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When a third grade teacher recently got divorced, she had trouble explaining the concept to her two children, ages 4 and 7. While the children had some knowledge about a divorce, the wife decided to read books that dealt with child custody matters such as time-sharing, shared parental responsibility and parenting plans in order to help her children understand what their parents were going through. Now, divorce attorneys in Miami-Dade and Broward may recommend that you purchase a book by Kristi Schwartz titled Divorced Together For the Sake of Children. The book was released on January 22, 2010 and may help Florida children understand about a divorce.

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Sandy T. Fox, Esquire, a divorce lawyer in Broward and Miami-Dade, represented the Former Wife in an enforcement proceeding in the Florida marital and family law court located north of Fort Lauderdale. The equitable distribution provision of the marital settlement agreement provided that the Former Wife was to receive $141,263.72 from the Former Husband. The Former Husband retained his real property in New York. While no date of payment to the Former Wife was specified in the marital settlement agreement, the final judgment of dissolution of marriage ordered the parties to comply with the marital settlement agreement.

The Former Wife filed a motion to enforce the equitable distribution provision of the final judgment since the Former Husband had only made 5 incremental payments. At the hearing, she testified that she was to receive $141,263.72 upon entry of the final judgment. On the otherhand, the Former Husband testified that the Former Wife was to be paid upon the sale of his New York property.

On appeal in the case of Crespo v. Crespo, the Former Wife argued that the trial court erred in admitting parol evidence as to the intent of the parties. In affirming the decision of the divorce court located north of Ft. Lauderdale, the Fourth District Court of Appeal found that the marital settlement agreement contained a latent ambiguity since it failed to specify the time in which the Former Wife was to receive payment from the Former Husband. The court explained that a latent ambiguity arises when the language in a contract is clear and intelligible and suggests a single meaning, but some extrinsic fact or extraneous evidence creates a necessity for interpretation or a choice among two or more possible meanings.

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Many times Broward divorce attorneys receive telephone calls from a parent who claims that the other parent has abducted their child. However, many individuals are unaware of the Hague Convention, a multinational treaty that provides an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another.

The Hague Convention insures the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence. While the Hague Convention only applies to children under the age of 16, it preserves the status quo time-sharing and child custody arrangement that was in place before an alleged wrongful removal or retention deterring a parent from forum shopping to a more sympathetic court.

The United States of America would like Japan to sign a global convention on international parental child abduction. This would assist foreign nationals who are denied contact, access and time-sharing with children by their Japanese former spouse. Japan is one of seven nations that have not signed the Hague Convention.

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When you meet with your Fort Lauderdale divorce lawyer, you will ask many questions related to alimony, child support, property distribution and child custody matters such as time-sharing and a parenting plan. However, Broward divorce lawyers are often asked how a client should tell their children that they are getting divorced.

Couples should try to separate before filing for divorce and explain to their children that they have not been getting along very well and want to see if that helps. Never blame the other parent, even if there was an affair or other reason that you are filing for divorce. Once you have your new living arrangements it is important to discuss this with your children since it is important for them to know what will and what will not change in their lives.

It is very important for you to explain to your children that the divorce is not their fault and has nothing to do with anything that they have done. While you should encourage your children to ask questions, it is important to give them time to adjust. Last but not list, have your children meet with a therapist if they are not adjusting well if you observe sleeplessness, clinginess, angry acting out, truancy, depression and drug or alcohol use. If you do not know a therapist for your children, you can always ask your Fort Lauderdale divorce attorney for a suggestion.

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Fort Lauderdale divorce attorneys have learned that new research suggests that dealing with a child that has cancer does not generally increase the risk for couples to divorce in Broward. After studying 978,000 married couples, researchers learned that that divorce rates between 1974 and 2001 were not higher amongst parties who had a child that suffered from cancer when compared to other parents. When other factors such as a parent’s age and family income, parents who had a child were 4% more likely to get divorced than other parents. However, researchers found that the difference was insignificant in statistical terms.

While there tends to be a general perception that the strain of having a child or spouse with cancer may put couples at risk of a hiring a divorce lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, this perception is an unsubstantiated myth that may add another burden to the people afflicted by cancer. There was no evidence that a child’s cancer raised the risk of divorce in general or that parents are more likely to divorce in their child died of cancer.

