• 02
  • Apr
Foreclosure Defense Monthly Payment Plan for Essential Persons Affected by Covid
Rachael Random 1 Comment

If you have been affected by the Coronavirus and are an essential worker like a nurse, EMT, hospital worker, grocery store worker, truck driver etc., please contact 321-567-8955 or 321lawyer@gmail.com. The Family Law Firm is offering on a limited basis full service foreclosure defense for a monthly fee of $500.00 per month until your case is resolved. The consultation fee of $400.00 is also waived for qualified individuals. 

 

I have over three decades of real estate experience to include foreclosure defense. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL IT”S TOO LATE. All of the notices are timed and may be required to be delivered prior to noticing the foreclosure. 

  • 23
  • Mar
Coronavirus
Rachael Random No Comments

Question of the day folks! Several people calling about this issue. The travel bans that are in place right now will likely nor bar essential travel and in most districts, essential travel would include custody exchanges. 

Some of the courts are making their guidelines and policies in light of the virus available on their websites. 

Other scenarios here that are presenting are emergency orders where the life of the child may be in danger. At this point, you should do your best to honor your custody agreements, however, the health and welfare of the children come first. If the other party if exhibiting symptoms or there have been known contacts with infected parties, please first try to work with the other parent. 

Law enforcement will not be enforcing custody agreements, and generally will not get involved in any civil matters, please do not call the police. 

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I can imagine that courts are not going to want to deal with parents who use this situation in order to create more chaos in the lives of their children. 

I don’t believe there will be major repercussions if there are rational health concerns where one parents home may be a safer social distancing location, or quarantine, stay in place location at this time. 

  • 24
  • Jan
“Trial by Combat”
Rachael Random 1 Comment

Man requests “trial by combat” to settle dispute with ex-wife. 

Sounds like a solid plan, I don’t see any issues with this at all. 

Custody disputes certainly can bring out the worst in the best of us, you may feel like you’re losing your mind or that you need to do something to burst out of your skin due to the pure stress when kids are involved. Now is the time to be calm and collected, now is the time to focus. 

Whatever you do, rein it in, keep it down, and under no circumstances should you act out or react when provoked. 

If I were opposing counsel here, I would be calling for supervised visitation, a psychological evaluation, and possible a protective order. This was a mistake on this gentleman’s part and it may cost him time with his children. The court is to be taken very seriously, especially when so much is at stake. 

 

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/01/13/iowa-courts-david-ostrom-requests-trial-combat-swords-settle-dispute/4456079002/?fbclid=IwAR3JHo1EyvsjmzqUx4g57dvfLbfgjs_znMHsSfVh_JnvS-1abv0Jb5vPrlE

  • 16
  • Jan
False Allegations
Rachael Random No Comments

If you’re a litigant in a contested child custody matter, you’ll most likely be dealing with false allegations, half truths, and some spinning of the story on the part of both or one of the parties. We must understand that credibility and evidence go hand in hand when trying to support your claim or to refute the other side’s. Misrepresenting the truth in court will end a lot of decisions that the judge may be weighing, when credibility is lost, it’s not something that you’ll likely get back. The courts have seen it all, and what you may be trying your best to hide, may not actually be a real issue in your case. Be honest, upfront, and direct when addressing the court. On the other side of the coin, if you’re on the defense side of a false allegation or claim, make sure that you’re prepared to show exactly why the statement made is false. Make sure that you know your rules of evidence and that you do the work to find the documents, witnesses, and demonstrations to prove your argument. You should identify which statements hurt your case the most and focus on those first as you may not have time in court to defend against them all and you do not want to spend your entire time defending at a deficit to your presentation time. Try to be specific in your presentation as to limit your time. 

  • 07
  • Jan
Child Custody Factors – Know Them or Lose Your Case
Rachael Random No Comments

If you are petitioning or defending the custody of your child(ren), you need to know how the court will decide who is the better parent. Not only should you know the factors but you should live by them and have ample examples and evidence prepared for each. Make a chart and compare your factors positive or negative with the opposing party’s positive and negative factors. 


