Divorce ('N FLorida)

Hi there,

Can Florida grant a divorce to someone who is a resident of Florida, but whose spouse is a resident elsewhere, has never lived in Florida and does not agree to the divorce petition?

There is no joint property or children involved. The party filing the divorce wants nothing other than her name changed back to what it was.

What the spouse has done is filed another divorce petition in their state and is trying to force the wife to engage in litigation there.

Thanks for your response.

Andrea Schilt said:

Hi there,

Can Florida grant a divorce to someone who is a resident of Florida, but whose spouse is a resident elsewhere, has never lived in Florida and does not agree to the divorce petition?

There is no joint property or children involved. The party filing the divorce wants nothing other than her name changed back to what it was.

What the spouse has done is filed another divorce petition in their state and is trying to force the wife to engage in litigation there.

Thanks for your response.

Click to expand...

Both parties need to be a resident in their own state for the filing to be valid. For FL it is 6 months. Then, it comes down to who filed first.. what adds weight to someones case is if the other person was served.

Therefore, if this person filed in FL and served the other person, then any petition filed by that person is null and will be thrown out.

However, if there are no children and no property, what is the problem here ??

Divorce ('N Florida)

thanks LegalBeagle,

The wife in Florida filed first and did serve the other party in the state of which he is a resident. However her attorney has told her that Florida has no jurisdiction over the spouse and therfore will not grant her a divorce unless he agrees.

Because they have no joint property or assets, I thought it shouldn't be a problem for her but the attorney stated otherwise. His argument being that because the husband has never lived in Florida, Florida cannot grant the dissolution.

Re: Divorce ('N Florida)

Andrea Schilt said:

thanks LegalBeagle,

The wife in Florida filed first and did serve the other party in the state of which he is a resident. However her attorney has told her that Florida has no jurisdiction over the spouse and therfore will not grant her a divorce unless he agrees.

Because they have no joint property or assets, I thought it shouldn't be a problem for her but the attorney stated otherwise. His argument being that because the husband has never lived in Florida, Florida cannot grant the dissolution.

Click to expand...

Get another attorney. If both parties had to be in the same state then few people would get divorce.

Divorce ('N Florida)

One other important detail, I forgot to mention. The wife did live in the home state of the husband for about six months prior to moving back to Florida. Of course she was in Florida for six months before filing the divorce.

Does this give the husband's state jurisdiction over her and prevent her from getting a divorce from a florida court?

Re: Divorce ('N Florida)

Andrea Schilt said:

One other important detail, I forgot to mention. The wife did live in the home state of the husband for about six months prior to moving back to Florida. Of course she was in Florida for six months before filing the divorce.

Does this give the husband's state jurisdiction over her and prevent her from getting a divorce from a florida court?

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No.. as long as she has been in FL 6 months prior to filing, then she can proceed. Get your friend to call several attorneys and get a free phone consultation. They should reassure her that the other attorney is incorrect.

Divorce ('N Florida)

LegalBeagle,

Thank you so much!

Divorce ('N Florida)

Another question...

The petition that the husband filed in his state was a Complaint for Divorce and she was sent a summons. Does she need to respond to the court or can she ignore it? As responding would require getting a lawyer in his state and/or finding out how to address the court there.

Re: Divorce ('N Florida)

Andrea Schilt said:

Another question...

The petition that the husband filed in his state was a Complaint for Divorce and she was sent a summons. Does she need to respond to the court or can she ignore it? As responding would require getting a lawyer in his state and/or finding out how to address the court there.

Click to expand...

You NEVER ignore legal papers.

Divorce ('N Florida)

What sort of a document would she send or how would she respond to the out-of-state court to inform them that she has already iniated action in Florida?

Re: Divorce ('N Florida)

Andrea Schilt said:

What sort of a document would she send or how would she respond to the out-of-state court to inform them that she has already iniated action in Florida?

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That is where she gets an attorney and then counter petitions for full legal expenses because he initiated legal proceding dispite knowing of the pending case in FL.

Divorce ('N Florida)

You are awesome!

In the meantime, can the divorce proceedings move forward in Florida? (i.e. while the out of state court is resolving this)

Re: Divorce ('N Florida)

Andrea Schilt said:

You are awesome!

In the meantime, can the divorce proceedings move forward in Florida? (i.e. while the out of state court is resolving this)

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Thank you.. and yes, progress in Florida. The best situation is to get a court date in FL before the other date. Since they have been served they will need to attend or lose by default.

Frustrated....

Hi Legal Beagal,

Much has happened since our last exchange. To recap, the wife who is a resident of Florida filed for a divorce. The husband subsequently filed in his home state, forcing her to respond to the TN court.

She did get rid of her attorney (who said that Fl could not give her a divorce), went into court herself and got a divorce from a FL court. The problem is that unbeknowns to her, the TN court did not get the letter which she Fed-Exed to the court within their specified timeframe and furthermore they have no record of it. The TN attorney then got an Order for Default judgement against her. The matter is now set for a final hrg there. In the meantime she has forwarded a copy of her divorce decree to the TN court along with a Motion to Dismiss.

Is the default judgement against her valid and how does she rectify all this?

Thanks for your review and advice...

Re: Frustrated....

Andrea Schilt said:

Hi Legal Beagal,

Much has happened since our last exchange. To recap, the wife who is a resident of Florida filed for a divorce. The husband subsequently filed in his home state, forcing her to respond to the TN court.

She did get rid of her attorney (who said that Fl could not give her a divorce), went into court herself and got a divorce from a FL court. The problem is that unbeknowns to her, the TN court did not get the letter which she Fed-Exed to the court within their specified timeframe and furthermore they have no record of it. The TN attorney then got an Order for Default judgement against her. The matter is now set for a final hrg there. In the meantime she has forwarded a copy of her divorce decree to the TN court along with a Motion to Dismiss.

Is the default judgement against her valid and how does she rectify all this?

Thanks for your review and advice...

Click to expand...

She made a big mistake when she just answered the TN court papers by just a letter.. now it is going to cost her to get out of it. She should have hired an attorney to respresent her in court, prove that he had recieved the papers from FL and then have it thrown out with him paying all costs..

The motion in TN is valid up until the time she can prove otherwise. If she can prove he was served with the FL court papers before the TN court papers then she has a case.. but she needs to get this sort out very quickly.


If there is no children or property, then what are they arguing about ? .. what is different in the two orders ?