Divorce can feel like stepping into the unknown. It shouldn’t. A Florida dissolution of marriage follows a defined path — deadlines, disclosures, and decision points that resolve the five issues courts call the PEACE framework: Parenting plan, Equitable distribution, Alimony, Child support, and Everything else. Walk the path below and see exactly where your case begins, where it forks, and how it ends.
Every contested Florida divorce moves through the same phases. Knowing them — and preparing for each before it arrives — is how you stay in control of your case instead of being carried by it.
01
Step 01 / 07 · Filed
Filing the Petition
Every case begins with a single document.
A Florida divorce starts when one spouse files a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with the circuit court and has it formally served on the other. Florida is a no-fault state — the marriage need only be “irretrievably broken” — and at least one spouse must have lived in Florida for the six months before filing. The petition frames every issue that follows: the children, the property, and the support.
Day OneCircuit CourtNo-Fault6-Month Residency
Inside this phase
The paperwork
The petition, a civil cover sheet, and a summons — plus a UCCJEA affidavit and Social Security affidavit when minor children are involved. Filing fees run roughly $400, varying by county.
Service of process
The sheriff or a certified process server personally delivers the papers. A cooperative spouse can instead sign an acceptance of service and skip the knock on the door.
Standing orders
In many Central Florida circuits, automatic standing orders take effect the moment a case is filed: no relocating the children, no draining accounts, no canceling insurance.
Simplified vs. regular
A simplified dissolution exists for couples with no minor children who agree on everything. Nearly every contested case proceeds under the regular process shown on this page.
Once served, the other spouse has 20 days to file a written Answer — and, very often, a Counterpetition raising claims of their own, which the original petitioner then has 20 days to answer. Miss the deadline and the court can enter a default, deciding the case without your side of the story. Whether you filed or were served, these first twenty days set the tone for everything that follows.
20 DaysAnswerCounterpetitionDefault Risk
Inside this phase
The Answer
A paragraph-by-paragraph response admitting or denying the petition’s allegations, plus any affirmative defenses. It keeps you in the case and preserves your rights.
The Counterpetition
The responding spouse’s own requests — alimony, a particular timesharing schedule, exclusive use of the home. It turns one set of claims into two.
Default
No response within 20 days invites a default. The court can then grant the relief requested in the petition with little or no input from the silent spouse.
Temporary relief
Either spouse can ask the court early for temporary timesharing, support, exclusive use of the home, or attorney’s fees while the case is pending — often the first courtroom event of the case.
Within 45 days of service, Florida’s family law rules require both spouses to lay out the complete financial picture — automatically, without anyone having to ask. There are no hidden hands in a Florida divorce: full disclosure is the rule, the financial affidavit can’t be waived when money is at issue, and we make sure you receive every document you’re owed — and understand what it means.
A sworn, line-by-line statement of income, expenses, assets, and debts — the short form for incomes under $50,000 a year, the long form above it. Judges read these closely.
The document exchange
Three years of tax returns, recent pay records, months of bank, brokerage, retirement, and credit card statements, loan applications, deeds and notes — and any prenuptial or postnuptial agreement.
Child support worksheet
When support is at issue, a guidelines worksheet is filed too, so the court can run Florida’s child support formula on real numbers.
An ongoing duty
Disclosure must be kept current as the case moves. Hiding or “forgetting” assets invites sanctions, an unequal split — and judgments that can be reopened years later.
With disclosure in hand, the real work begins: separating marital assets and debts from non-marital ones, valuing the home, the retirement accounts, and the business, and pinning down each spouse’s true income. This analysis is the foundation for equitable distribution, alimony, and child support — and cases are won or lost on how carefully it’s done. This is where financial command pays for itself.
Florida starts from an equal split of marital assets and debts, then adjusts for statutory factors — including any dissipation or waste. What counts as “marital,” and what it’s worth, is where the fight usually lives.
Business & complex assets
Closely-held companies, professional practices, RSUs, options, and deferred compensation demand valuation experts — and sometimes forensic accountants. Valued wrong, a decade of work becomes a settlement casualty.
Alimony after the 2023 reform
Permanent alimony is gone. Florida now awards bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, or durational alimony — durational awards generally capped at the lesser of the recipient’s need or 35% of the difference in net incomes.
Child support
Guidelines-driven: combined net income, the number of overnights each parent has, health insurance, and childcare costs all feed the formula. Accurate inputs are everything.
When minor children are involved, Florida requires a Parenting Plan — and since July 1, 2023, the law starts from a rebuttable presumption that equal (50/50) timesharing is in the child’s best interests. That presumption is a starting line, not a finish line: the court must still weigh every best-interests factor, with written findings. We draft proposed plans built on evidence — stability, schedules, school, safety, and each parent’s real track record.
The week-to-week schedule plus holidays and summers, who decides on education, healthcare, and activities, the school designation, communication rules, and how exchanges work.
