How do I file for divorce in Miami-Dade County, and does it matter that we married abroad?

Florida divorce is procedurally simple at the front end, and foreign marriages fit into it more easily than people fear: The requirements: Florida is a NO-FAULT state — you only allege the marriage is 'irretrievably broken.' Adultery or abandonment is not required (though conduct can matter for alimony and parenting). One spouse must have RESIDED IN FLORIDA FOR SIX MONTHS before filing, proven by a Florida driver's license, ID, or witness testimony. You file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts, heard in the Family Division at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center (175 NW 1st Ave.). Married abroad? Almost always fine: Florida recognizes marriages valid where celebrated — a wedding in Havana, Bogotá, Port-au-Prince, or Caracas is a valid marriage here, and you can divorce in Miami-Dade if the residency requirement is met, even if your spouse lives abroad (serving a foreign spouse has its own procedures, including the Hague Service Convention where applicable — slower, but routine for local counsel). You do NOT need to divorce in the country where you married. The timeline: A final judgment can issue as soon as 20 days after filing. A truly uncontested case — agreement on everything, financial affidavits exchanged — can finish in weeks. Contested cases with property, support, or parenting disputes take months to over a year, with mediation required before trial in the Eleventh Circuit. The simplified option: Couples with no minor children, no pregnancy, agreement on property division, and both spouses willing to appear can use the simplified dissolution procedure — faster and cheaper, but both parties waive alimony and appeals. What filing triggers: Automatic standing orders restrain both spouses from concealing assets, changing insurance, or relocating children. Mandatory financial disclosure (financial affidavits and document exchange) follows. Practical Miami-Dade notes: The Eleventh Circuit's Self-Help Program assists unrepresented parties with forms; interpreters are available in Spanish and Haitian Creole; filing fees run around $400 (waivable for indigency). If your case involves foreign assets, a foreign spouse, immigration-status concerns, or a prenup signed abroad, get counsel experienced with international family cases — all four issues are everyday matters for the Miami family bar, and early strategy (including where and when to file) can matter enormously when more than one country's courts could take the case.

How will our property be divided — including assets in another country or a cash business?

Florida uses equitable distribution, and Miami-Dade divorces test its edges more than anywhere else in the state: The framework (Fla. Stat. §61.075): Florida is NOT a community property state — a surprise to spouses from civil-law countries whose systems presume community regimes. Instead, courts divide MARITAL assets and debts equitably, starting from a presumption of a 50/50 split and adjusting by statutory factors (each spouse's contributions, economic circumstances, interruption of careers, dissipation of assets, and more). NONMARITAL property — what you owned before the marriage, and gifts or inheritances kept separate — stays with its owner, but commingling (depositing an inheritance into a joint account, using marital funds to pay down a premarital property's mortgage) converts or partially converts it, and those tracing fights are half of equitable-distribution litigation. Foreign assets — discoverable and divisible: An apartment in Bogotá, a bank account in Spain, a condo in Punta del Este — if acquired during the marriage, they're marital assets subject to division regardless of where they sit. The Florida court divides their VALUE (it can order one spouse to pay the other an equalizing amount or offset with U.S. assets) even though it can't directly re-title foreign land. Discovery across borders is slower — letters rogatory, foreign records, valuation experts — and a spouse who hides foreign assets risks severe sanctions: Florida requires sworn financial affidavits, and concealment discovered later can reopen the judgment. The cash-business problem: Miami-Dade runs on small businesses, cash income, and self-employment — and divorce court is where declared income meets actual lifestyle. Forensic accountants reconstruct true earnings from bank deposits, spending patterns, and business records, and courts IMPUTE income to spouses whose tax returns can't explain their cars and travel. Business valuation (the import/export company, the medical practice, the construction firm) is expert territory: the marital portion of the business's value gets divided even if the business itself stays with one spouse. Prenups and foreign marital agreements: Florida enforces prenuptial agreements meeting its standards (voluntary, with fair disclosure or waiver), and agreements signed abroad — including civil-law marital property regimes elected at the time of marriage — raise genuinely contested enforceability questions local counsel litigates regularly. Protect yourself: gather documents early (statements, deeds, tax returns, business records — including for foreign holdings), don't sign anything under pressure, and get counsel with forensic and international experience. In this county, the outcome usually turns less on the law than on how well the true financial picture gets proven.

