Orlando
Attorney
& Lawyer, providing experienced Family Law,
Estate Law, Contract Dispute, Debt Collection
Harassment, and IRS Dispute legal services in
Orlando and throughout the Central Florida
Area.
The following definitions may
assist you in better understanding of the legal services
that the firm provides.
Petition For Dissolution
Document
used by a husband or wife to ask the court to grant a
divorce. It tells the basic reasons why a divorce
should be granted and usually asks the court to divide
the marital assets and liabilities in a fair way. If
any minor children are involved, it usually states how
the party wants the court to decide on a custody plan.
The petition is filed by one party with the Clerk of
Court, and then served (generally hand delivered by a
person approved by the court) upon the other party.
Each of these steps has a fee connected with it from the
service provider. The Clerk of Court charges a fee to
the party who files the petition in order to start the
dissolution process, and a process server has a separate
fee for serving the papers on a party.
Discovery
Discovery
is a process by which parties to a lawsuit (including a
dissolution proceeding) may require others to supply
information that will help to provide evidence for the
court to consider. There are many forms of discovery
available to litigants. A few of the most common
include: Interrogatories, Depositions, Requests For
Production, Mandatory Disclosure, Requests For
Admission, Psychiatric Evaluations, and Vocational
Evaluations. When any of these methods of discovery
are initiated by one party or the other, the responding
party has only a certain number of days to respond
before the court can require a response. If a party
objects to the discovery, a hearing may be held before
the judge in the case to determine whether the objecting
party must provide the information.
Additionally the court may appoint a Guardian Ad Litem
who can often provide information for the Court on a
more informal basis after interviewing the various
individuals who may know information about the adults or
minor children. Most often these interviews are with
the children's teachers and with close family members or
friends. In cases of alleged abuse this may also
include interviews with doctors and/or social workers.
Interrogatories
Interrogatories are essentially a list of written
questions asked by one party of another party. The
answering party must answer and swear to the truth of
the answers in writing before a notary public. A party
ordinarily has a specific number of days to respond to
Interrogatories.
Depositions
A party
may compel anyone with helpful information to appear
before a court reporter and answer verbal questions that
may lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, and
may have the question & answer session recorded via
audiotape and/or videotape.
Requests For Production
A party
may compel another party to provide documents and other
items of tangible evidence for inspection. This may
also be done to non-parties as is often the case when a
party asks another party's employer for payroll
information, or asks a party's bank for account records.
Requests For Admission
A party
may send questions to another party asking them to admit
or deny the truth of certain statements. For example:
"Admit that during your Chicago business trip you bought
more than $10,000 of gold coins." The answers to these
Requests For Admission must be made in writing and sworn
to under oath in the presence of a notary public.
Mandatory Disclosure
When a
petition for dissolution is filed with the Clerk of
Court, procedural law requires both parties to provide
one another with a fairly extensive list of documents.
The governing rule is Florida Family Law Rule of
Procedure 12.285,and a paraphrased version can be found
by following our website's link to the Mandatory
Disclosure page.
Psychiatric Evaluations
The Court
may order a psychiatric evaluation of a party if the
mental condition of the party is an in issue in order to
assist the court in making any decisions (especially
with respect to time sharing determinations) regarding
minor children.
Vocational Evaluations
When the
ability of a party to support one self or their spouse
or children is in issue, the Court will sometimes order
a vocational evaluation be performed by an expert in
such matters. Our practice has had particularly good
experience in this area in
Guardian Ad Litem
When one
or both of the parties are concerned that the judge may
not be able to understand all of the complexities of the
situation affecting any children, they may ask the court
to appoint a guardian ad litem. The guardian ad litem
is usually asked to interview all of the people who have
a significant relationship with the children and form an
opinion as to what would be in the best interest of
the children. They will then write a report for the
judge making their recommendations. Judges usually
think of a guardian ad litem as a sort of investigator
who can spend more time with all of the relevant people
than a judge ever could. A GAL will typically interview
both parents, any significant others, the children's
teachers, and others, and ultimately render a report to
the court on what arrangement for the children appears
to be in their best interest.
Mediation
A meeting
between the two parties to a marriage before a neutral
person whose role is to facilitate a settlement of all
or part of the issues without having to have a judge
determine those particular issues. By settling some of
all of the issues in mediation, the parties are able to
reduce the risk of an adverse ruling by a judge before
whom those issues would otherwise have been heard.
Domestic Violence Injunction
Commonly
called a "restraining order," this type of court order
typically makes it illegal for the person being enjoined
to have any contact with the person who asked the court
for the order (petitioner) and it may set other
conditions for the parties to obey.
Restraining Order
See
Domestic Violence Injunction - above.
Final Hearing on Dissolution of Marriage
A trial
where each party presents evidence and positions to the
judge and the judge makes factual findings and decides
the outcome of the disputed issues.
Standard of Living Established During the Marriage
The
standard of living established during the marriage is a
key component of any alimony consideration. For
example, if the married couple had lived a lifestyle
that was filled with upper class luxuries and the income
of the parties had not changed, then an alimony award
(if granted) would generally be an amount sufficient to
maintain a similar lifestyle.
If any of
these definitions and explanations have raised questions
about your specific situation, please contact our firm
for further information.
250 North Orange Avenue, Suite
1112, Orlando,
Florida 32801 | Telephone 407-843-5885 | Fax
407-841-7774 |
Directions
Disclaimer: The hiring of an attorney is an important
decision that should not be based solely upon
advertisements alone. Before choosing and attorney to
represent you, ask for written information about their
qualifications and experience. This website is intended
to provide general legal information regarding our areas
of legal practice, and should not be considered legal
advice, nor the creation of an attorney - client
relationship. An attorney - client relationship can only
be formed in writing between you and your attorney.