The 50/50 presumption
Equal timesharing is now the starting point — rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence. Whichever side of it you’re on, the record you build decides the outcome.
The parenting course
Both parents must complete Florida’s four-hour Parent Education and Family Stabilization course before a final judgment can be entered.
Building the record
School involvement, workable logistics, consistency, and safety. Evidence beats accusations — every time.
By this point the groundwork is done — the pleadings, the disclosure, the numbers, the plan. What remains is resolution. We prepare every case as if it will see trial, so you negotiate from strength and never from fear. Opposing counsel can tell the difference — and settlements price it in.
06
Step 06 / 07 · Mediated
Mediation
Most cases end here — on your terms.
Before a judge will try a contested divorce, Central Florida courts require mediation: a confidential session where a neutral mediator moves between the two sides, testing offers and closing gaps. It is often the single most important day of the case. Settle at the table and you decide the outcome. Walk away without a deal, and a judge decides it for you.
0%settle here†
Roughly 84% of cases settle at mediation — which is exactly why we arrive prepared to try the other 16%.
Court-OrderedConfidentialYou Control the Outcome
Inside this phase
How the day works
Brief opening remarks, then private caucuses: the mediator shuttles between rooms carrying offers and reality checks. Sessions run from a few hours to a full day — and you never have to accept anything.
Confidential by law
What’s said in mediation stays there. Offers and statements made at the table are privileged and can’t be used against you later in court.
Partial settlements count
Even without a full deal, narrowing the case matters: sign an agreement on the issues you’ve resolved and reserve only the true disputes for the judge.
If you settle
A Marital Settlement Agreement signed at mediation is binding and enforceable. Your case moves straight down the settlement route below.
Every case leaves the mediation table on one of two paths. One is short and ends in agreement; the other runs through the courtroom. We prepare you for both — from day one.
Route A · The Settlement Route
Your Case Settles — 84%†
The agreement you shaped at the table becomes the blueprint for the end of your case — usually within weeks.
The agreement is signed
Your Marital Settlement Agreement — and Parenting Plan, if you have children — is signed at the table. It is binding from that moment.
A brief final hearing follows shortly after
Often just minutes long, typically within a few weeks: the judge confirms the marriage is irretrievably broken and that the agreement was entered freely, then ratifies it.
Final Judgment — case concluded
The court enters a Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage adopting your agreement. Your case is concluded — on terms you chose, not terms chosen for you.
✶ Concluded by agreement
Route B · The Trial Route
No Agreement Is Reached
The unresolved issues head to the judge — and the preparation we’ve done since day one takes center stage.
Pre-trial conference
A working hearing where a substantial amount of the case is packaged for the judge before anyone testifies:
Pre-trial statements and memoranda framing the disputed issues
Witness lists and exhibit lists exchanged; exhibits marked
Updated financial affidavits and child support worksheets
Stipulations locking in what’s not disputed
Evidentiary motions heard; trial date and time limits set
Trial follows shortly after
A bench trial before your judge — no jury in a Florida divorce. Openings, testimony and cross-examination, experts, and exhibits on every unresolved PEACE issue.
The judge rules
The court weighs the evidence against the statutes and renders the Final Judgment — sometimes from the bench, often in writing in the weeks that follow.
✶ Decided by the court
Both roads end at the same door.
07
Step 07 / 07 · Adjudged
Final Judgment
The final word — by agreement or by trial.
Whether the judge is ratifying your settlement or ruling after trial, every case ends the same way: a Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage. It dissolves the marriage, divides the property and debts, sets any alimony and child support, adopts the parenting plan, and can restore a former name. It is the order that closes this chapter — and opens your next one.
Dissolution GrantedEnforceable OrderYour Next Chapter
Inside this phase
Making it real
The judgment gets implemented: QDROs to divide retirement accounts, deeds and titles transferred, accounts split, and support payments set in motion.
Enforcement
A final judgment is a court order. If the other side doesn’t follow it, contempt and enforcement proceedings exist to make them.
Modification later
Support and timesharing can be revisited on a substantial change in circumstances — and since 2023, the change no longer needs to have been unanticipated.
Appeals
A party who believes the court got the law wrong generally has 30 days to appeal. Short window, high stakes — don’t sit on it.
Divorce is one of the hardest passages a person walks through — but it is a passage, with a beginning, a middle, a fork, and an end. Our job is to make sure you never take a single step of it blind: to know the deadlines before they arrive, the numbers before they’re argued, and the options before they’re decided for you. From the first filing to the final judgment, you’ll have a steady hand beside you.
— Mack Law, P.A.
Step Zero
Start With a Conversation
Every process on this page begins the same way — a private, no-pressure conversation about your family, your finances, and your goals, with a clear read of the road ahead. Serving Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and surrounding Central Florida counties.