Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

What is the divorce process.

The process can be broken into stages:

Preparation and Pleadings Stage. If you are filing for divorce or responding to a petition that was served on you, your attorney will need to sit down with you and gather all the facts. Once these facts are gathered your attorney can properly plead your case. Each case is unique. Some cases deal with issues surrounding distribution of assets, while others center around children issues. It is important for your attorney to understand your needs and desires to ensure that he/she asks the court for what you want.

Discovery Stage. In this stage we will gather all the relevant data from the opposing party. This could be done in many fashions; by asking the opposing party directly for the information or asking a third party for the required information. However we must also provide all of the relevant data to the opposing party. During this phase we may depose witnesses and the opposing attorney may depose you. You must produce at a minimum, a Financial Affidavit. (See: What is a Financial Affidavit? below.)

Settlement/Mediation Stage. Once we have gathered and reviewed the discovery we can now sit down at the table and negotiate a settlement. If the issues are simple and can be resolved easily, a settlement meeting may be arranged. A settlement meeting requires no outside intervention to resolve the parties� problems. If it appears as though outside intervention is required then the parties will go to mediation to resolve their disputed issues. (See: What is mediation?)

Litigation. If settlement/mediation fails, and the parties have outstanding differences, then the parties must go to trial.