However, researchers did find an increased risk of 16% in mother’s who had a college education, compared with those with only a high school education. The risk for divorce was evident during the first 5 years of the child’s diagnosis with cancer. While the reasons for these findings are unknown, further studies are needed to confirm the finding on a mother’s education and to tease out the reason’s for it.

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You may be required to hire a Fort Lauderdale divorce lawyer to enforce your child support award through civil contempt. Civil contempt sanctions are utilized by the marital and family law court to compel compliance with a court order and used to compensate the moving party for losses sustained by the contemnor’s willful failure to comply with a divorce court order or judgment that requires him or her to pay child support.

One of the sanctions that a Fort Lauderdale divorce attorney may request is to revoke a delinquent obligors drivers license and motor vehicle registration as a sanction in order to compel payment of your child support. If the court orders incarceration, a coercive fine or any other coercive sanction for failing to pay child support, it is required that conditions be set to purge the contempt, based upon the obligors present ability to pay or comply. Accordingly, the sanction of a driver’s license suspension requires the Florida marital and family law court to find a present ability to pay any purge amount set by the court.

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When your Broward divorce lawyer files a petition for dissolution of marriage or paternity, there will be a request for child support in their are child related issues such as shared parental responsibility, time-sharing, a parenting plan and child custody involved. A divorce lawyer in Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Weston or Cooper City can request that the court award health insurance for your child, life insurance to secure the child support award, child support pursuant to the child support guidelines, out-of-pocket and uncovered medical expenses and the cost of private school.

In order to for the Broward marital and family law court to require the payment for the cost of private school expenses as part of the child support award, this must be plead in your petition by your Fort Lauderdale divorce attorney. The court may order the payment for private educational expenses if it finds that a parent has the ability to pay for private school. In addition, private school must be an expense that is in accordance with the family’s customary standard of living and in the child’s best interest.

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After your Fort Lauderdale divorce lawyer has finished your case, you will settle into a new home, organize the time-sharing, parenting plan and child custody aspects of your Florida divorce case and restructure your finances. This can be a trying time for your health and well-being. Researchers have found that 20% of divorced people have chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, than those who are married. While the transition to marriage brings an immediate health benefit, if that marriage fails your health can be damaged if you do not take care of yourself.

A divorce in Broward can be very tough on you and your children. It can be very easy to neglect your health and allow it to slide when you and your spouse are fighting about child support and alimony. However, there are many ways to fortify your health during this difficult period of time so that you come out of your divorce feeling stronger and healthier.

It is important to reduce conflict during your Florida divorce. The greater the conflict in your divorce, the greater the chance of physical or mental health problems. Even if your Ft. Lauderdale divorce lawyer does not win all of the aspects of your case for you, it is important to try to enter into a marital settlement agreement as soon as possible so that your children will not be exposed to conflict. Research has shown that children exposed to conflict experience more behavioral and emotional problems.

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The Miami Herald is reporting that Florida’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee believes that Florida judges should not be friends with lawyers on Facebook or other social networking websites. In the ruling, the committee held that when judges and lawyers are “friends” it creates a conflict of interest. The online friendship could be interpreted that lawyer “friends” are in a special position to influence a judge. However, judges are permitted to post items and links on other judge’s social networking websites.

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Residents of Broward cities such as Hollywood, Weston, Davie and Plantation may find themselves having disagreements with their spouse over marital finances. With unemployment at an all time high and a depressed real estate market, finance related tension is causing couples to speak to and retain a Fort Lauderdale divorce attorney.

The New York Times is reporting that finance related tension between married couples raises the risk of divorce. A recent study from Utah State University found that couples who disagree about finances one time per week were over 30 percent more likely to get divorced than couples who reported disagreeing about finances a few times a month.

2800 couples were asked, separately, about how often they had a disagreement with their spouse over chores, in-laws, spending time together, sex and money. Several years later, these couples were contacted again and asked if they were still married. Out of all of the items that couples fight over, money disputes were most indicative of a divorce. While wives believed that disputes over finances and sex were good predictors of divorce, they believed that finance disputes were much stronger predictors. For husbands, they believed that financial disagreements were the highest indicator of whether they would get divorced.