family Law Appeals – Appealing erroneous rulings made by a Central Florida family court judge is occasionally necessary. If the judge made an error deciding your case, you can ask a higher court to rule that the judge in the lower court made a reversible error and undo the erroneous rulings made by the judge.