Life is constantly changing and sometimes, child custody, visitation, child support and spousal support arrangements need to change as well. To make a change, we need to show that major changes in circumstances have occurred.

Have you lost your job? We may need to take a look at your child support and/or alimony and recalculate the monthly amounts. Are you remarried? Let’s look at the child custody and visitation agreement. Does your 14+ year old child want to stay with one parent more than the other in order to have a more structured life? Do you need to move to another state? We can talk about your goals and help you take the steps necessary to achieve your goals

Post-Judgment Modification issues also arise when your former spouse isn’t complying with the terms of the divorce judgement.

Before you file your suit to modify child custody, you will need to determine if you have a basis for modification. Identifying the basis for your modification is a crucial first step. If the court determines that your modification request was without merit, they could order you to pay the other parent’s attorney’s fees.

Keep in mind that courts do not like to disrupt the living arrangements of children without cause, so the burden is on the petitioner to demonstrate that a material change in circumstances warrants a change in custody. Every state has its own rules regarding what is considered a material change in circumstances to justify a modification, but it is generally true that your dissatisfaction with the parenting plan or the visitation schedule is not enough. You must be able to argue that the child’s best interest is served by modifying a custody order due to a material change in circumstance. Examples of situations that may justify modification of child custody are:

• The other parent is living with an abusive boyfriend/girlfriend.
• The other parent has developed drug addiction issues.
• The other parent has been reported to a child welfare agency for neglect.
• You have eliminated the reasons that you lost custody from your life, and are in a better position to care for the child than the other parent

Most family codes provide language broad enough to encompass a variety of situations, but do not provide specific criteria that will automatically change custody. Keep in mind that you must show that you are prepared to be the custodial parent; a court won’t modify an order unless the child is going to a situation in which they will be adequately cared for. Ultimately, the duty of the court is to focus on the best interest of the child, so even if you think you have a compelling reason to modify custody, the court may not find it compelling enough to show that a modification is best for the child.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

The holidays are an unusually emotional and stressful time anyway. If this is your first holiday since your divorce, you are probably going to have some challenges. Thanks for advice from the Self Growth Community.

Begin by knowing that more than likely there will be some sadness if this is your first holiday alone.
Be okay with the sadness. Remember, what you resist, persists, so if you start to feel sad, keep in mind that sadness is just another emotion, If you allow yourself to feel the sadness without running away from it, it will pass through you more quickly. Once you let yourself feel your feelings, you’ll make room for other happier feelings that will take the place of the sadness.

Have the courage to reach out to family members and friends. It’s okay to let people know that you’d like to spend time with them since this is your first holiday alone. Or better yet, invite them to your house and host the celebration. If neither is possible, make yourself available to those who may also be alone for the holidays, or volunteer for a charity where you are making a contribution of yourself. Giving is one of the best ways of diminishing the lonely feelings.

If you’re a single parent, now is a good time to start a new tradition with your children and watch it lift your spirits.
A woman I know started a tradition of reading a special Christmas story each night to her children. The kids loved it and looked forward to a new story every evening. It was such a success, she compiled the best Christmas stories ever told and had it published. Perhaps you and your kids could do something similar or possibly you could gather together and make ornaments that signify the beginning of a new life. If the children are old enough, ask them for their ideas for making Christmas a little brighter. You’d be surprised at how creative children can be. Whatever you decide, use this opportunity to “try on” new ways of spending the festive days in a more satisfying way.

Pay attention to the choices that have led you to where you are right now and see all the changes you’ve already made in your life. Pat yourself on the back and acknowledge yourself for all the inroads you have made. It takes courage to make changes, and you’ve proven that you have that kind of courage. Each year will bring new experiences and every Christmas will get easier and more enjoyable.

Ask yourself whether there are any new choices you can make that will propel you in the direction of a more inspiring future. When you get your answer, don’t be afraid to take a few chances and run with them.
Starting a new life can be very exciting, especially when you relax and allow yourself to enjoy the changes. Take a few risks and watch how good you will feel.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

Most issues are settled at the time that the divorce decree is final, but child support and issues surrounding it may go on for years after the divorce is final. Each state has it’s own laws and guidelines on how child support is calculated.