Section 61.13(3), Florida Statutes
(3) For purposes of establishing or modifying parental responsibility and creating, developing,
approving, or modifying a parenting plan, including a time-sharing schedule, which governs each
parent’s relationship with his or her minor child and the relationship between each parent with
regard to his or her minor child, the best interest of the child shall be the primary consideration.
A determination of parental responsibility, a parenting plan, or a time-sharing schedule may not
be modified without a showing of a substantial, material, and unanticipated change in
circumstances and a determination that the modification is in the best interests of the child.
Determination of the best interests of the child shall be made by evaluating all of the factors
affecting the welfare and interests of the particular minor child and the circumstances of that
family, including, but not limited to:
(a) The demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to facilitate and encourage a
close and continuing parent-child relationship, to honor the time-sharing schedule, and
to be reasonable when changes are required.
(b) The anticipated division of parental responsibilities after the litigation, including the
extent to which parental responsibilities will be delegated to third parties.
(c) The demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to determine, consider, and
act upon the needs of the child as opposed to the needs or desires of the parent.
(d) The length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment and the
desirability of maintaining continuity.
(e) The geographic viability of the parenting plan, with special attention paid to the needs
of school-age children and the amount of time to be spent traveling to effectuate the
parenting plan. This factor does not create a presumption for or against relocation of
either parent with a child.
(f) The moral fitness of the parents.
(g) The mental and physical health of the parents.
(h) The home, school, and community record of the child.
(i) The reasonable preference of the child, if the court deems the child to be of sufficient
intelligence, understanding, and experience to express a preference.
(j) The demonstrated knowledge, capacity, and disposition of each parent to be informed of
the circumstances of the minor child, including, but not limited to, the child’s friends,
teachers, medical care providers, daily activities, and favorite things.
(k) The demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to provide a consistent
routine for the child, such as discipline, and daily schedules for homework, meals, and
bedtime.
(l) The demonstrated capacity of each parent to communicate with and keep the other
parent informed of issues and activities regarding the minor child, and the willingness
of each parent to adopt a unified front on all major issues when dealing with the child.
(m) Evidence of domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, child abandonment, or
child neglect, regardless of whether a prior or pending action relating to those issues
has been brought. If the court accepts evidence of prior or pending actions regarding
domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, child abandonment, or child neglect,
the court must specifically acknowledge in writing that such evidence was considered
when evaluating the best interests of the child.
(n) Evidence that either parent has knowingly provided false information to the court
regarding any prior or pending action regarding domestic violence, sexual violence,
child abuse, child abandonment, or child neglect.
(o) The particular parenting tasks customarily performed by each parent and the division of
parental responsibilities before the institution of litigation and during the pending
litigation, including the extent to which parenting responsibilities were undertaken by
third parties.
(p) The demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to participate and be involved
in the child’s school and extracurricular activities.
(q) The demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to maintain an environment
for the child which is free from substance abuse.
(r) The capacity and disposition of each parent to protect the child from the ongoing
litigation as demonstrated by not discussing the litigation with the child, not sharing
documents or electronic media related to the litigation with the child, and refraining
from disparaging comments about the other parent to the child.
(s) The developmental stages and needs of the child and the demonstrated capacity and
disposition of each parent to meet the child’s developmental needs.
(t) Any other factor that is relevant to the determination of a specific parenting plan,
including the time-sharing schedule.

  • 30
  • Dec
The Custody Battle Mind – GET REAL, REAL QUICK
Rachael Random No Comments
Hopefully you are reading this before you have found yourself in the Family Court system. If you are like most litigants, your knowledge about Family Law and it’s Court isn’t a great deal. Whatever expectations that you have or judgments about your case should be left at the door or you’ll likely suffer in this arena. Your journey can unfold in many ways, it can go smoothly and both you and your children’s other parent can simply agree and move on with your lives. This is the general path of most child custody disputes, they just get settled and there isn’t a trial or much court involvement. Hopefully, this will be the case for you; unfortunately, it can be difficult to tell in the beginning whether your petition for custody will be contested and to what degree.
In a perfect world, your preparation for a custody battle would have begun long before any court filings, in any event, you will not be successful and your children will suffer if you do not adopt the right mind set. 
The first thing is that there won’t be a “winner”. You will not “have your day in Court”.
 
Things that you anticipate happening won’t. Any control that you had over the outcome of your case will be handed over to the presiding judge – whoever that may be. This is not going to be what you’ve expected in any way. Your children’s parent may be a drug addict and they will still be given 50% of the time, or they haven’t seen your child in 8 years, but now they have every other weekend visitation. The Courts don’t always get it right; in just a short amount of time, based on what was presented, your judge is going to make a decision about you and your children’s lives.
Going into this, you have to understand that you must set the tone and you must be the bigger person and you must be willing to compromise if at all possible. I tell my clients that you’re going to be co-parenting with the children’s other parent for many years to come. You get to make the decision right now about how those years of your life and your children’s lives will be. The reality is that most likely the other parent is going to get some form of visitation and decision making rights. It’s very difficult to convince the Court otherwise if there are not exceptional circumstances like substantiated proof of child abuse. The Courts have seen it all and what amounts to a difference in parenting styles and abilities is not going to sway a judge to your favor.
Even contentious custody litigation, after it’s settled tends to relax as tempers calm and the big picture comes into place. The likelihood of sole parental responsibility or no time-share is generally not granted, and sometimes not even granted in cases where most rational adults would disagree with the judges decision.
The law places a lot of importance on the rights of a parent to raise their child and the child’s best interests oftentimes is not at the forefront.
We must be prepared to look at the big picture and at the longevity of the relationship between all parties. Someone must be the bigger person and refuse to place the children in the middle. In doing so, you may have to give up all the expectations that you had in what being a parent looks like. You may have to give up expectations of what your life should look like.
Co-Parenting can be very messy, especially when each is vying for control, and there is still resentment and anger. There are various measures to take to protect your child and yourself in a high conflict situation. Nonetheless, the mindset is the same. You must understand that you do not have control over the other parent and that they have just as much right to parent and have a relationship with their child, despite their shortcomings.
If you preface your actions with that mindset, taking the circumstance as a whole, you’ll be much more successful in the long run with your co-parenting arrangement, and your children will one day thank you for being the bigger person.