Divorcing couples are generally encouraged to explore settlements out of court where issues such as child support, alimony, asset division, and timesharing or parenting can be resolved amicably with the help of attorneys. But in high conflict situations when parties are unable to agree on issues arising from a divorce, the unresolved issues must undergo litigation where a court shall make a decision based on evidence.

Evidence may include financial documents, photos and videos, eyewitness testimony, and similar documents, admissible evidence must be relevant to your divorce. For example, your spouse’s bank statements from high school would be admissible but irrelevant; a court would not consider them. Hearsay is inadmissible in court.

Social media postings are admissible. Parties in a divorce should be extremely careful what they post on social media during this process.

Discovery

If your divorce proceedings require evidence, you’ll need to go through discovery. Discovery is a legal fact-finding process in litigation. During discovery, your lawyer will turn over the evidence they’ve collected to your spouse’s lawyer, and vice versa.

During discovery, your lawyer will not disclose any confidential information or conversations they’ve had with you. The discovery process is intended to put both parties on a level playing field with all evidence on the table. Discovery helps your lawyer prepare for the evidence your spouse may try to use against you.

If you are considering getting a divorce, come in and see Ty Zdravko. Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

So you have been married a short time, and you realize that this was a mistake.  What do you do about it. Should you get an annulment or a divorce? What’s the difference? An annulment voids the marriage, and it will be as if the marriage never occurred. On the other hand, a divorce ends/ dissolves the marriage. Therefore, there may need to be property division in a divorce.

Obviously, you probably prefer an annulment. However, not so fast! In Florida it may not be as easy as you think. You have to have one of the following 3 factors:

1. There must have been some kind of fraud involved.
2. One or both spouses lacked mental competency to enter the marriage because of mental incompetency
3. The marriage was not consummated.

If you have spent a night together after the wedding, it is going to be difficult to convince the court that the marriage was not consummated. The court is probably going to suume that it was. Annulments are difficult, but not impossible, to get in Florida. In most cases, you should probably start to think about a divorce.

While annulment way not be possible, an uncontested divorce is your next best option. If you had only been together a short time, it’s not likely that there were big changes in your life. If no one is pregnant and no one won the lottery, you would think that you should be able to agree on an uncontested divorce. Each person takes out of the marriage what they brought into the marriage. Let’s pretend that it never happened.

No is the time to turn on the charm and your persuasive powers. If you can negotiate the terms of the divorce before the lawyers are involved, you are going to save a boat load of money and problems. It is time to forgive and forget.

If you would like to discuss your situation, call Ty Zdravko. Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

You may suspect that your spouse is hiding money. What is the consequence if they are?

If your spouse lies about any assets, they may be charged with perjury. It can lead to a misdemeanor charge, fines, and imprisonment. Your spouse may also be charged if they attempt to intentionally mislead the court while trying to hide assets.

However, it is not as easy as you think to catch them or prove it. First of all, see if you can find out about any credit card debt that you spouse has incurred. If there has been a lot of new debt incurred about the time that it was decided to get divorced, you need to give this information to your attorney.

Keep track of all assets, liabilities, and money flow from the beginning of your marriage. You should look for signs of a change in your finances. Look for sudden decreases in income, missing bank statements, or a sudden change in behavior. Watch the incoming mail. Is there a bank statement for an account that you didn’t know about?

What happens when a spouse hides money during a divorce?

Because each party is required to divulge all assets, hiding assets during a divorce amounts to contempt of court. A judge may issue sanctions and require the spouse who is found to have hidden assets to pay the other’s legal fees. The judge can even grant higher alimony payments.

There are a lot of ways to hide cash from a spouse, and these are probably not illegal.
Don’t Disclose New Income to Spouse.
Get Cash Back Each Time You Check Out.
Safety Deposit Box.
Paying off a Loan From Family.
Buy New Possessions.
File Taxes Separately and Overpay.
Gather Prepaid giftcards.
Not Disclose Cash Income

If you suspect that your spouse has been stashing cash and you want to pursue it, you can hire a forensic accountant. Your attorney had help you with that. However, this often proves to be more expensive than it’s worth. You should talk this over with Ty Zdravko.

Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

If you file for a divorce, the first thing that happens if there they are children involved, is that the court issues temporary orders. You probably didn’t see that coming. Because a divorce may drag out for months and years, the court wants to make sure that any minor children are taken care of.

The court may find that the wage producing spouse continue to provide the same level of support that they were providing during the marriage. That means that you may have to pay the mortgage payment, the electricity, the cable bill and the groceries for the household. If you have left the family residence, you may find that you may have to live sparsely during that period.

Very basic temporary restraining orders can be ordered whenever a party files for divorce or some other type of family law proceeding. Typically these automatic temporary orders prevent parties from tampering with assets, altering insurance coverage, and changing the children’s residence.

If a set of temporary orders worked for all family members, then the court might choose to turn the temporary order into a permanent or final order to finalize the divorce. If the temporary orders are not acceptable for both parties, there will have to be a temporary orders hearing, where the court hears testimony and rules whether to modify the temporary orders or not.

If you are contemplating a divorce, you should have a meeting with Ty Zravdko so he can let you know what to expect.

Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area. For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

The children typically don’t get to choose which parent they want to live with. There are several reasons for this. First of all the courts don’t like to involve minor children in divorce proceedings.

Also, minor children are typically not mature enough to make decisions that can have such a major effect on their future. This could also put a strain on am otherwise good relationship with a parent.

Also, the children may make the decision for the wrong reason. Do we really want to place the children the parent who doesn’t properly discipline the children?

Certainly the court wants to place the children in the place that is in their best interests. However, this may not be the place that they would choose.

Whether or not a child’s preference matters depends on whether the child:

• Is intelligent enough to make decisions of this nature;
• Has the emotional capacity to decide who to live with;
• Understands the consequences of choosing one parent over the other in a custody case;
• Has enough experience with each parent;

If you are concerned with child custody issues, come in and talk to Ty Zdravko. Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

After receiving the divorce petition, spouses have the option to agree or disagree with what their spouse has stated about the divorce, but also what they have requested from their spouse.

If you do not agree to get divorced, you have a few defenses available. A ground for opposition could be that the couple was not legally separated for a year before the divorce was filed. This could bar the judge from granting the divorce.

You cannot prevent a divorce proceeding. If you refuse to cooperate, it will be necessary for you take some additional steps, such as using a court bailiff or a process server.

Tips for spouses who don’t want the divorce

1. Put on a brave face showing you can confidently move forward.
2. Don’t become emotional.
3. Respect the situation, the person, and yourself.
4. Don’t participate in arguing. .

Why wouldn’t you want to proceed with the divorce? Why would you want to be married to someone who doesn’t want to be married to you. Accept the things that you cannot change.

Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

In order to finalize a divorce, you and your spouse must come to an agreement on all the terms associated with a divorce agreement. While dating itself will not harm you legally, it may help to degrade the relationship between you and your spouse, making things more hostile. The hostility may bring complications that make your divorce more expensive.

For example, while dating will probably not affect your performance as a parent, your spouse may bring up the issue, which can take more time and bog down the process.

As long as you are living apart, and abide by any legal agreements, dating while separated is legal. However, dating while separated may have emotional implications that may impact the quality of life for your entire family for years to come.

If you are married, dating is a big mistake, unless you utterly separated from your spouse, both physically and emotionally. Conversely, if your spouse is dating someone, and you’ve truly moved on, it should not impact you in any way.

In most cases, separated couples don’t start dating because they don’t want to cause problems for their children. Talk to your children about how you want to move on with your life, but ask about their feelings as well…even if they’re adults. That’s a great way of making children feel how much you love them and value their opinions. Please make sure they are ready for you to start dating again.

Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

Is a wife responsible for a husband’s credit card debt?

You are generally not responsible for your spouse’s credit card debt unless you are a co-signor for the card or it is a joint account. However, state laws vary and divorce or the death of your spouse could also impact your liability for this debt.

Most U.S. states fall into the category of common law property states. In these 41 states, any assets acquired by one spouse belong solely to them. On the other hand, in the nine states that go with so-called community law (which include Louisiana, Arizona, California, Texas, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin) assets acquired in the course of a marriage belong to both spouses.

Should you pay off credit card debt before divorce?

Pay off or transfer debts ahead of the divorce if possible. This way if your spouse doesn’t make their debt payments, they’ll be the only one to suffer.

Are authorized users responsible for debt in divorce?

In most cases, both parties will be partially responsible for the debt, regardless of who was making the payment. If there is only one authorized user on the account, that party likely will be given full responsibility for payment.

Is my wife entitled to half my savings?

If you are married in community of property, all retirement funds will form part of the joint estate and, in the event of divorce, each spouse will be entitled to a 50% share of the joint estate.

If you are thinking of getting a divorce, come in and talk to Ty Zdravko. Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

So maybe you have been married for a short time, and things aren’t working out. Perhaps you thought that maybe you could get an annulment. An annulment is certainly less complicated. According to Florida law, with an annulment, it’s like the marriage never existed and there is no property settlement to discuss.

However, it’s not as easy as you think to get an annulment. You had a 3 day waiting period, and you made a valid contract in front of witnesses. In Florida, to get an annulment, you have to have grounds for an annulment.

It is possible, though difficult and unusual, to get an annulment in Florida.

The grounds for annulment of marriage must have been existing at the time of marriage, and include bigamy, lack of parental consent, insanity, fraud, duress, impotence, and serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease. As you can see, these grounds are complicated, and are not normally present when you just merely change your mind.

Your best shot is probably fraud. If you trump up some sort of assertion of fraud, the spouse may not dispute your allegations, and your judge might be sympathetic.

In Florida, marriages voidable because of fraud can be “ratified” (made valid) by the mere act of sexual consummation after the injured party becomes aware of the fraud, duress, or temporary lack of capacity which led to the marriage. You have to prove that as soon as you found out the fraudulent circumstances, you let the marital home. You can’t hang around for a while, and then decide to go for an annulment.

You should discuss all this with an experienced family law attorney. Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.

During the divorce procedure, you will be required to provide information about your assets. You do not want to hide anything, because if you get caught, it will hurt your case and there could be penalties. In todays world, it’s pretty hard to hard things, and the other party may hire a “forensic investigator” who can hunt things down. However, your don’t have to broadcast the details.

Have a separate bank account

If you don’t already have a separate bank account, get one now. Have your income deposited with direct deposit, and have the statements send to your office or delivered electronically.

Have separate credit cards.

This will keep your spending away from prying eyes, and could help you establish your own credit ranking, which will be important after the divorce is final. Again, have the statements send to your office or delivered electronically.

Talk to your attorney

If you don’t ready have an attorney, hire one. Discuss your finances with your attorney. He will keep you out of trouble and will keep you from disclosing more than you need to.

Ty Zdravko practices law as a divorce attorney, and family law attorney in Palm Harbor, Clearwater and the surrounding area.

For more information, visit our website at www.divorceboardcertified.com
or call (727) 787-5919.