Issues such as misconduct by the parent or how marital assets are split do not affect the amount paid. State child support guidelines take into consideration the following things:

• The needs of the child.
• The ability of the non – custodial parent to support him or herself.
• The standard of living the child would have enjoyed had the parents not divorced.

• Provisions for any additional children the non – custodial parent may have.

Income Based Calculations:

In some states, child support calculation is based only on the income of the non – custodial parent. In other states both parent’s income is taken into consideration. In Indiana, child support guidelines factor in the income of both parents and assign each a share of the child’s living expenses as set forth by the guidelines. However, Massachusetts’s child support guidelines consider only the income of the non – custodial parent. Guidelines for addressing extraordinary living expenses such as college tuition, daycare and extracurricular activities differ by state.

All states have a formula established or court rules that determine the amount of child support to be paid.

At this time, Florida does not provide a child support calculator on their Web site. However, they do have printable Child Support Worksheet and Guidelines packet, which can help you to accurately determine the child support obligation.

Florida Statute (s. 61.30, F.S.) requires guidelines to be used in establishing new child support obligations or modifying child support in a Florida court.  All states are required to have statutory guidelines but they vary greatly among states.  The Florida guidelines must take into consideration all income and earnings of both parents and the children’s health care needs.  This worksheet provides an estimate of the amount a court may order, depending on individual circumstances. The court may deviate from  the guidelines if there is a written finding in the court record that the guidelines in the particular case would be inappropriate. The finding must include the amount of support that would have been required under the guidelines and a reason why the order varies.
Monthly income, insurance and child care information for both the mother and father will be necessary to complete the forms.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.

Being part of a good divorce attorney is giving advice to your clients. In order to adapt to your new way of life, if is good if you can work towards accepting being single.

Some jump from one relationship to another without any forethought. Others pine, preach keep impossible standards and curse the dating pool rather than evaluating themselves. There are those in today’s world who focus much more on their career. Love is an afterthought and sometimes just something to cure the biological need so that the focus can return to pursuing work related goals. Perennial adolescents exist too, in both sexes and existing way into adulthood. But many of these people don’t reflect on what it means to be single, who they really want to be and where they are going. Though it is the fastest growing demographic in America, single women seem to be stigmatized as weird, too independent or damaged. Single men up until middle age are seen either as someone else’s throw away, used goods or Peter Pans who are too selfish and never want to grow up.  But few people sit down with themselves and do some soul searching. Who is it I really want to be? What goals do I have for my love life? Do I really want to be co-habitating, married or single? How can I achieve my goal whilst still pursuing my other objectives?

People are staying single longer nowadays, marrying later, choosing to co-habitate or finding themselves divorced and back in the dating pool again. But few people really think about their future and where they would be happy. If you are single, determine what it means to you. What are the perks you enjoy? What are the drawbacks? Is having the freedom to do anything you want at the drop of a hat worth more to you than say having someone to be there for you, supporting you? How do you feel in the social sense about being single? Some people are embarrassed or even ashamed by their singleness. They feel that it makes them seem like damaged goods or carrying too much emotional baggage. But that is a yardstick to measure one’s self to a bygone era. In today’s world with such a high divorce rate, people staying in unhappy marriages for loath of the expense it takes to divorce, with people marrying later, co-habitating or just choosing to be single, there is no social norm in which to measure ourselves anymore. A lot of people compare themselves to their friends. But what good does that do you? If you are an architect you don’t want to be a mechanic like your best friend. Yet, why should their relationship choice have any bearing on yours? Being single can be seen as intimidating or exciting. It can make you seem confident and independent or damaged and bitter. Society may view you a certain way. Your parents and friend may have an opinion on your relationship status. And perhaps you have one yourself. But instead of letting the opinions of others dictate your singleness, take control of it, evaluate it, decide what you really want and go after it. Own your singleness and make it work for you.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.

Many times, a parent may wish to take a trip with the child of a divorce where the parties are not on the best of terms. Can you still take this trip without the other party’s  permission?

It is very difficult to give an answer to that question about taking your child on vacation without knowing what the physical placement arrangement between you and the other party.

Though you have primary physical placement, you could be held in contempt or the other party could file an enforcement motion against you if you will be gone during times when she is to have placement during the week you are gone.

