Sean Smallwood Sean Smallwood, P.A. On this page: What Is Marriage Annulment in Florida? | Divorce Vs. Annulment in Florida | Is an Annulment Lawyer the Same as a Divorce Lawyer? | Florida Annulment Requirements | An Annulment Case in FL From the Local News Headlines | The Bottom Line on Marriage Annulment in Florida | Contact Sean Smallwood About Marriage Annulment in Orlando, FL | What Our Clients Say What Is Marriage Annulment in Florida? An annulment in Florida is determined by the courts, which declare that a marriage was never legally valid and the parties are restored to their previous ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood One of the most common early issues that come up in Orlando divorce cases occurs when one of the parties removes money from a joint bank account without any warning to the other party. There are two common ways this happens, one is generally permitted by the courts while the other can get a person in trouble In situations where a party takes only half of a marital checking or savings account they are generally seen to be acting within their rights to do so. This is as long as the entire account was truly marital.  This is especially true if the person pulling out the mo ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Your children are the best thing that ever happened to you, but the amount of unhappiness your ex-spouse causes you is nearly equal to the happiness your children bring. This year, you made a New Year’s resolution not to let your ex get under your skin anymore, but you made the same resolution last year and every year before that, going all the way back to your divorce. Still, the very sound of your ex’s voice makes your blood boil. Your parenting plan requires you not to say negative things about your ex in the presence of your children, but this provision is easier for peo ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood One issue that divorce lawyers in Orlando Florida, deal with occasionally is the situation where one party wants to get a divorce, but the other party does not want the marriage to end. This can be a very sensitive situation and divorce attorneys in Florida need to be delicate in how they approach the other party to the case in order to avoid unnecessary conflict. The unfortunate fact is that usually when there is conflict and unnecessary drama in an Orlando divorce case it is caused most often by the person who did not want the divorce. Can my spouse stop me from getting di ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood One common question that we receive on an almost daily basis at our Orlando divorce law firm is how long the divorce process is expected to take for our clients. The truth is that there is no simple answer to this question. This is because the length of time a divorce will take in Florida depends on a couple of really important factors. The first item that must be considered is what type of divorce your client is seeking. The next big factor to consider is how cooperative the other party to the action will be. There are several different types of divorce including simple div ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Imagine a nightmare in which you are married to the worst spouse you could ever imagine.  Your spouse sabotages your finances, cheats on you, and says terrible things about you to your children.  Now imagine finding out that you and your nightmare spouse were never really married in the first place. It is not as simple as waking up from a bad dream and realizing that all the terrible things you dreamed about never happened. Even if your marriage is not legally valid, you and your so-called spouse still have children together and still own property together. Even th ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Imagine that your teen daughter goes to visit your aunt during spring break, and when you turn on your phone after work one day, you find a text from your daughter saying that she has just been to see a doctor. Would you be upset that your aunt took your daughter to a doctor without asking you, instead of waiting to ask you about it first? It would likely depend on the circumstances. If your daughter fell down while hiking and got a cut on her arm that required stitches, then of course your aunt was right to take her straight to urgent care instead of waiting until you finis ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Watching your unpaid child support obligations pile up as you are less and less able to afford them can be truly demoralizing. The judge might treat you like you are not serious about parenting when your financial struggles have nothing to do with your level of commitment to your children. Your ex might antagonize you; even if they do not directly say bad things about you to your children, they might do little to conceal their contempt for you and the fact that they think your financial troubles are your own fault. Even though this knowledge probably comes as little consolat ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Debt has ruined the marriages of many couples, including some who had every intention of honoring their wedding vow to stay together for richer or for poorer. Sometimes the constant stress of having to decide, on every payday, whether to pay for groceries or utilities, while the debts just keep getting bigger even as you make payments on them, is just too much, even for couples who are truly dedicated to each other. Of course, taking on debt in open defiance of your spouse’s wishes is not a recipe for a healthy marriage, and judges in divorce cases hear about this problem al ..read more

Sean Seansmallwood Increasingly, the family courts in Florida see alimony as a last resort. Equitable distribution is the governing principle in dividing a couple’s property when the marriage is dissolved because it means that each spouse gets a fair share of the return on the investments they made during their lives together. If the wife was a stay-at-home mother while the husband worked a high-income job, the court will assume, unless there is evidence to the contrary, that the wife’s actions, namely assuming all the childcare responsibilities and other unpaid work, also contributed to the f ..read more