Believe it or not, most divorces do not end in a knockdown, drag out, fight of the century type legal battle. Statistically, most divorces will resolve themselves before going to trial. Unfortunately, not every break-up and divorce starts off with both parties communicating well and problem-solving together. Most people who call our office about a contested divorce did not wake up one day and choose a path of conflict. Most often, conflict finds our clients because they chose to not to give up and give in. Somewhere along the way, they realized the person on the other side of the marriage was not going to be reasonable and they drew a line in the sand.
A contested divorce is what we call litigation in family law. And like litigation, a contested divorce is a structured process with rules, deadlines, and a decision-maker at the end of it (if you cannot work out an agreement at mediation). Before we get lost in the weeds, let’s define what a contested divorce actually is and what it is not.
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR OPTIONS
What is a Contested Divorce?
A divorce is contested when the spouses have not reached a complete, agreement on every issue required to end the marriage, or when one spouse disputes, will not disclose, or simply will not participate in the divorce process. A contested divorce is the default option available to anyone who wants to get divorced. To contrast that concept, a collaborative divorce or an uncontested divorce require the cooperation and agreement of both parties.
First, contested divorce does not mean hostile. You and your spouse can agree the marriage is over, agree the house should be sold, and still have a contested case because you disagree about what a business is worth or how a holiday schedule should work. One unresolved issue is enough. Plenty of contested cases involve two reasonable people and one genuinely difficult question.
Second, contested divorce does not mean trial. The word describes the status of your issues, not the destination of your case. A case can begin as contested and settle completely at mediation. It can settle partially, leaving one issue for the judge. It can require a temporary relief hearing and never see a final trial. Filing a contested case is not a commitment to litigate everything. It is a decision to preserve the option of a court deciding what the two of you cannot. Statistically, very few cases end up in front of a judge for a final decision.
Florida is a no-fault state. Neither spouse has to prove wrongdoing, and one spouse cannot prevent a divorce simply by refusing to agree to it. Generally, one spouse must have lived in Florida for the six months before filing.
Parts of a Divorce Case
The question the court has to answer and that you have to design your gameplan around:
Parenting (Parental Responsibility and Timesharing)
What parental responsibility, parenting plan terms and time-sharing schedule serve the best interest of the children?
Property and debt (Equitable Distribution)
Which assets and liabilities are marital, what are they worth, what date should they be valued, and how are they divided?
Spousal Support (Alimony)
Is there a need, is there an ability to pay, and what form, amount and duration are appropriate?
Child support
What support obligation applies under the guidelines, and what adjustments are warranted?
Attorney’s Fees and Case Costs
Should one spouse contribute to the other spouse’s attorney fees, case costs and expert costs?
Protection and enforcement
What interim orders are needed to protect children, income, housing, property or safety?
Each part of the divorce interacts constantly with the other parts. A time-sharing schedule changes the child support calculation. Awarding an income-producing asset to one spouse changes the alimony analysis. Exclusive use of the marital home changes the temporary expense picture. Treating any one issue in isolation is how people win a point and lose the case.
OUR APPROACH
How We Build Your Case Before We Build Your File
One of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is to begin with the end in mind. Most lawyers rush to file your case leaving you with a lot of unknowns and questions. While there are occasions when it might be necessary to rush to file, we like to open our contested divorce cases by scheduling an in-depth meeting to go over your goals, wishes, and expectations. Simply put, we do not want to treat your case like a cookie-cutter case and we want to figure out what we are actually trying to prove and why we are making our requests of the court.
Step 1
Intake
Your first contact is with our intake department, not a voicemail box. Our intake specialists are real people who work in our office and are available to answer your questions, take your information and get you scheduled with one of our attorneys to discuss your case further.
Like the emergency room attendants, our intake team triages cases to identify which cases and potential clients have the most time sensitive and urgent needs. We understand that having a conversation with a stranger can be a little uncomfortable, so we train our intake specialists to listen first. The goal is that we help walk you through this process in a non-judgmental way.
