Often during a divorce case, you and your spouse will attend what is called a "temporary needs hearing".  This hearing usually is conducted before a divorce magistrate.  A divorce magistrate is a divorce lawyer who has been appointed by the family law Court to hear divorce cases, make findings and recommendations, and submit proposed orders to your regular divorce judge.  Magistrates hear cases to ease the caseload on the regular divorce judge or to obtain a sooner hearing.  These hearings can be used to establish temporary timesharing, child support, alimony, or attorney fees.  It is not used to temporarily divide your property unless there are "exceptional" circumstances.  Magistrates cannot hear domestic violence cases.  You have the right to object to the magistrate and have your regular divorce judge hear your case.  You also have the right to file "exceptions" to the magistrate's rulings if they are "clearly erroneous".  Only an experienced Jacksonville divorce lawyer knows when to object to the order of referral to the magistrate and when to file exceptions.  This is important so as not to lose momentum, waste time or money, or "use up" all of your "good" evidence before a final divorce hearing.  As a Florida Bar Board Certified lawyer in divorce and family law, I have represented hundreds if not thousands of people in these divorce hearings over the close to twenty years that I have practiced in the Jacksonville area.  Sometimes a temporary hearing can "make or break" a divorce case.  Your divorce lawyer should have the experience to know when to have a hearing and when not to have a hearing as well as what evidence to present and when.  A person in a divorce can sometimes end up in a worst position than they were before the hearing because the divorce lawyer did not properly assess whether the hearing was in the divorce client's best interests.

If you have had a temporary divorce needs hearing and you are not pleased with the result, all is not lost.  This usually is the first time that you will see your divorce lawyer in action, and if you are not impressed at this hearing, it is not likely that it will get better and this may be the time for you to seek another divorce lawyer.  You should remember that a magistrate often will keep the "status quo", or things just the way they are at the time of the temporary hearing, until the final divorce hearing.  That usually means that unless there is some signficant concern about someone's parenting, the children usually stay in the home where they are until a timesharing evaluation can be performed and presented at the final hearing.  It usually also means that whoever is paying certain bills or expenses will continue to pay those until the final divorce hearing.  Child support or alimony amounts usually are higher at temporary hearings than they are in the end of the divorce case.  Whether the temporary hearing result will be the same at the final hearing is completely dependent on the facts of your case and on many complicated factors that only an experienced (preferably Board Certified Divorce and Family Law Lawyer) Jacksonville divorce lawyer can tell you. 

You should call my office today for your free consultation so that I can give you an honest and experienced opinion about how your divorce case is going and whether or not I think the results should have been different after your temporary divorce hearing.  I also have great experience with military members and divorce.  I accept cases in Duval, Nassau, Clay, St. Johns, and Baker Counties.

There are seven family law divisions in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida and each one has its own judge with particular preferences as to how timesharing is approved in that division.  As a board certified Jacksonville divorce lawyer and having practiced in this county for the last sixteen years, I have come to learn each divorce judge's particular preferences.  You may be under the impression that you and the other parent are free to enter into any parenting plan or timesharing arrangement that you both feel is best for your children.  Parenting or timesharing plans, however, are always subject to the review and approval of the courts in a divorce matter.  Many judges take the position that one parent has custody (now "majority timesharing") and the other parent has visitation (now "timesharing") based upon a "guideline" schedule.  In Duval County, the local guideline timesharing can be seen here.  If the parents live more than 280 miles apart, the long distance guideline timesharing can be seen here.  The right Jacksonville divorce lawyer can advise you which judges adhere fairly strictly to the guidelines with few exceptions, which judges will approve variations of these guidelines (and what those variations are), and which judges are fine with most arrangements if the parties agree (just not equal timesharing arrangements).  Equal timesharing requires the right judge, the right facts, and the right lawyer to get the Court to accept the arrangement and even then, approval is rare and carries certain conditions.  All of your agreements regarding parental responsibility and timesharing are contained in a parenting plan.  You can view a generic parenting plan here.  You should consult with a board certified Jacksonville divorce lawyer as to what parenting plan would be best for your children.  Be aware, the parenting plan affects the amount of child support that a parent will receive or pay so any agreement should be entered into with a full awareness of how it will affect your ability to support your children while they are with you.  Military families should consider such factors as a change of orders and the resulting transportation expenses associated with such a move.  If there are issues such as domestic violence, a safety-focused parenting plan can be seen here.  Of course, these generic plans are just a basic format and my office does not believe in a "cookie-cutter" approach to your case.  Your children are the most important part of any divorce proceeding.  Call me today to help you craft a parenting plan that works for you and your children.

Most people (including some attorneys and judges) believe that child support is a number set by a formula that a person must pay no matter what the circumstances are in their case.  Jacksonville board certified divorce lawyers are tested by the Florida Bar on every Florida divorce law and rule of procedure that you can imagine.  They are not even allowed to take the exam unless they have passed a peer and judicial review for the highest levels of professionalism and ethics.  When you are represented by a board certified divorce lawyer like myself, you could have a great advantage over most other lawyers who do not fully understand the child support statutes.  I know this because I have taught many of the Jacksonville divorce lawyers how to calculate child support since 2002 and have been surprised on many occasions by lawyers missing opportunities to save their clients money.  Even minor adjustments to timesharing, tax exemptions, classification of taxable and non-taxable income, transportation, and other equitable considerations can result in savings in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year.  The right board certified attorney will know your judge and your circumstances in such a way as to properly present your case to the Court in order to attempt to achieve these savings.  So long as the Judge makes written findings about why they are adjusting your child support, all of these adjustments are proper and provided for in the law.  You can read the Florida Statute here.  Of course, these adjustments can work both ways and also perhaps result in more support being paid when the circumstances require.  Military pay is probably the most often misunderstood pay when used to factor child support.  I cannot give away all of my secrets about how to adjust child support here, but call today for your free consultation and let's talk about how I can help.

Servicemember's Group Life Insurance is often used as security for child support and alimony obligations by many Jacksonville divorce lawyers.  It is inexpensive and easily available to service members.  For example, if the service member dies, the person to whom child support or alimony was being paid would be the beneficiary of the insurance up to the amount stated in the court order.  This is standard in many court orders.  However, if the service member changes the beneficiary after the divorce and then dies, the person who was court-ordered to be the beneficiary may never receive any money.  This is because the Courts have ruled that federal military law takes precedence over state divorce law.  Federal law says the service member can name anyone they want to be the beneficiary.  Unlike a private insurance policy, the SGLI proceeds cannot be touched by the court-ordered beneficiary if the beneficiary was changed after the divorce and the service member dies.  If you are the beneficiary of child support or alimony, you should insist upon a private insurance policy to avoid this risk.  Service members risk being held in contempt by the state court if they do not comply with court orders by changing the beneficiary.