What alimony can I get (or owe) after the 2023 Florida reform?

Florida's 2023 reform (Senate Bill 1416) rewrote alimony for cases filed after July 1, 2023 — permanent alimony is gone, and everything now runs on defined types, caps, and formulas: The types that remain: - Temporary: support during the case itself. - Bridge-the-gap: up to 2 YEARS, to cover the transition to single life; not modifiable. - Rehabilitative: up to 5 YEARS, tied to a concrete plan (education, training, re-entry to the workforce). - Durational: support for a set term — the workhorse of the new law. No durational alimony for marriages under 3 years. The term can't exceed 50% of the length of a short-term marriage (under 10 years), 60% of a moderate-term (10–20 years), or 75% of a long-term marriage (20+ years). The amount cap: Durational alimony is capped at the LESSER of the recipient's reasonable NEED or 35% of the DIFFERENCE between the parties' net incomes. The court first finds need and ability to pay — the threshold for any award — then applies the type and caps. Adultery: Florida is no-fault for the divorce, but adultery and dissipation of marital funds on an affair CAN factor into alimony. Retirement: The reform created a structured path for payors to seek modification or termination at normal retirement age — considering the retirement's reasonableness, the payor's field, and the impact on the recipient. The Miami-Dade reality — proving income is the case: The formula is only as good as its inputs, and this county's cash businesses, self-employment, and international income streams make NET INCOME the true battlefield. Forensic accountants, lifestyle analyses, and imputation of income (to a spouse earning less than their capacity, or declaring less than they make) decide alimony here far more often than the statutory factors do. A spouse who suddenly 'earns nothing' the year of the divorce is a pattern Eleventh Circuit judges have seen a thousand times. Tax note: For post-2019 divorces, alimony is not deductible by the payor nor taxable to the recipient (federal law) — which changes settlement math. Strategy: run the caps early (marriage length bands create cliff effects — a 9.5-year vs. 10.5-year marriage changes the maximum term), document need and income honestly, and in any case involving self-employment or foreign income, budget for forensic accounting. Settlements can be more creative than judgments (lump sums, asset offsets), and most Miami-Dade alimony disputes resolve at mediation once the real numbers are on the table.

How does time-sharing work, and how do I stop my ex from taking our child to another country?

Florida parenting law starts from equality, and Miami-Dade adds an international dimension that demands specific protective tools: The 50/50 presumption (2023): Florida law now includes a REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION that equal time-sharing is in the child's best interest. A parent seeking more than 50% must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that equal time-sharing would not serve the child, using the best-interests factors of Fla. Stat. §61.13 (each parent's history of involvement, capacity to foster the other parent's relationship, stability, health, any violence or substance abuse, the child's needs). Parental responsibility (decision-making on education, health, religion) is presumptively SHARED. The parenting plan: Every case ends with a written plan — the weekly schedule, holidays, summer, exchanges, communication, and (critically here) INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL terms: notice requirements, itineraries, consent procedures, and passport handling. Domestic relocation: Moving a child more than 50 miles away for 60+ days requires the other parent's written agreement or a court order under Fla. Stat. §61.13001 — with strict pleading requirements. Moving first and asking later badly damages a parent's case. International abduction risk — the Miami-Dade playbook: When a parent has ties abroad and credible flight risk exists, Eleventh Circuit judges regularly order: - PASSPORT CONTROLS: surrender of the child's passport to counsel or the clerk, and orders barring new passport applications. Enroll the child in the U.S. State Department's Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program (CPIAP), which flags passport applications. - Travel restrictions: no international travel without written consent or court order; travel bonds (money posted before a trip abroad, forfeited if the child isn't returned); restrictions on travel to countries that are NOT parties to the Hague Abduction Convention. - The Hague Convention: If a child IS wrongfully removed to or retained in a member country, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction provides a return remedy — many Latin American and European countries are members, though enforcement speed varies by country. For non-Hague countries, recovery is far harder — which is why PREVENTION (passport and travel orders before the trip) is the strategy. - Act fast on threats: if your ex threatens to leave with the child, file an emergency motion immediately — courts can act same-day on credible abduction risk. Call the State Department's Office of Children's Issues (1-888-407-4747) and local police if a removal is in progress. Grandparents and extended family: Florida gives grandparents only very limited visitation rights — courts cannot generally override fit parents. Document your involvement (school, medical, daily care), keep communications civil and written, and get counsel experienced with international parenting cases — in this county, that experience is the difference between a plan that anticipates the risks and one that discovers them at the airport.