Step 2
The Intake Information Sheet
We know that your time is valuable. That is why we ask you to fill out the general information about yourself, the opposing party and the facts of your case so that your attorney can focus on the facts that impact your case the most and the questions that you need answered.
Unfortunately, a lot of people overlook the importance of filling out the Intake Information Sheet. Please make sure that you provide detailed and accurate information, including your goals and concerns. The attorneys and intake team will review your Intake Information Sheet to get a better understanding of your wants and needs.
If you have any questions or if you have any technical issues with filling out the Intake Information Sheet, please call the office and someone can help walk you through the paperwork and answer your questions.
Step 3
Consultation With Your Attorney
By the time you sit down with an attorney, you are not starting from zero. The attorneys has your facts, they have your concerns and they have your goals. We do this so the consultation can move directly to the questions that matter the most to you and the attorney can focus your time on strategy and setting expectations. Our attorneys do not just tell you what you want to hear or make empty promises. Our attorneys will take the time to set reasonable expectations based on their skills, experience, and the facts of your case.
We would rather tell you in the first meeting that a position is unlikely to succeed than let you spend eighteen months and a substantial amount of attorney’s fees finding out.
Step 4
Your Legal Team
You are assigned a whole legal team, not a single attorney. An attorney directs strategy. A paralegal manages disclosures, deadlines, and documents. Paralegals and support staff handle routine scheduling and communications. Your legal team meets daily and weekly to go over your file to make sure that it moves in the right direction.
The practical benefit of working with a team is continuity. When your attorney is in a hearing, someone who knows your case still answers the phone. When a deadline falls during a vacation, the deadline is still met. Solo practitioners and very small firms are often excellent lawyers operating without a safety net. Very large firms have depth, but you may never speak to the same person twice. A team-based structure is the answer to both problems. We do not want to be the biggest, but we strive to be the best at handling your issues timely.
At the beginning of your case, you will likely have a substantial meeting (preferably in-person) to meet with your paralegal and to go over the facts of your case in more detail. We do this for a few reasons. First, it is helpful to get additional information that may have been left out or forgotten at the time of the initial consultation. Second, it is important that you can put a face to the name of the other members of your legal team. Plus, as nice as it is to talk with one of your attorneys, working through the facts with a paralegal, at a paralegal’s rate, means your attorney’s time is spent on strategy rather than data collection.
Step 5
Building the Theory of Your Case
Clients are sometimes surprised by how long this takes. It takes that long on purpose. A good strategy and theory of your case will come from:
A complete factual picture;
Identification of your goals and the other party’s goals; and,
Researching case law specific to the facts of your case and your situation.
A theory of the case is the central, coherent story that everything else supports. It is the answer to the question a judge is silently asking from the moment your case is called: what am I being asked to do here, and why is that the right thing to do?
A weak theory sounds like a list of complaints. A strong theory just makes sense to everyone in the courtroom and it helps fill in the gaps. Building a theory is disciplined work. It means identifying what must be proven for each issue, then working backward to determine which witness, which document, which record establishes each element. It means an order of proof, so that evidence is introduced in a sequence that builds rather than confuses. It means knowing in advance which of your facts are strong, which are weak, and how the weak ones will be handled before opposing counsel raises them. And it means knowing what has to be excluded. Identifying what document that cannot be authenticated, or testimony that cannot survive a hearsay objection, (and therefore will not be evidence).
In a Florida dissolution case the judge is the fact-finder, which means every evidentiary ruling lands directly on the judge deciding your case. The judge is the only person that you need to convince why you should prevail. That also means that knowing your judge is important to your case’s success.
THE PROCESS
The Contested Divorce Process in Florida
This is how a contested case typically unfolds in Central Florida although timing varies by county, by division, and by the individual judge assigned to your case.
