Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

“My spouse and I were married twenty-five years ago when we lived in another state. I found out later that our marriage was invalid. I want out of the ‘marriage’ now anyway. What do I do?”

Cases like this can be complicated, and the answer depends on the particular facts.

Why was the marriage invalid? Was the other spouse responsible? Did the other spouse know all along? When did the inquiring spouse find out about the invalidity? Did he or she take any action at that time? Are there children? Is there ‘marital property’? Does the inquiring ’spouse’ want anything beyond “getting out”?

Florida generally will not grant a divorce unless a couple was actually married.

What other states did the couple live in during the ‘marriage’? Perhaps they established a valid common law marriage under the laws of another state that they may have lived in previously.

Florida couples cannot establish common law marriages based on cohabitation here (since 1968). But Florida may recognize a valid common law marriage established under the laws of another state at the time that a couple lived there. If Florida recognizes a common law marriage entered in another state, Florida may grant a divorce.

But if divorce does not fit the facts of the case, depending on the reason that the ‘marriage’ was invalid, it is possible that the ‘marriage’ may be annulled. But, for several reasons, Florida courts disfavor annulment.

Annulment does not always fit the facts of the case just because divorce is not available though. In those cases, ending the bogus marriage may be as simple as walking away.

But in those cases, the inquiring ’spouse’ will have no right to division of ‘marital property’ and no potential right to alimony, as they may at the end of a marriage. Does that mean they walk away with nothing?

Not necessarily. Depending on the facts of the case, the ’spouse’ may be able to resort to other, substantially equivalent but less common legal strategies to get what they are entitled to.

Newsweek is carrying an article with advice from a divorce financial analyst. The article shows some ways that investing in the services of a financial analyst may maximize the marital assets and, therefore, lead to more property ultimately being distributed to one or both spouses. A financial analyst may also help to optimize allocation of the spouses’ future income(s) among each other and their children.

In appropriate cases, good financial analysts can add tremendous value to the divorce process. The spouses would do well to remember, however, that some financial analysts tend to view support and property division in a purely mathematical way.

But the impact of divorce can’t be boiled down to a straightforward mathematical formula.

For example, remaining in the marital home may help maintain some stability, emotional security and continuity for minor children whose parents are divorcing. This value to the entire family cannot be captured by a financial formula.

Similarly, tax savings, while important, may not be the overriding objectives for one or both spouses. Touching on an example in the article, alimony and child support serve different purposes and do not continue for the same periods of time. In some cases, it could ultimately prove detrimental to attempt to characterize payments for one as payments for the other just to achieve better tax treatment.

The totality of divorce is a complex process for the spouses and the family. Wherever possible, spouses/parents should evaluate alternative divisions of property and future support issues with their attorneys in the larger contexts of the divorce and the family.

“I told my spouse I’m going to take the children to stay with my (nearby) mother for a while. My spouse then threatened to divorce me and charge me with abandonment, and warned I’ll lose my kids and get nothing in the divorce. Is that true?”

No, not in Florida. Abandonment of a spouse may serve as a ground for divorce in a fault-based divorce state, but not here.

So-called abandonment of a spouse is irrelevant to child custody.

Could it affect the financial outcome of a divorce case? In certain cases, circumstances of an “abandonment” may be taken into account, along with other factors. An example of such a case might be where one spouse bails out on a recently physically-disabled, dependent spouse, taking most of the marital assets acquired over many years, without providing any financial support at all - even though well able to do so.

But most people who ask the question at the beginning of this message just want to take a little time and get a little distance from their relatively ordinary spouse and marriage, to think things over and figure out what they want to do. Florida’s no-fault divorce law doesn’t penalize a person for that.