Hello and welcome to 60 Seconds with Sergio. I am your host, Sergio Cabanas, Attorney-at-Law here in Florida. Thank you for joining me today.
So, today’s question is a good one, is a very common question. I’m asked this question about… I’d say about 4 to 5 times every week. And that is: “Sergio, can you really please tell me the honest truth of how long a divorce process takes place here in Florida?”
Well, there is no exact time for a divorce process. I can give you ranges, in fact I’ll start with the extreme rangesbased on our history here for the Cabanas Law Firm.
Our shortest, fastest divorce was as little as 3 weeks. That’s from the time the client hires us, for us completing all the paperwork, filing it with a court, on an uncontested basis, and having the judge sign off on a divorce, and it was all done, our record time is 3 weeks.
Our longest divorce is 3 years and still going on.
And that’s largely due to the fact that there are lot of issues and the judge is simply not available and part of that is due to the pandemic as well. So there’s a lot of extraneous circumstances that are weighting down the divorce process right now.
So, how long does your divorce take?
Well, if I were to meet with you and go over the specifics of your case I can probably give you a better range.
But I look for basically two key components. The first factor is the complexity of the case. Obviously, the more complex the case, the longer it will take.
But what are the factors that help me determine whether or not a case is complex?
Well, I look at 3 factors under that category as to the complexity of the case.
One of them is the number of minor children and their ages.
Secondly, I look at the number of assets and the complexity of the assets.
Such as houses, real estate properties, businesses, things of that nature.
And finally, I look at the length of the marriage.
The longer the marriage has lasted, the more complex the issues could be.
Now, all because these factors exist doesn’t necessarily mean that your divorce will take forever.
It just sends up a little alarm in my mind as to the length of the process and how complex the case will be and how quickly I can get it resolved for the client.
Now we move on to the second factor.
And that is, the extend to which the spouses are agreeable and cooperative with regard to reaching an agreement for the divorce.
I mean, you can have a very simple case and have two parties very disagreeable and then I have cases that have all these complex issues but the parties are able to reach a fair, quick agreement, and they can sail through the process very quickly.
So, now that we have these two concepts in mind, we can take a look at that case that I did in as little as 3 weeks.
We had a very simple case. There was no assets. Or very little assets that were acquired during the marriage. Why? Because there was a short term marriage.
And there were no minor children and the wife was not pregnant in that case.
Furthermore, both parties were fully in agreement with the divorce,they were ready, willing and able, very cooperative with me, and filling me all the paperwork, giving me all the information I needed, and coming in and signing the paperwork right away.
And I filed it. The judge was available. Held the quick hearing.
And the whole thing sailed very smoothly.
On the other hand, my 3-year case, we had a number of different issues, complex issues, lot of children, we had a lot of properties, a lot of disagreements on whether it was marital or non-marital, and on and on.
But I think the worst part of it was that the parties were simply not willing to enter into any agreementdespite how fair the agreement could be.
That could take the longest to resolve.
I hope this short video provided you some guidance over this very commonly asked question.
Thank you again for joining me. And as always, stay informed so you can stay strong.