Many placement orders have a provision regarding the parents being able to take a vacation of a certain number of consecutive days with notice to the other party. Check your order to see if you have this sort of language.

You should document that you have provided her with the details of the trip and requested to take your daughter with you.

If you do go and she does file an action against you in family court, you can attempt to show that you had provided the details of the trip to her and she was being unreasonable in refusing to let you go.

Please note that there are a number factors that play into the reasonable of a situation, and we cannot advise you of whether the other party is or is not being unreasonable without more information.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.

Divorce can be a painful experience. Perhaps your experience could be a little less painful if you follow a few common sense ideas.

Be flexible:

When negotiating a divorce settlement or determining child custody you must be willing to compromise. Everyone goes into a divorce knowing what they want; no one comes out of a divorce getting all they wanted. If you are unable to be flexible during negotiations you take the chance of walking away with far less than you could have negotiated.

Consider the other person’s Needs:

You may no longer want to be married to him/her but that doesn’t mean you should ignore their needs. You aren’t the only party to the divorce. The legal idea behind a divorce is to dissolve a marriage, not leave the other person destitute. Taking their needs into consideration and being fair minded will go a long way in keeping your divorce from turning into all out war.

Conserve your money:

Divorce is expensive. Plan ahead financially and start saving for the long-term. Take your monthly discretionary money, money you are used to spending at will and sock it away in a bank account. If you do and your divorce turns into a long, drawn out financial suck you will have some padding to help get you through.

Behave Maturely:

This is one some folks have a hard time wrapping their brain around. It is quite simple though, do not do anything before, during or after your divorce that will reflect badly upon you. Respect yourself, your ex and the Family Court system. Those who are able to navigate the divorce process with dignity find it easier to move on and rebuild their lives once the process is over.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

You may think that divorce courts don’t award alimony anymore. Not true. If you suddenly realize that the court may require you to pay alimony, the obvious question is how much. The first consideration when settling a spouse’s alimony obligation would be the ability to pay alimony. The court looks at the spouses gross income and reduces it by subtracting all mandatory deductions to come up with the net income.

Mandatory deductions are things like income taxes, social security and health care. The courts do not consider things such as union dues or work related social dues as mandatory and will not deduct them from the gross salary. The courts put a higher priority on support payments than voluntary debts and would rather see voluntary debt not paid than have a spouse go without adequate support.

Ability to Earn:

Both spouses ability to earn is taken into consideration when it comes to alimony. The courts not only consider what a spouse actually earns but also considers what the potential for earning is.

Ability to Self – Support:

Whether or not a spouse has marketable skills and is able to work outside the home is something else the courts take into consideration. Having custody of pre–school aged children and no access to daycare could make it impossible for a spouse to work outside the home.

The ability to be self – support differs from actually being self – supporting. If a spouse has marketable skills but refuses to look for work, the court is likely to limit the amount of alimony and the length of alimony.

In many states, no alimony is awarded if both spouses are able to support themselves. If one spouse was dependent on the other during the duration of the marriage, that spouse is often awarded alimony for a rehabilitative period. This could be a time period lasting anywhere from several months to several years.

If a spouse becomes self – supporting before the end of the court ordered support period the paying spouse can petition for the courts to terminate the alimony. In, however, the spouse is unable to become self – supporting during the allotted time he/she may also petition the courts for an extension of alimony. In some states this can only be done to keep the spouse from going on welfare.

Standard of Living During Marriage:

When a court sets alimony, it often considers the standard of living during the marriage and tries to maintain this standard for both spouses where possible. Maintenance of a standard of living is more of a goal when it comes to alimony, than a guarantee.

Length of Marriage:

If a marriage is relatively short and there are no children, the courts often refuse to award alimony. If there are children under school age, however, the courts often award alimony to the spouse who is given physical custody. Most courts feel that a child under school age is better served by having a full time parent at home.

Tax Consequences of the Alimony:

For federal income tax purposes, alimony paid under a written court order is deductible by the spouse who pays and is taxable to the recipient of the alimony. Child support, on the other hand, is tax – free to the recipient and not deductible by the spouse who pays.

