Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
Hello, after being discharged from the military, I came home to nothing. My wife informed me about a month before I was arriving home that she was leaving me for another man. I already have all of the divorce and child support stuff in the works, but I have a question that I'd like to know...after being home for a few days, I purchased a used car. My wife does not have a license, or a permit at all at that. She has never driven in her life, and I highly doubt she'll be able to. Where she lives now, she has access to transportation, as her boyfriend owns about three cars, and doesn't work, so he can drive her around.
She has seen my car, but has never even ridden in it...in fact, never even sat in it. My concern here is, will she get my car? Will she be able to fight for my car, at least? She probably will get custody over the child, because Florida loves mothers, but will that merit the court giving the car to her? If so, I already have somebody that I can transfer the title over to that I trust will give it back to me after all of this litigation is taken care of. At the moment, nothing is entered into the courts, we aren't even legally separated, just living apart, so I know that if I have to transfer my title, I only have a short window of time to do it.
Please, let me know the legal implications on this. I'm going to be going to school out of county soon, and without the car, I won't be able to continue my education, nor find any job further than 5 miles from where I live.
1 Answer from Attorneys
The statute says that everything usually gets split that's purchased before the divorce is filed, but judges are pretty reasonable about letting people keep the stuff they've purchased after they are separated and not living together. You'll probably get to keep the car. Don't try that "transfer to a friend" nonsense without specific advise from a lawyer. You probably won't get away with it, and you'll just look like a crook.
Also, get over the "Florida loves mothers" idea. It's less and less true every day. In fact, right now, I'd say Florida is loving 50/50 custody a lot and things seem to be swinging much more toward fathers.
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