1. The Petition Is Filed
A contested case begins when one spouse files a petition for dissolution of marriage in circuit court. The petition states the basis for the court’s authority, identifies the issues in dispute, and requests specific relief.
The pleadings matter more than most people expect. A judge cannot award relief that was never requested. Claims for alimony, an unequal division of assets, attorney’s fees, exclusive use of the marital home, or restrictions on time-sharing generally need to be pleaded so the other side has notice and a chance to respond. Petitions drafted carelessly close doors that are difficult to reopen.
Depending on the case, the initial filing package may include a family court cover sheet, a notice of related cases, a notice of social security number, a sworn financial affidavit, a child support worksheet, a proposed parenting plan, and an affidavit disclosing where the children have lived and whether any other court has been involved with them.
2. The Summons Is Issued and Served
The clerk opens the case, assigns a case number and a division, and issues a summons. That summons and the petition must be formally served, generally by a sheriff or a certified process server. Handing your spouse a copy yourself does not accomplish service.
If a spouse cannot be located and service is eventually accomplished by publication, the court may be able to dissolve the marriage while lacking authority to order support, divide certain property, or enter a money judgment. That is a genuinely bad outcome, and it is avoidable with proper effort at the front end.
3. The Response/Answer Period
The served spouse generally has twenty days to file an answer or response to the Petition. The answer admits or denies the allegations and raises defenses. A spouse who wants relief of their own, rather than simply opposing what was requested, ordinarily files a counterpetition.
If you fail to file your response or answer within 20 days, the Court (or the Clerk) can grant a default. A default is not an automatic win, but it is a serious disadvantage. In addition, there is a significant time and expense in attempting to set aside a default.
4. Mandatory Disclosure and Financial Affidavits
Service also triggers the period of time for providing financial disclosures under Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285. Florida requires both parties to exchange a defined set of financial records, generally within forty-five days of service, without either side having to request them.
That exchange typically includes a sworn financial affidavit, three years of tax returns, recent pay records, bank and investment account statements, retirement account records, credit card statements, deeds, loan applications and financial statements, and insurance information.
Three points that are important to consider when you are completing your mandatory disclosures and financial affidavit:
The financial affidavit itself is sworn testimony. It is filed with the court, it is signed under oath, and it will be used to cross-examine you if it turns out to be wrong. Rushing it or guessing is a mistake that could bite you later on in your case;
Your mandatory disclosures are generally exchanged between the parties. Do not file them with in the public court file. Your bank statements and tax returns do not ordinarily become public record. You are only required to file the Certificate of Compliance with Mandatory Disclosure.
The obligation is continuing. A bonus, a new job, an inheritance, a refinance or an appraisal that arrives in month nine may need to be disclosed. Concealment tends to surface, and when it does it damages credibility on every other issue in the case.
5. Discovery
Mandatory disclosure is a floor, not a ceiling. It tells you what someone chose to hand over. Discovery is how you test whether that picture is complete.
Tool
What it is used for
Interrogatories
Written questions under oath identifying assets, income sources, claimed nonmarital property, expenditures and witnesses
Requests for production
Bank, business, payroll, tax, real estate, electronic and communication records
Depositions
Sworn questioning of a spouse, employer, accountant, business partner, expert or other witness
Nonparty subpoenas
Records obtained directly from banks, employers, plan administrators, schools or accountants
Requests for admission
Narrowing disputes over authenticity, ownership, dates, balances and payments
Expert discovery
Testing an opposing expert’s methodology, assumptions, source data and compensation
Discovery has to stay proportional. A request does not become appropriate simply because a marriage was long or because trust is gone. Courts can limit discovery that is not likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, duplicative, harassing or disproportionate, and they can enter protective orders. Discovery that is not aimed at proving something specific is expensive noise.
When a spouse will not voluntarily comply and produce documents, the remedy is a motion to compel.
