Family Law

• Divorce
• Child Support
  Florida uses child support guidelines to calculate child support obligations. In addition to the amount of overnights spent with each parent, the guidelines typically take into account the net incomes of both parents, the amount of day care needed for the parent to work or seek employment, the amount of health insurance premiums paid to cover the children, as well as the number of minor children. The court may require either parent to provide health insurance coverage if it is reasonably available through their employer or otherwise affordable.
• Child Custody and Visitation
  The Florida Legislature drastically revised Chapter 61, Florida Statutes, as it relates to child custody, visitation, parental responsibility, residential responsibility, etc. Now, parents are required to adopt a parenting plan to outline their time sharing arrangement, including holidays and summer breaks, parenting time, parental responsibilities, communication requirements, and much more. Further, the factors used to establish or modify parental responsibility and create a parenting plan, including a time-sharing schedule, were greatly expanded. Attorney Cari Stevens understands the needs and wants of minor children will continue to change as they get older and more involved with school and extracurricular activities. She will help devise a parenting plan that accounts for these changes and inevitable difficulties that arise.
• Paternity
  The legal acknowledgment of a parental relationship between a father and his child is called paternity. A child born to a wife during a marriage is legally presumed to be the husband's child, but this presumption can be rebutted with evidence to the contrary. A determination of paternity for fathers can be established through voluntary acknowledgment of paternity, a court petition, or scientific evidence, such a DNA testing. When you establish paternity, you identify the legal father of the child. Paternity gives rights and benefits to the mother, the father and the child.
• Spousal Support
  Florida is one of many states that has abolished fault as grounds for divorce. This law lessens the potential harm to the husband or wife and their children caused by the process of divorce. All that is required is that the marriage be "irretrievably broken". Either spouse can file for the dissolution of marriage. Another little known ground for divorce is incompetency of one's spouse. Fault, however, may be considered under certain circumstances in the award of alimony along with the determination of child related issues.