How do I get a domestic violence injunction in Miami-Dade, and what if I'm undocumented?

Miami-Dade has one of the strongest survivor-support infrastructures in Florida, and immigration status is not a barrier to protection: Immediate safety: Call 911 in an emergency. The COORDINATED VICTIMS ASSISTANCE CENTER (CVAC, 2400 S. Dixie Hwy.; 305-285-5900) is the county's one-stop center — injunction filing assistance, safety planning, counseling, emergency resources, and co-located advocates from multiple agencies, in multiple languages. Florida's statewide DV hotline is 1-800-500-1119 (24/7). The injunctions (Fla. Stat. §741.30, §784.046): Florida offers injunctions for protection against domestic violence (family/household members or co-parents), repeat violence, dating violence, sexual violence, and stalking. There is NO FILING FEE. You file a sworn petition — at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center or with CVAC's help — describing the violence or your reasonable fear of imminent violence. How fast it works: A judge reviews the petition the SAME DAY and can issue a TEMPORARY (ex parte) injunction immediately, effective once served, ordering no contact and exclusion from your home. A FINAL HEARING follows within about 15 days, where both sides present evidence; a final injunction can last for a set period or permanently, and can include no-contact terms, exclusive use of the home, temporary time-sharing of children, temporary support, batterers' intervention, and FIREARM surrender (federal and state law bar respondents under final DV injunctions from possessing guns). Violations are crimes: If the respondent violates the injunction, call police — violation is a criminal offense, arrested and prosecuted. If you're undocumented — protection still applies, and immigration relief exists: - The family court does not ask about your status, and injunctions are available regardless of it. - VAWA SELF-PETITION: spouses (and certain others) abused by a U.S. citizen or green-card holder can self-petition for immigration status WITHOUT the abuser's knowledge or cooperation. - U VISA: victims of qualifying crimes (including domestic violence) who cooperate with law enforcement may qualify. - The abuser's threats to 'call ICE' or take your children because of your status are control tactics — and using immigration status as a weapon is something judges here recognize. - Get immigration-safe legal help: Americans for Immigrant Justice (305-573-1106) and Catholic Legal Services (305-373-1073) handle VAWA and U visa cases; Dade Legal Aid (305-579-5733) and Legal Services of Greater Miami (305-576-0080) handle family cases for qualifying residents. Build the record: save messages and photos, seek medical care, and keep a dated log — the final hearing is an evidentiary proceeding, and documentation wins it. Advocates at CVAC can accompany you through every step, in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and other languages.

Family Law & Divorce in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Family cases in Miami-Dade County are heard by the Family Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, centered at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center (175 NW 1st Ave., Miami FL 33128), with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts handling filings (305-275-1155; miamidadeclerk.gov) and juvenile matters at the Children's Courthouse (155 NW 3rd St.). The county's family docket is shaped by its people: a majority-foreign-born population means marriages celebrated abroad, spouses and children with different immigration statuses, assets in other countries, and custody disputes that cross borders; a large high-net-worth community in Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, and the Brickell corridor generates complex financial cases; and a huge cash-and-small-business economy makes income determination a recurring battle. The Eleventh Circuit runs a robust Self-Help Program for unrepresented parties and provides Spanish and Haitian Creole interpreters throughout the family courts — essential infrastructure in a county where most households speak a language other than English at home.

