Florida Divorce Laws

Florida has been a no-fault state since 1971, and chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes governs every dissolution of marriage filed here. Two recent acts changed a great deal of it: the 2023 alimony law, which abolished permanent alimony and capped what remains, and the 2023 time-sharing law, which presumes equal time-sharing is in a child’s best interests. Much of what is written elsewhere predates both. This is what the statutes say, in the order the questions arise.

On this page

• Is Florida a no-fault state?
• The six-month residency rule
• Simplified or regular dissolution?
• Filing to final judgment
• Mandatory disclosure
• Dividing property and debt
• Alimony after the 2023 reform
• Time-sharing and parenting plans
• Child support
• How long it takes
• Name restoration and modification
• FAQs

Is Florida a no-fault divorce state?

Yes. Section 61.052 allows dissolution on only two grounds, both pleaded generally rather than proved in detail. The first, used in almost every case, is that the marriage is irretrievably broken: you do not allege adultery, cruelty or desertion, and you do not establish who caused the breakdown.

The second is mental incapacity, and its preconditions are strict: the party said to be incapacitated must have been adjudged incapacitated under section 744.331 for a preceding period of at least three years. Notice must go to one of the nearest blood relatives or to the guardian, who may appear and be heard, and the court may require the petitioner to pay alimony.

An unwilling spouse cannot simply refuse. Where there is no minor child and the respondent does not deny in an answer that the marriage is irretrievably broken, the court shall enter judgment if it finds that it is. Where there is a child, or the respondent denies it, section 61.052(2)(b) lets the court order counselling or pause the case up to three months.

No-fault does not make conduct irrelevant. Section 61.08(1)(a) lets the court weigh adultery and its economic impact when setting the amount of alimony; section 61.075(1)(i) makes intentional dissipation of marital assets a distribution factor; and domestic violence bears on parental responsibility under section 61.13.

Who can file: the six-month residency rule

Section 61.021 is one sentence: to obtain a dissolution of marriage, one of the parties must reside 6 months in the state before the petition is filed. Only one of you needs to satisfy it, and a petition filed early is vulnerable.

Residence is also the one fact the statute singles out for corroboration. Section 61.052(2) provides that evidence need not be corroborated except as to residence, which may be established by a Florida driver license, voter’s registration card or identification card issued under section 322.051, or the testimony or affidavit of a third party.

Cases are filed in the circuit court, with a petition and summons served as in civil actions generally (section 61.043). Where a spouse cannot be found, section 49.011(4) permits service by publication — a narrow door with real limits on what the court can order.

Simplified dissolution or regular dissolution?

Simplified dissolution is governed by rule 12.105 of the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure. Both spouses sign a joint petition and attend one hearing. All of the following must be true: you agree the marriage cannot be saved; you have no minor or dependent children together and the wife is not pregnant; you have already agreed how to divide assets and liabilities; neither seeks alimony; and you are both willing to give up trial and appeal.

What you surrender is substantial. Mandatory disclosure does not apply, so there is no required exchange of tax returns, pay records or account statements — you are dividing an estate nobody has verified — and you give up a trial and an appeal on the merits.

Regular dissolution is everything else. Disclosure applies, the court can grant temporary relief, and you keep the right to a trial and an appeal. Uncontested is not the same as simplified: you can file a regular petition, exchange disclosure, sign a settlement agreement and finish without a trial. With a house, a retirement account, a business or children, that is the better trade.

How the case moves from filing to final judgment

• Petition and service under section 61.043. After personal service the respondent has 20 days to answer, and may counterpetition.
• Disclosure under rule 12.285, within 45 days of service.
• Temporary relief. Section 61.071 allows a claim for alimony pendente lite and suit money, and the court shall allow a reasonable sum where the claim is well founded. Section 61.16 permits fees to be shifted after weighing both parties’ resources, so a spouse without money is not outgunned by default.
• Parenting course. Where there are minor children, section 61.21 requires both parties to complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before final judgment — the petitioner within 45 days of filing, others within 45 days of service.
• Mediation. In circuits with a family mediation program, section 44.102(2)(c) says the court shall refer custody, visitation and parental-responsibility disputes to mediation — and shall not, on a party’s request, where it finds a history of domestic violence that would compromise the process. Under section 61.183 an agreement reached there becomes a consent order. Most judges will not set a trial date until you have mediated.
• Final judgment. Section 61.19 bars a final judgment until at least 20 days have elapsed from the filing of the original petition, unless the court finds injustice would result from the delay.