Debts:

At the time of divorce, the court allocates debt incurred during the marriage between the spouses based on who benefits most from the asset that came with the debt. If the court orders a spouse to pay a large portion o the marital debts, it often reduces the amount of alimony that the spouse is ordered to pay.

Professional Degree of License:

Courts will not only take into consideration the amount of financial support given during a marriage but, also the amount of emotional support. If a spouse worked and supported the other spouse through school, some states will take this into consideration. The spouse could ask for and receive compensation in the form of alimony for all the years he/she worked why the other was in school.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.

According to New York Magazine, It’s not a subject that marriage-equality groups tend to trumpet on their websites, but gay couples are at the start of a divorce boom. One reason is obvious: More couples are eligible. According to a report by UCLA’s Williams Institute, nearly 50,000 of the approximately 640,000 gay couples in the U.S. in 2011 were married. (Another 100,000 were in other kinds of legal relationships, such as domestic partnerships.) The marriage rate, in states that allowed it, was quickly rising toward that of heterosexual couples: In Massachusetts as of that year, 68 percent of gay couples were married, compared with 91 percent of heterosexual couples. Another reason for the coming boom is that while first-wave gay marriages have proved more durable than straight ones (according to the Williams Institute, about one percent of gay marriages were dissolving each year, compared with 2 percent for different-sex couples), that’s not expected to last. Most lawyers I spoke to assume that the gap will soon vanish, once the backlog of long-term and presumably more stable gay couples have married, leaving the field to the young and impulsive.

ivorce, one lawyer tells me, “provides a forum with rules and guidelines to keep people from giving in to their very worst impulses.” For gay couples, though, the Byzantine chaos of current law can yield grotesque results. The problems arise from two main sources: differences among the states in their laws concerning gay relationships, and differences between the states and the federal government, thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act, in their treatment of taxes, pensions, inheritance, and other transfers that may figure in settlements. You needn’t be a “marriage tourist”—one of the many couples who trekked from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to wed repeatedly as marriage became legal in each—to get caught in the flypaper.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.

Yes, we still have alimony.

Alimony is money paid by one spouse to the other either during the divorce process or after. Who receives alimony depends on who earned the most money during the marriage and the roles the spouses played. Once referred to exclusively as alimony, it is now more commonly called Spousal Maintenance or Spousal Support. It is awarded by a court order to maintain the standard of living that both.

Permanent Alimony:

Permanent alimony or spousal support will be paid to the recipient until the death of the one paying are the remarriage of the recipient. In some situations, remarriage does not stop alimony. If the marriage was long-term or the spouse has a disability that keeps him/her from being able to work the courts have and will reward lifetime alimony that will continue whether the recipient cohabitates of marries again. The down size is that lump sum alimony is taxable so be sure you know the tax consequences before agreeing to a lump sum payment of alimony.

Temporary Alimony:

Temporary alimony will last for a specific period of time. If the divorce causes a financial hardship on a spouse temporary alimony will be awarded until that spouse can recover financially. Your state’s divorce laws and normal judicial practices for the area you divorce in will determine how long temporary alimony will last.

Rehabilitative Alimony

Rehabilitative Alimony is awarded in cases where a spouse needs assistance with job training or college expenses so they may eventually return to the job force after the divorce. It is common for wives who have been stay at home moms and have not worked in years. Rehabilitative alimony enables a dependent spouse to take classes or special job training that will help them become financially independent.

All states have laws for determining whether alimony/spousal support/maintenance will be paid. That being said, you should also take into consideration the fact that judges have the right to use judicial discretion when decided such issues. The following factors are usually considered when deciding alimony:

• Marriage duration.
• The contribution a spouse makes as a homemaker.
• Potentially earning ability of both spouses.
• The age, physical, mental and emotional being of each spouse.
• Whether or not the custodial parent will earn less due to his/her duty to parent the child/children.

Those factors plus the judicial discretion of the judge play a role in whether a spouse pays alimony and how much. Since the judge has a certain amount of legal lee-way it is best to settle alimony issues while negotiating your divorce settlement. That takes control away for the judge and leaves it where it belongs…with you and your spouse.

If you have an alimony issue or need help with any family law matter, consider calling Steven Hair.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor. For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com

or call (727) 726-0797.