So, you or the other side decided to Appeal the Final Judgment, and the Appellate Court ruled that the Order under appeal is affirmed. Generally, that means that the process is at an end. The Order under appeal is approved by the Appellate court, so the order stands as the final ruling. There may be […]
Category: Appeals
How Long Does An Appeal Take In Florida?
Ideally the appeal process can take as little as 120 days, but that is a generally an unrealistic expectation of the time process because there may be many intervening factors, such as the appellate court’s determination that there should be oral argument before the court. Then, the opinion-writing process itself may be delayed. The actual […]
Can New Evidence Be Presented In An Appeal?
Cases based on new evidence are not heard by an appellate court. Generally speaking, appellate courts are not concerned with new facts or new evidence. Appeals are normally based on issues surrounding any errors made in the process of the trial and/or how the judge interpreted the law. Can An Appellate Court Hear New Evidence? […]
Duke v. Duke
In Duke vs. Duke, The trial court erred on the face of the Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage (no trial transcript was provided, so only errors appearing on the face of the order could be remedied): 1) Alimony: In awarding alimony, the court failed to impute income to the wife based upon income that […]
Mitchell vs. Mitchell
In Mitchell vs. Mitchell, a domestic violence injunction was reversed because it was not supported by competent substantial evidence. Phone calls and text messages have been found by Florida courts to constitute general harassment and therefore insufficient to ground an injunction. Similarly, verbal violence, mental instability, a bad temper, depressive and suicidal statements, angry messages, […]
Forssell v. Forssell
In Forssell vs. Forssell, the appellate court reversed a non-final order suspending time-sharing because the trial court did not indicate what if any steps would be required of the father to reinstate his time-sharing. The appellate court also reversed and remanded an order denying the dismissal of a separate domestic violence injunction. Both parties requested […]
What is “income” for purposes of child support calculations?
And how does Florida factor in disability benefits that go directly to the opposing party? First, F.S. 61.046(8) states, “‘Income’ means any form of payment to an individual, regardless of source, including, but not limited to: wages, salary, commissions and bonuses, compensation as an independent contractor, worker’s compensation, disability benefits, annuity and retirement benefits, pensions, […]
Castillo vs. Castillo
In Castillo vs. Castillo, the trial court improperly applied the unclean hands doctrine to summarily deny a petition for modification. Where a spouse has the ability to pay an arrearage and does not do so, he is not in court with clean hands and in such case his petition should not be considered on the […]
Perez vs. Fay
You may recall the decision from last year that reversed an order by Judge Elisabeth Adams which, among other things, restricted the mother from speaking Spanish to the child. In that appellate case the mother had prevailed on 7 of the 8 issues that she appealed. When she sought to tax appellate costs on remand, […]
Addie vs. Coale
Addie vs. Coale has a history in the 4th district. When it was first appealed, it was remanded for reconsideration of the alimony and child support aspects of the final judgment. On remand, the successor trial judge entered an alimony and child support award, but it was deficient in that findings were not made on […]