Mandatory disclosure and the financial affidavit

Rule 12.285 is the engine of a Florida divorce, and the part self-represented parties most underestimate. Each side must serve the other with a sworn financial affidavit — short form under $50,000 of individual gross annual income, long form at $50,000 or more — and a defined list of documents, within 45 days of service. The list runs to three years of tax returns, six months of pay stubs, every loan application, financial statement or credit report prepared in the previous 24 months, deeds, notes, leases, and bank, brokerage and retirement statements.

Three features matter. The documents go to the other party, not the court file: only the affidavit and a certificate of compliance are filed, absent a court order. The rule does not apply to a simplified dissolution, nor where a respondent is served by constructive service and never answers. And while the parties can modify parts of the rule by agreement, the financial affidavit cannot be waived.

The duty is continuing. A party who does not comply can be compelled, sanctioned and ordered to pay the other side’s fees, and concealment found later can support setting a judgment aside. Where the numbers are complicated, this is where the case is won: see high-net-worth divorce.

How Florida divides property and debt

Section 61.075 governs. The court sets apart to each spouse that spouse’s non-marital assets and liabilities, then divides the marital estate beginning with the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless the statutory factors justify otherwise — among them each spouse’s contribution including homemaking, the duration of the marriage, interrupted careers, keeping a business intact or the home available to a dependent child, and intentional dissipation.

Marital assets include everything acquired during the marriage; the enhancement in value of non-marital assets from either party’s efforts or from marital funds; retirement and deferred compensation accrued during the marriage; interspousal gifts; and the marital interests in a closely held business. Non-marital covers what each party brought in, assets acquired by non-interspousal gift, bequest, devise or descent, income from non-marital assets unless treated as marital, and anything excluded by written agreement. Anything acquired after the date of the marriage and not shown to be non-marital is presumed marital, as is property held as tenants by the entireties.

The dates are two questions. Section 61.075(7) fixes the cut-off for classifying assets as the earliest of a valid separation agreement, a date that agreement sets, or the filing of the petition. Valuation is whatever date the judge finds just and equitable, and different assets may be valued as of different dates — a discretion that can move more money than any argument about fairness.

What changed in 2024

• Interspousal gifts of real property now need a writing complying with section 689.01, though such gifts remain marital.
• Joining a deed does not convert separate property. Where a spouse joins in a deed solely to convey homestead property to a third party, that joinder does not make the property or the sale proceeds marital.
• Inherited or gifted real property stays non-marital unless retitled into a tenancy by the entireties.
• Closely held businesses have a statutory valuation standard. The standard is fair market value, and goodwill separate from the owner spouse’s continued presence and reputation is enterprise goodwill — a marital asset the court must value.

For tracing and buyouts see division of property in a Florida divorce, who gets the house, and is Florida a 50/50 state.

Alimony after the 2023 reform

Chapter 2023-315, Laws of Florida, rewrote section 61.08 and applies to every initial petition pending or filed on or after 1 July 2023. It removed the court’s authority to award permanent alimony; four forms survive.

Before any of them the court must find an actual need and an ability to pay, with the burden on the party seeking support. Written findings are required on the statutory factors: duration of the marriage, standard of living, age and health, resources and income including from non-marital assets, earning capacity, contributions to the marriage, and responsibility for children.

Length of marriage drives the arithmetic. Section 61.08(5) presumes a marriage of less than 10 years is short-term, 10 to 20 years moderate-term, and 20 or more long-term, measured from the date of marriage to the date of filing.

• Temporary alimony is support during the case, under section 61.071.
• Bridge-the-gap alimony meets legitimate identifiable short-term needs. It may not exceed 2 years, ends on death or the recipient’s remarriage, and cannot be modified in amount or duration.
• Rehabilitative alimony funds a return to self-support through skills, education or training. The order must contain a specific and defined plan, and the award may not exceed 5 years.
• Durational alimony gives economic assistance for a set period. It is unavailable after a marriage of less than 3 years, and may not exceed 50 percent of the length of a short-term marriage, 60 percent of a moderate-term one or 75 percent of a long-term one, extendable only on clear and convincing evidence of exceptional circumstances.

Two ceilings apply. For durational alimony, section 61.08(8)(c) sets the amount at the recipient’s reasonable need or 35 percent of the difference between the parties’ net incomes, whichever is less, with net income calculated under section 61.30(2) and (3). Section 61.08(9) separately bars an award that leaves the payor with significantly less net income than the recipient absent written findings.

Afterwards, section 61.14 applies: the amount of durational alimony can be modified on a substantial change, the length only in exceptional circumstances, and a court must reduce or terminate support on written findings that a supportive relationship exists. See Florida alimony and how alimony is calculated now.

Time-sharing, parental responsibility and parenting plans

Florida no longer uses the language of custody. Section 61.13 speaks of parental responsibility — who decides — and time-sharing, when the child is with each parent, both set out in a parenting plan the court approves.

