There is distinct, special silence that settles over a home on the morning you decide that your marriage is over.
The coffee maker still gurgles; the neighbor’s dog still barks next door. However, the kitchen table you’ve sat at each morning for years suddenly feels foreign and the light is too bright.
If you’ve experienced this, you are not alone. In Volusia County, many start a divorce feeling exactly the same emotions.
Almost every person who walks into our office arrives with the same first question; a version of: what happens next? To be straightforward, the first ninety days of a Florida divorce are about three things: stabilizing your life, gathering records, and getting prepared for court early.
The reality is that the people who come out of a Volusia divorce in the best shape are almost never the ones who fought hardest. They are simply those who got organized fastest.
So what does a Daytona Beach divorce attorney actually do? Let’s go over what the first 90 days will look like.
Day 1-14: Gear Up and File
The state of Florida has what is known as no-fault divorce. That means you do not have to prove your spouse caused harm to the marriage through infidelity or other actions.
You only have to say that the marriage is irretrievably broken. That is the legal language that sums up the fact that you’ve decided to end things.
First, you file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in the Circuit Court for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, located within the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand. Your spouse will then be served, and then the clock starts; they have twenty days to respond.
However, most of the things that need to happen in the first two weeks have nothing to do with the courthouse. Change the password on your email, pull a copy of your credit report, take photos of anything of value in the home, because a judge will eventually want an inventory.
There are lots of common sense, “housekeeping” tasks that you can do during this time to get the ball rolling. However, the single most consequential thing you must do in those first fourteen days is choose your attorney.
You don’t want the loudest one, or the one on the billboard near LPGA Boulevard. Choose the one who answers your questions in plain English and gives you the information you need to make a difficult situation as easy as it can be.
A good Volusia County divorce lawyer will be able to provide you with an estimate early on, of how the assets might be split, what to expect, and how long the case might take.
Day 15-45: Mandatory Disclosure
Every Florida divorce, whether it is contested or not, runs through a mandatory disclosure phase. This must happen within forty-five days of the petition being filed, and it is essentially when both spouses are required to share all of their financial information.
There is a long list of assets that need to be disclosed: tax returns, pay stubs, a year’s worth of bank and brokerage statements, credit card statements, loan documents, deeds, titles, business records, and more.
This part of the divorce process is often difficult for people. Things can get complicated when digging through many years of finances. On paper, this mandatory disclosure is to legally reach a fair outcome. Emotionally, it is the moment that your shared life is reduced to numbers. This can understandably trigger some uncomfortable feelings, but it is an important (and required) step.
Although dreadful, mandatory disclosure is often where leverage can be found. Florida is an equitable distribution state. This means that the court divides the marital estate fairly, based on what can be proven.
In what is known as a tracing analysis, premarital assets, inheritances, and certain business interests are sometimes set aside. A comprehensive disclosure and thorough records strengthen your case when it comes to proving which assets you have claim over.
A Word About Mediation
Though some divorce attorneys may not agree, most Volusia County divorces should end in mediation. The Seventh Judicial Circuit requires mediation in nearly every contested family case anyway. So, the question is not whether you mediate, it is whether you get there before spending more time and money than necessary, and before things get hostile.
It’s important to remember that mediation is not a surrender. A skilled family attorney prepares for this process much like a trial lawyer prepares for court; by developing a clear sense of the marital estate, a reasonable plan, and an acceptable alimony. Ideally, their client walks out with a Marital Settlement Agreement that your final judgment can be built on.
Day 46-90: Temporary Orders and Your New Life Begins
Approaching the six-week mark, your case will start to feel less like a pile of paperwork, and more like a legal proceeding.
Temporary relief motions are orders that dictate who lives in the house, who pays which bills, what temporary monetary support will be paid, and who may have custody of children while the case is pending.
Florida judges usually refer to this temporary period when crafting the final judgement later down the road. So, this becomes sort of a practice run for how things may end up later, and a period to gather information.
Florida law presumes that equal timesharing is usually in the best interest of the child. However, statutes list twenty separate factors a judge will consider in contested cases. These include distance between homes, the moral fitness of each parent, school performance, mental and physical health, and more.
A complete and thoughtful parenting plan is formed during this time. This needs to address school pickup, holiday rotations, summer breaks, and numerous smaller logistics that affect daily life.
By day ninety, you will most likely have a temporary order in place, an idea of the marital assets, and a sense of whether your case is headed towards a settlement or a trial.
Most Volusia County divorces settle. The ones that go to trial usually involve complex business entanglements, a heated custody dispute, or a spouse who refuses to cooperate.
A Few Practical Notes
Volusia County judges appreciate when spouses show up prepared, on time, and dressed respectively for court. Documents presented well in a binder, instead of on a phone. Children should not be brought to a hearing unless the court specifically requests their presence.
It’s important to keep finances in order until the trial is over; don’t close joint credit cards without a written agreement, keep paying the mortgage, and keep other accounts current unless a court order says otherwise.
It’s also helpful to keep a journal. Jot down dates of overnights with the children, any conversations about money, and anything else that seems like it may be important later.
How Rice Law Firm Can Help
At Rice Law Firm, we have spent decades guiding Volusia County families through divorces of all forms. We know how to navigate the relatively straightforward as well as the complicated and high-asset.
Our firm is led by Paul E. Rice, Jr., a Board Certified Marital and Family Law attorney with over forty years of experience. Our team handles divorce, equitable distribution, parenting plans, alimony, and gray divorce across Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Port Orange, Palm Coast, DeLand, and the surrounding communities.
We will walk you through what your first ninety days will look like. We will help you build a plan that protects your finances, your children, and your peace of mind. If you are at the beginning of a divorce, wondering what comes next, reach out to schedule a confidential consultation.