6. Experts
Contested cases frequently require expertise beyond what a court can be expected to supply on its own. Depending on the issues, that may include a forensic accountant to trace funds or reconstruct income, a business valuation expert, a real estate or personal property appraiser, a specialist to prepare a retirement division order, a vocational expert addressing earning capacity, a tax professional, or a mental health professional or social investigator addressing parenting issues.
Experts are an investment. The question is always whether the expected benefit justifies the cost, and whether a single agreed neutral could resolve the issue for a fraction of what two opposing experts will spend disagreeing with each other.
Sometimes, the parties can hire a joint expert and split the cost. However, the normal expectation is that each side retains their own expert.
7. Mediation
Mediation is a confidential, facilitated negotiation. A neutral mediator helps the parties try to reach agreement. The mediator does not decide anything, does not report your settlement discussions to the judge, and does not make recommendations about who should win.
In Central Florida, mediation is not optional in most contested divorce and contested family law cases.
In Orange and Osceola counties, contested family cases are referred to mediation by administrative order. Divisional procedures direct parties to mediate before scheduling hearing time on temporary matters and before filing a notice for trial, and hearing requests generally have to identify the date of the last mediation.
In Seminole County, the family division’s uniform procedures are explicit, “except in an emergency, a party seeking temporary relief must first complete mediation or agree to have the request heard by a general magistrate”. A temporary relief hearing cannot even be requested until mediation has been scheduled and the notice of mediation is visible in the court file, and the hearing is set for a date after mediation is completed.
In Volusia County, mediation is likewise expected in contested family matters, and temporary and post-judgment hearings are frequently conducted by a general magistrate rather than the assigned judge.
This is the practical reason for requiring mediation is simple – most cases will ultimately resolve themselves in a mediation. To avoid additional strain on the judiciary, courts all over the State of Florida are requiring mediation to occur early and, in some cases, often. Mediation does not suspend discovery, and it does not prevent a party from seeking interim or emergency relief. Seminole County’s procedures identify emergencies specifically: a child threatened with imminent harm, or an imminent likelihood that a child will be improperly removed from the court’s jurisdiction. If a genuine emergency exists, no one waits for a mediation date.
The distinction matters enormously. Someone who believes mediation must always come first may wait months while a situation deteriorates. Someone who labels an ordinary dispute an emergency damages their credibility with the judge who will decide their case. Knowing which is which is a large part of what experienced counsel is for.
What Makes Mediation Work
Mediation succeeds or fails on preparation. Walking in with reliable financial affidavits, a schedule of assets and debts, valuations or an agreed method for reaching them, a child support calculation, a proposed parenting plan, and draft implementation language is the difference between a settlement and a wasted day.
A mediated agreement can also be a partial agreement. Resolving the some of the marital issues like personal property while reserving a business valuation or an alimony question for the judge is often the most efficient available outcome. Narrowing a trial from nine issues to one changes both the cost and the amount of time that you have to wait for a trial.
A word of caution about agreements: always think about what happens, or what should happen, should one of you fail to comply with the agreement. Refinancing deadlines, transfer procedures, tax filings, security for support obligations, insurance, and what happens when someone does not comply all belong in a good agreement.
8. Motion Practice and Temporary Relief
A motion asks the court to decide something while the case is pending. Temporary orders exist to stabilize a family during a process that can take many months, and to make sure a meaningful final result is still possible when the case ends.
A temporary ruling is not a prediction of the final outcome. Temporary hearings are short, the record is compressed, and a trial may include far more evidence. But temporary orders set the conditions everyone lives under in the meantime, and those conditions have a way of becoming the status quo a court is reluctant to disturb. That is precisely why they deserve real preparation.