Florida is a no-fault divorce state: the only grounds needed are that the marriage is "irretrievably broken," one spouse must have resided in Florida for six months before filing, and a final judgment can issue as soon as 20 days after the petition. Florida divides property by EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION under Fla. Stat. §61.075 — it is NOT a community property state, a point that surprises spouses from Latin American and European civil-law countries whose home systems presume community regimes. Marital assets and debts (acquired during the marriage) are divided equitably, with a starting presumption of a 50/50 split adjusted by statutory factors; nonmarital property (premarital assets, gifts, inheritances kept separate) stays with its owner, though commingling and appreciation disputes blur the lines. Miami-Dade's financial cases add layers most Florida counties rarely see: real estate and bank accounts in other countries (discovery across borders is slow and technical), closely held import/export and construction businesses requiring forensic valuation, cash income that never appears on a tax return, and prenuptial or foreign marital agreements whose enforceability under Florida law must be tested. Courts can and do impute income to spouses whose lifestyle outruns their declared earnings — a Miami specialty.

Alimony in Florida was restructured in 2023: Senate Bill 1416 ABOLISHED permanent alimony for cases filed after July 1, 2023, leaving temporary, bridge-the-gap (max 2 years), rehabilitative (max 5 years), and durational alimony — the last capped by marriage length (no durational alimony for marriages under 3 years; up to 50% of the length of a short-term marriage, 60% of a moderate-term, 75% of a long-term) and by amount (the lesser of the recipient's reasonable need or 35% of the difference in net incomes). The law also built a framework for modifying or terminating alimony when the payor reaches normal retirement age. Child support follows the income-shares model of Fla. Stat. §61.30, based on both parents' combined net income and the number of overnights each parent exercises (a substantial-time-sharing adjustment applies at 20% of overnights); the Florida Department of Revenue Child Support Program (1-850-488-5437; floridarevenue.com/childsupport) establishes and enforces support at no cost, including in international and interstate cases — and enforcement tools include income withholding, license suspension, tax-refund interception, passport denial, and contempt. In Miami-Dade, the hard part of support is usually not the formula but the inputs: proving what a cash-business owner or self-employed contractor actually earns.

Parenting cases run on "parental responsibility" and "time-sharing" (Florida abandoned "custody" terminology), with a 2023 statutory REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION that equal 50/50 time-sharing serves the child's best interests, applied through the factors of Fla. Stat. §61.13; every case requires a parenting plan covering the schedule, decision-making, and communication. Relocation with a child more than 50 miles for 60 days or more requires the other parent's agreement or court approval under Fla. Stat. §61.13001 — and in Miami-Dade the relocation statute regularly collides with international life: a parent who wants to return to Colombia, Venezuela, or Spain with the children needs a court order, not a plane ticket. INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION is a live risk in the county's cross-border families; the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction governs returns between member countries (many Latin American countries are members; enforcement quality varies), and preventive tools — passport surrender orders, the U.S. State Department's Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program (CPIAP), bond requirements for foreign travel, and specific travel restrictions in the parenting plan — are standard requests in Eleventh Circuit cases with credible flight risk. Courts here are experienced with these orders; ask for them before travel is imminent, not after.

Domestic violence support in Miami-Dade is anchored by the Coordinated Victims Assistance Center (CVAC, 2400 S. Dixie Hwy., Miami; 305-285-5900), a nationally recognized one-stop center where survivors can access injunction filing assistance, safety planning, counseling, and co-located advocates; Florida's statewide hotline is 1-800-500-1119. Injunctions for protection against domestic, repeat, dating, and sexual violence and stalking (Fla. Stat. §741.30, §784.046) can be filed without a fee, reviewed the same day for a temporary order, and set for a final hearing within about 15 days — with filing help at the Lawson E. Thomas courthouse and through CVAC. Immigrant survivors should know that protection does not depend on status: VAWA self-petitions, U visas, and T visas exist precisely for abused spouses and crime victims, and threats to "call immigration" are a control tactic, not a legal barrier — Americans for Immigrant Justice (305-573-1106) and Catholic Legal Services (305-373-1073) handle these cases. For family law help generally, Dade Legal Aid (305-579-5733) and Legal Services of Greater Miami (305-576-0080) represent qualifying residents, the Eleventh Circuit Self-Help Program supports pro se filers, and the Dade County Bar referral service (305-371-2220) — plus the Cuban American Bar Association and Haitian Lawyers Association — connect families to counsel in their own language.

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