If you are a divorced parent in Florida, you know the challenges of co-parenting. Even though you have a child custody arrangement that allows for you and your spouse to spend time separately with the kids, there are still a few times a year where you will have to be in the same room as each other. If your relationship is amicable, this may not be a problem. But if you can't stand each other, you'll have to find a way to keep it together while you are physically together.
Florida legislators consider family law reform
Lawmakers in the Florida state legislature are working together to craft a bill that would implement some major changes to state family law. The main focus is to reform spousal support payments, which are currently paid for life or until a former spouse re-marries. The proposal would alter that standard and provide other criteria that impact the amount and duration of spousal support payments. For example, there could be an option to reduce spousal support payments when the paying spouse retires.
Former partner awarded visitation, no support due
A state Court of Appeals recently ordered a woman to return the child support payments she had received from her former partner pursuant to a previous court order. The payments will be returned because the woman's partner is not a biological or legal parent to the child. The situation arose when the two women were in a relationship years ago and decided to have a child. One of them, who currently has full custody, is the biological mother. The other woman never adopted the child and they were not married at the time of the birth, so she has no legal ties.
Biological dad presses on in custody battle with adoptive parents
In a recent post we discussed the complicated case of Baby Veronica, a child who is now a toddler who is the subject of a custody dispute that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. As we noted in that post, even though the Supreme Court has already decided that the Indian Child Welfare Act does not apply, the custody dispute between the adoptive parents and the girl's biological father is not over.