Motion
What it asks the court to do
Temporary alimony
Order interim spousal support based on need and ability to pay while the case is pending
Temporary child support
Set interim support, health insurance, uncovered medical costs and childcare
Temporary attorney’s fees and costs
Order one spouse to fund the other’s ability to participate, including expert expenses
Temporary parenting plan and time-sharing
Establish decision-making, a schedule, exchanges, communication and travel provisions
Exclusive use of the marital home
Determine who occupies the residence and who pays the carrying costs
Injunction preserving assets
Restrain transfer, concealment, liquidation, borrowing against or waste of specific property
Appointment of a guardian ad litem
Appoint an independent representative to investigate and advocate for the children
Social investigation or parenting evaluation
Order a neutral evaluation and recommendations on a parenting plan
Appointment of a parenting coordinator
Provide structured help implementing a parenting plan and resolving recurring disputes
Motion to compel
Require disclosure, interrogatory answers, documents or deposition participation
Protective order
Limit discovery that is privileged, unsafe, abusive or disproportionate
Discovery sanctions
Impose fees, evidentiary consequences or other remedies for noncompliance
Contempt or enforcement
Compel compliance with an existing order on support, fees, property or time-sharing
Emergency motion
Obtain immediate relief where ordinary scheduling would allow serious, irreparable harm
9. Trial
When the pleadings are closed and the case is ready, a party files a notice that the case is at issue, and the court sets it for trial according to its docket and local requirements.
A Florida divorce trial is a bench trial. There is no jury. The judge assesses credibility, resolves factual conflicts, rules on evidence, applies the statutory factors and enters findings. Both parties present testimony, documents, expert opinions and cross-examination.
Before trial, courts commonly require updated financial affidavits, witness and exhibit lists, expert disclosures, proposed parenting plans, child support worksheets, equitable distribution schedules and stipulations of undisputed facts.
10. The Final Judgment and Everything After
The final judgment dissolves the marriage and resolves what remains: the classification, valuation and division of assets and debts, alimony, a detailed parenting plan and time-sharing schedule, child support and
After judgment, several paths remain open. A motion for rehearing asks the trial court to correct a specific error. An appeal generally has to be filed within thirty days of the judgment, and that deadline is unforgiving. Enforcement addresses noncompliance. Modification is different from enforcement: child support, parenting plans and some alimony obligations can be modified when a substantial change in circumstances is proven, while the division of property is generally final.
Relocating with a child is governed by its own detailed process in Florida Statute 61.13001.
WEIGHING LITIGATION
The Honest Advantages and Disadvantages
What Litigation Gives You
- Enforceable process. A court can compel disclosure, subpoena third parties, freeze assets, establish temporary support and sanction noncompliance. Negotiation cannot do any of that. When a spouse is hiding income or refusing to participate, this is the only thing that works.
- A neutral decision-maker. You are not required to accept a bad settlement because the other side is more aggressive, more patient or better funded.
- A record. Findings, testimony, exhibits and written orders create a foundation for enforcement later, and preserve the ability to seek appellate review if the court makes a legal error.
- Targeting. Filing a contested case does not require contesting everything. Stipulating to values, account balances, personal property and an interim schedule while litigating only what genuinely matters is both possible and usually advisable.
What Litigation Costs You
- Control. At trial, a judge who knows your family through a few hours of testimony decides your future. Courts work within the remedies the statutes provide. They cannot construct the nuanced trade-off two people could have negotiated privately. A result can be entirely lawful and satisfy no one.
- Money. Attorney time, depositions, transcripts, forensic accounting, appraisals, evaluations, guardian ad litem fees, mediation and trial preparation consume resources that would otherwise remain in the family. Florida allows need-based fee shifting, but an award may be partial, delayed or offset. It should never be treated as guaranteed financing.
- Time. There is no standard duration. Timing depends on service, disclosure compliance, discovery volume, expert availability, court congestion, mediation, temporary hearings and continuances.
- Privacy. Source documents are generally exchanged rather than filed, but petitions, motions, financial affidavits, orders and judgments typically become court records.
- Conflict. Depositions, emergency motions and contested parenting testimony can affect a co-parenting relationship long after the case ends. A court can regulate behavior. It cannot create trust.