Since chapter 2023-301, Laws of Florida, section 61.13(2)(c)1. provides a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing of a minor child is in the child’s best interests. To rebut it, a parent must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that equal time-sharing is not in the child’s best interests. Except where the parents agree a schedule the court approves, the judge must evaluate every best-interests factor and make specific written findings. Parental responsibility is shared unless sharing would be detrimental, and a conviction for a first-degree misdemeanour or higher involving domestic violence creates a rebuttable presumption of detriment.

A parenting plan must at a minimum describe how the parents will share the daily tasks of upbringing; set the time-sharing schedule; designate responsibility for health care, for school-related matters including the address used for school-boundary determination, and for other activities; describe how each parent will communicate with the child; and designate exchange locations. The best-interests analysis runs to twenty factors and none controls, from each parent’s willingness to encourage the child’s relationship with the other to the school record and evidence of domestic violence.

On modification, be careful what you read. The 2023 legislation deleted the requirement that a change be unanticipated. It did not remove the requirement of a substantial and material change, and Florida courts still require that the change have arisen since the last order, together with a finding that modification is in the child’s best interests. Several widely circulated summaries get this wrong. One rule was added: where the parents lived more than 50 miles apart when the last order was entered and one moves within 50 miles of the other, that move may count as a substantial and material change. See time-sharing and child custody, or defending a modification.

How child support is calculated

Section 61.30 sets income-shares guidelines, and the guideline figure presumptively establishes the award.

Gross income is broadly defined: wages, bonuses, commissions, overtime and tips; business income net of ordinary and necessary expenses; disability, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits; pensions and social security; spousal support received; and interest, dividends, rental and trust income. Income is imputed to a parent voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, and one who will not produce financial information is presumed to earn a year-round full-time worker’s median income.

Net income is gross income minus a closed list: income taxes adjusted for filing status and allowable dependents, federal insurance or self-employment tax, mandatory union dues and retirement payments, health insurance excluding the child’s coverage, court-ordered support for other children actually paid, and court-ordered spousal support. Nothing else comes off — not a car payment, not a mortgage, not a credit card.

The two net incomes are combined, run against the statutory schedule to produce the minimum support need, and each parent takes a proportionate share. Child care and health insurance are added and apportioned.

Time-sharing changes the number. Where the plan gives the child substantial time with each parent, section 61.30(11)(b) requires the gross-up method: each parent’s obligation is multiplied by 1.5, then by the percentage of overnights the child spends with the other parent, and the difference is the transfer. A substantial amount of time means at least 20 percent of the overnights in a year — 73 nights.

A court may vary from the guideline figure by up to 5 percent after weighing the child’s needs, age and station in life. Going further requires a written finding that the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate, on factors that include extraordinary medical or educational expenses, special needs, and an order taking more than 55 percent of a parent’s gross income. Support usually ends at 18, unless the child is still in high school with a reasonable expectation of graduating before 19. See child support and imputation of income.

How long a Florida divorce takes

The statutory floor is 20 days from filing under section 61.19; nothing else in chapter 61 sets a deadline for finishing. The real timetable comes from the 45-day disclosure period, the parenting course, the court’s calendar, and how much genuine disagreement there is. A simplified dissolution can be over in weeks, an uncontested one in a couple of months, a contested case with a business to value in many. The delays that hurt are the same three: incomplete disclosure, a fight about value, and a contested schedule. See how long a divorce takes in Florida and how much a divorce costs.

Name restoration and life after the judgment

Restore a former name in the divorce, not afterwards. The Supreme Court approved petitions include a section asking the court to restore a former legal name, carried into the final judgment. Done separately later under section 68.07, restoration is at least exempt from the criminal-history check other name changes require.

Not everything can be revisited. Equitable distribution is a one-time division: where the court orders a cash payment to equalise it, section 61.075(2) provides that the amount vests when awarded and is a debt surviving remarriage or death. Support is different — section 61.14 allows alimony and child support to be raised, lowered or ended as circumstances change, and parenting plans can be modified under section 61.13 on a substantial and material change plus best interests.

If you want representation rather than an explanation, our Orlando divorce attorney page sets out how the firm handles these cases. For narrower questions, see the Florida family-law questions library.

Florida divorce laws: FAQs

This page is general information about Florida law as of its last review and is not legal advice; how these rules apply depends on facts a page cannot know. Citations are to sections 44.102, 49.011, 61.021, 61.043, 61.052, 61.071, 61.075, 61.08, 61.13, 61.14, 61.16, 61.19, 61.21, 61.30, 68.07, 322.051, 689.01 and 744.331, Florida Statutes; chapters 2023-301, 2023-315 and 2024-237, Laws of Florida; and rules 12.105 and 12.285, Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure.