The followingis a child support modification case under UIFSA. The Florida court never obtained subject matter jurisdiction allowing it to modify the foreign court’s child support order, so the modification was void. UIFSA has specific requirements to grant a state the jurisdiction to modify a foreign court’s child support order, none of which was satisfied […]
Tag: appeal
Ellisen v. Ellisen
The trial court in the attached case misconstrued the pleadings, and denied a petition for modification of alimony based upon the wrong legal standard. When modification of an existing order of support is sought, the proof required to modify a settlement agreement and the proof required to modify an award established by court order shall […]
Wood v. Blunck
The following is an alimony modification case. The substantial change of circumstances necessary to modify an alimony award must bear on either the payee spouse’s need for alimony or the payor spouse’s ability to pay it. When the payee spouse’s need decreases significantly, alimony should ordinarily be modified downward even if the payor spouse has […]
Gerber v. Gerber
In the following case, the Former Husband was held in contempt of an order regarding the repayment of medical expenses. However, the contempt finding was premature in that the finding of contempt occurred in the same hearing as a clarification of the order at issue. An order that is indefinite or ambiguous may not be […]
Spaulding v. Shane
In the attached domestic violence injunction cas, after more than ten years, the Respondent asked that the Injunction be dissolved. The trial judge denied the request, but the appellate court ruled that the request should have been granted because the trial court used the wrong standard. The Respondent is serving a long prison sentence with […]
Garcell v. Garcell
the following case the appellate court reversed a Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage because the Wife was not given an opportunity to fully present her case. At the conclusion of the final hearing, the court granted the Wife 45 days to complete discovery and then to reschedule the hearing to learn about what had […]
Giddins v. Giddins
the attached case the Husband and Wife had entered a Marital Settlement Agreement, but before it was approved by the trial court, the Wife filed a Motion to Set Aside the settlement agreement. Despite the motion, though, the trial court entered a Final Judgment adopting the agreement over the Wife’s objection. This was error. The […]
Terkeurst v. Terkeurst
In the attached child support case, the award of child support and arrears is reversed and remanded for recalculation. The trial court did not use the proper method for substantial shared timesharing. The parties had a 50/50 timesharing arrangement, but the trial court failed to use the gross-up method to calculate the child support, and […]
Schmidt v. Schmidt
The attached alimony case has a tortured procedural history, apparently due to things that were happening during the passage of time between trial and the final judgment. The original trial judge made oral pronouncements and requested submissions of proposed alimony findings, and the final judgment that was later entered did not accurately reflect the oral […]
Phillips v. Phillips
The following case reversed the granting of an Injunction for Protection Against Domestic Violence because the pleading and testimony failed to allege that violence had occurred or that there was a reasonable fear that violence would occur. The wife had testified that no violence had in fact occurred in the four months preceding her petition. […]