CONTESTED VS. UNCONTESTED DIVORCE IN TAMPA

The truth is that, unless one or more terms of your divorce is decided by the court, yours remains an uncontested divorce. This doesn’t mean that the path toward final terms will be smooth sailing – in fact, it might be anything but. If you are able, however, to hammer out terms that you are both willing to sign off on, your divorce will be uncontested.

In order to qualify as being an uncontested divorce, you and your divorcing spouse will need to find middle ground on all of the following matters that apply to your situation:

• The equitable division of your marital property, which refers to all those assets and debts that you took on during your married years
• Your child custody arrangements
• Child support payments
• Alimony (called spousal maintenance in Florida)
  

Each of these is important to you and your children’s post-divorce future and must be taken into careful consideration. Your dedicated family law attorney will help you protect your financial and parental rights throughout the negotiation process.

Even if you and your soon-to-be-ex aren’t seeing eye to eye on any of the matters you need to resolve, you have options when it comes to negotiating. Consider the following,

• If you and your spouse are able, you can attempt to find compromises between yourselves (under the guidance of your respective family law attorneys).
• Your respective family law attorneys can negotiate on behalf of your best interests until the necessary compromises are reached.
• If you’ve exhausted these options, mediation can help. Mediation allows you, your divorcing spouse, and your respective attorneys to negotiate under the guidance of a professional mediator who is a neutral party in the matter.
  

If you’re still not where you need to be, you’ll likely have to turn to the court to hand down decisions on those matters that remain unresolved. At this point, your divorce becomes a contested divorce. Generally, uncontested divorces are less costly and less contentious, but sometimes, the court’s intervention is necessary in order to avoid accepting terms that don’t support you or your children’s best interests.