Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Parenting Plans for Unmarried Couples
For couples who have children together, co-parenting is the most difficult part of divorce. Everywhere you look, it is easy to find online content creators vociferously judging unhappily married people who wait until their youngest child turns 18 before they file for divorce, but if you are in that situation yourself, you easily understand… Read More »
Depletion and Depreciation of Marital Assets in Marriage and Divorce
Some couples, even after they take wedding vows promising to stay together for richer or for poorer, file for divorce when financial hardship pushes their relationship to the breaking point. Others have an unspoken agreement not to judge each other for spending beyond their means, and it works well for them until they decide… Read More »
Is a Postnuptial Agreement Your Ticket to a Painless Divorce?
Dating someone on an off again on again basis is common enough that Facebook created the “it’s complicated” relationship status option early in its history. Whether you are married is a simple yes or no question, though, at least as far as the courts are concerned. Case in point, if one spouse dies when… Read More »
Mediation in Post-Divorce Litigation
Many clients have a plan in mind when they visit a divorce lawyer for the first time. They know which marital assets they care the most about keeping and which marital debts they care most about avoiding, and unless they are delusional, they know whether theirs is a case where alimony is appropriate. If… Read More »
You Can Never Proofread a Prenuptial Agreement Too Carefully
For most students, sentence diagramming represents the utmost drudgery; it is the least fun part of school, even worse than long division. Future lawyers, by contrast, get a kick out of seeing prepositional phrases dangling from the main clause with acrobatic agility and subordinate clauses clinging tenuously to each other like atoms in a… Read More »
How Does the Length of Your Marriage Affect Your Divorce?
Approximately half of marriages end in divorce, but the longer you stay married, the more your chances of staying together until the end increase. Likewise, the length of your marriage affects how the court will likely divide your property. Florida’s equitable distribution laws do not assume that an equal division of marital property, and… Read More »
Parenting Coordination Agreements
Co-parenting with your ex-spouse is a marathon, not a sprint. A well-written parenting plan is sufficiently detailed that you can simply refer to it whenever there are interruptions to your routine. What happens if the parenting plan says that the children are with Mom on Labor Day weekend in even-numbered years, but this year,… Read More »
What Happens to Your Covenant Marriage If You Divorce in Florida?
Over the past few decades, divorce laws have changed to reflect society’s more relaxed attitudes toward marriage and divorce. In the early 20th century, divorces were rare. You could not get divorced unless you could prove that your spouse had done something major to sabotage your marriage; domestic violence was not considered bad enough… Read More »
The Tax Consequences of Alimony in Florida
Everywhere you look in Florida, there are reptiles that can kill you, such as the American alligator and, in certain parts of Miami-Dade County, also the American crocodile, plus others that are harmless but look plenty scary, such as the green iguana. Surprisingly, these do not make Floridians’ list of favorite subjects to complain… Read More »
What Happens If Your Spouse Wants a Divorce but You Don’t?
Most of the time divorce petitions do not come as a complete surprise; no one comes home from celebrating their anniversary with their spouse to find a divorce petition taped to the door of the marital home. Despite this, even though you knew that your spouse was unhappy about certain things in your marriage,… Read More »