WHEN TO LITIGATE
When Contested Litigation Is the Right Choice
Litigation is the right call when one or more of these is true:
- You do not have the full financial picture and your spouse will not disclose financial information, or the disclosure provided does not reconcile with what you know to be true.
- Assets are being moved, spent, borrowed against or concealed.
- You are being denied time with your children.
- Your spouse has cut off access to money, housing or health insurance.
- There is a safety concern involving you or your children.
- Your spouse simply will not participate, will not respond and will not engage.
MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE
Contested and Uncontested Divorce Compared
Many cases begin contested and end by agreement. Just because your case starts off as a contested divorce, that does not mean that you will not settle your case at mediation and it does not mean that you are inevitably going to a trial.
Factor
Uncontested
Contested
Who decides the outcome
You and your spouse
A judge, unless you settle first
Typical timeline
Weeks to a few months
Months to more than a year
Cost
Substantially lower
Significantly higher and harder to predict
Financial disclosure
Exchanged cooperatively
Court-enforced, with discovery available
Ability to compel information
None beyond good faith
Subpoenas, depositions, motions to compel, sanctions
Interim protection
Limited
Temporary orders on support, parenting, housing and assets
Privacy
Largely resolved outside court
Filings and orders generally become court records
Emotional toll
Lower, solution-focused
Higher, adversarial
Best suited for
Two people negotiating in good faith with full information
Concealment, refusal to participate, safety concerns or genuinely irreconcilable positions
If you and your spouse are aligned on most issues and both willing to disclose fully, the uncontested path is faster, cheaper and a reduced emotional toll. If possible, choosing an uncontested divorce is often the better strategic decision.
TIMELINE
How Long a Contested Divorce Takes in Florida
There is no statewide answer, and any firm that gives you a confident number before reviewing your case is guessing. What we can describe is what drives the timeline.
How quickly your spouse is served, and whether they respond.
Whether both sides comply with financial disclosure on schedule.
The volume and complexity of discovery, and whether experts are needed.
Whether mediation resolves the case in whole or in part.
Court congestion in your county and division, and how much trial time your case requires.
Cases involving a closely held business, relocation, allegations of abuse or interstate jurisdictional questions generally take considerably longer than cases with ordinary income and limited assets. Our approach is to give you a realistic range early and update it as facts develop, rather than offering an optimistic number you will later feel misled by.
WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE TK LAW
Why Clients Choose TK Law for Contested Divorce Cases
Systems, not scrambling. The fact information sheet, the case theory, the order of proof, the redundant systems to keep track of the calendar and deadlines. These exist so that nothing depends on someone remembering something at the right moment. Predictability is not a luxury in litigation. It is how cases are won.
A team. A partner, and an attorney directing strategy, a paralegal, and support staff keeping you informed. Depth without the distance of a large institution.
Open communication. You will know what is happening in your case, what is coming next, and what it is likely to cost. Clients who understand their case make better decisions, and better decisions produce better outcomes.
Trial capability. Our attorneys prepare cases to be tried. That preparation is what gives a settlement position weight. Opposing counsel negotiates differently with a file that is ready for a judge. Most of our contested cases still resolve before trial, which is usually the better result. We simply do not rely on it.
One Firm for Life. A divorce touches your estate plan, your business, your beneficiary designations and your real estate. We are still here when those questions come up, and we already know your history.
START THE PROCESS TODAY
Talk to a Central Florida Contested Divorce Attorney
The most expensive decisions in a contested divorce are usually made in the first sixty days, frequently by people acting on incomplete information. Moving money. Moving out. Signing something. Sending a message that becomes an exhibit.
A consultation will not commit you to filing anything. It will tell you where you stand, what Florida law can and cannot do in your situation, and what your realistic options are.
Call 407-834-4847 to schedule a confidential consultation. Same-day appointments are available. We serve Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Lake, and Osceola counties.