Fort Lauderdale, Florida Family Law & Divorce: what readers usually need on the first records worth slowing down for, support records, and timing

Divorce and custody matters for Fort Lauderdale residents are heard in the Family Division of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit at the Broward County Courthouse (201 SE 6th St.), with filings through the Clerk of Courts and much of the docket handled by general and family magistrates. Florida is an equitable-distribution state under Fla. Stat. section 61.075, not a community-property state: marital assets and debts acquired during the marriage are divided fairly, which the law presumes means equally unless statutory factors justify an unequal split, while non-marital property owned before the marriage or received by individual gift or inheritance stays with its owner if it is traced and not commingled. Florida divorce is no-fault, and the only ground most couples need is that the marriage is irretrievably broken under Fla. Stat. section 61.052, so neither spouse must prove wrongdoing. At least one spouse must have lived in Florida for six months before filing (Fla. Stat. section 61.021). Fort Lauderdale's waterfront wealth makes asset characterization unusually intricate: yachts and boat slips, canal-front and beachfront homes, closely held marine and hospitality businesses, and offshore or foreign holdings tied to the city's large international community all require valuation and tracing.

Florida overhauled alimony in 2023. Senate Bill 1416 ABOLISHED permanent alimony going forward and restructured the remaining forms under Fla. Stat. section 61.08: temporary alimony during the case, bridge-the-gap alimony up to two years to ease the transition to single life, rehabilitative alimony up to five years tied to a specific retraining plan, and durational alimony for a set term. Durational alimony cannot run longer than 50 percent of a short-term marriage under 10 years, 60 percent of a moderate-term marriage of 10 to 20 years, or 75 percent of a long-term marriage over 20 years, and its amount is capped at the recipient's reasonable need or 35 percent of the difference in the parties' net incomes, whichever is less. The 2023 law also built a framework for modifying or ending alimony when the payor retires and clarified how supportive relationships cut off support. Beyond a statutory 20-day minimum from filing to final judgment, there is no long waiting period, so an uncontested Fort Lauderdale divorce can close in weeks, while a contested case over a marine business or a Las Olas condo can run well past a year, and retirement accounts split in the process require a Qualified Domestic Relations Order to implement.

Custody in Florida is framed as parental responsibility and time-sharing, not custody and visitation, under Fla. Stat. section 61.13, and every decision is measured against the best interests of the child. A 2023 amendment created a REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION that equal 50/50 time-sharing serves the child, so negotiations now begin from an equal-time baseline unless a parent proves equal time would not serve the child. Shared parental responsibility, meaning both parents keep decision-making rights over education, health care, and religion, is favored unless it would harm the child. Parents must file a detailed parenting plan covering schedules, decision-making, and communication, or the court imposes one. Relocating a child more than 50 miles for 60 or more days requires the other parent's written agreement or court approval under Florida's strict relocation statute (Fla. Stat. section 61.13001), a recurring flashpoint in a mobile, international city where a parent may want to return to the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada, or Europe. Interstate disputes run under the UCCJEA, and international abduction cases invoke the Hague Convention, both live concerns given Fort Lauderdale's global population.

Domestic-violence protection runs through the same downtown courthouse and a strong local advocacy network. Petitions for injunctions against domestic, repeat, dating, sexual, and stalking violence are filed with free help from the Clerk's self-help program under Fla. Stat. sections 741.30 and 784.046, and a judge can issue a temporary ex parte injunction the same day on a showing of immediate danger, with a full hearing set within about 15 days for a final injunction that can be permanent. Women in Distress of Broward County operates the county's certified domestic-violence center with a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, counseling, and courthouse advocacy; the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the Broward Sheriff's Office enforce injunctions, and any violation is a crime. Because Fort Lauderdale has one of the largest LGBTQ+ populations in the Southeast, dating-violence and same-sex partner injunctions are a routine part of this docket and carry the identical protections. Survivors with immigration concerns keep independent remedies, VAWA self-petitions, U visas with law-enforcement certification, and T visas, regardless of an abuser's status.

Child support follows the income-shares model of Fla. Stat. section 61.30, combining both parents' net incomes, the number of children, health-insurance and childcare costs, and the number of overnights each parent exercises to produce a guideline figure; the substantial-overnight adjustment that kicks in at 20 percent of overnights interacts directly with the new equal-time-sharing presumption and can reshape the number. The Florida Department of Revenue Child Support Program establishes, enforces, and modifies support for many families using income-deduction orders, license suspension, tax-refund interception, and contempt, while private counsel handles contested and higher-asset cases through the circuit court. Support generally runs until a child turns 18, or 19 if still in high school on track to graduate, with provisions for dependent adult children with disabilities, and any change requires a substantial change in circumstances filed before it takes effect. Self-represented litigants, a large share of Broward's family docket, can use the Florida Supreme Court approved family-law forms and the Clerk's self-help resources; Legal Aid Service of Broward County assists income-qualifying families, the Broward County Bar Association refers to family-law specialists, and the circuit requires mediation before most contested final hearings.