How is Child Support Calculated in Florida? Florida Statute 61.39(2)(a)(1-14) determines that monthly income for purposes of calculating child support in Florida is based on at least fourteen considerations. We will go some of the most interesting considerations the court may apply when calculating child support in Florida. Looking closely at the child support factors can help you have a better idea of how much you may owe or be owed when your family law case is resolved. Going into mediation or a hearing, or trial knowing (within reason and within a range) can make a difference in how you approach your case. Jacobs Law Firm, Orlando child support lawyer can explain the Florida child support calculations to help you understand your potential obligations. Dial 407-335-8113 today to speak with a child support lawyer.

Pursuant to the Statute, “gross” income is based partly on a party’s salary ($25,000, $50,000, $100,000, etc.). Any bonuses (Christmas or performance bonuses) a party may receive from their employer are added to the Florida child support calculation. This includes commissions (sales commissions for example), overtime pay (for working beyond 40 or so hours per week or beyond a certain number of hours per day), tips (at least those that can be proven based on tax records and receipts or those that are admitted to), and similar forms of additional income beyond one’s base salary. Let’s move on to some of the other child support considerations.

Calculating Child Support in Florida

Calculating child support in Florida may also involve figuring out a party’s business income. Business income emanates from entities such as corporations, partnerships, limited liability corporations, and includes gross business income once ordinary business expenses (paperclips, reasonable advertisements, salaries for employees, rent, internet, electricity, etc.). Business income is determined from examining business records and preparing accurate profit and loss statements.

Some litigants and observers find it surprising that disability benefits are subject to child support calculations in Florida. The same goes for worker’s compensation benefits and settlements. They are part of the Florida child support calculations. Military housing stipends may also be used for calculating a party’s income for child support. The reasoning is that children’s health and welfare are paramount above all else.

Florida Child Support Calculations

Unemployment benefits are subject to Florida child support calculations. A party’s pension, retirement accounts (IRA accounts for example), and dividends are considered part of the calculus. Look out octogenarian dads and moms, your social security benefits are subject to Florida’s child support laws!

Alimony/spousal support payments that a party receives from a prior marriage are counted for purposes of figuring out child support payments. If a party earns rental income from renting out their properties, that gross income (with subtractions for AC and heating repairs, lighting, roofing, etc.) will be used for calculating child support in Florida.

Daycare expenses are generally included in child support calculations and each party’s obligation is determined based on their incomes.

How is child support calculated in Florida? We have covered ten considerations that are prominently featured in child support litigation. In other articles we will concentrate on other child support, jurisdiction, alimony, domestic violence, timesharing, and property issues.

Jonathan Jacobs is a caring and compassionate Orlando family law attorney. Your family judge may require that you provide an income deduction order or an income withholding order for support. Call Jacobs Law Firm at 407-335-8113 to speak with a divorce and paternity lawyer today.

How does domestic violence affect child custody in Florida? This question is asked frequently. We should recognize the impact of domestic violence on relationships, both marital and parental. Generally speaking, Florida courts default to the position that every minor child should have continual and meaningful contact with both parents. This is often a hallmark of shared parental responsibility among the parents. The word shared is included because it is easier to raise a child when there is a mutual support system. Whether we think about it from a biological standpoint, a common-sense standpoint, or a philosophical perspective, raising a child with both parents caring and nurturing can have a wide variety of benefits for the minor child. How does domestic violence affect child custody in Florida? By allowing the court to intervene when evidence is presented of a potential detriment to the child. This is another reason why we have child custody laws in Florida, as they govern the conduct of people if there is a serious enough situation requiring the court’s awareness and guidance. Call 407-335-8113 today.

Generally, the court defaults to the proposition that equal timesharing for both parents is in the best interests of the child. The parents have some latitude to solve their own issues by working together at mediation or by otherwise developing a parenting plan on their own terms. This scenario may change when one of the parents has has a domestic violence injunction issued against him/her.

Child Custody Law in Florida

Here is where conflict and acrimony between the parties can impact a court’s award of timesharing between the parents. According to child custody law in Florida, the court may, after the presentation of evidence, find that one or both parents being involved in the child’s life would present a detriment to the child.

For example, if one side can present evidence that the other parent has been convicted of a crime, specifically a first-degree misdemeanor or a felony which involved domestic violence, the evidentiary standards shifts and the burden shifts to the guilty party. The convicted party must rebut the presumption that he/she is a detriment to the child’s well-being. If the convicted parent is unable to successfully rebut the presumption, then he/she will likely not be allowed to have shared parental responsibility. Consequently, to protect the minor child, the court may decide to grant sole parental responsibility to the non-guilty parent. This is just one way to answer how does domestic violence affect child custody in Florida. You should contact an attorney to help you argue your case and present evidence to the court.

Attorney Jonathan Jacobs can also answer your questions about alimony. Learn more about other types of alimony in Florida: Durational alimony, women paying men alimony, alimony factors, short term alimony, permanent alimony, and rehabilitative alimony. In fact, we have a page entirely dedicated to discussing and explaining alimony in Florida. This process can be eye-opening! Keep in mind that to establish jurisdiction in a Florida Court for child custody, you must satisfy the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.

What about child support health insurance? Divorce mediation? We address those topics as well. Family law is in some ways under the vast umbrella of Florida civil litigation. Civil litigation involves non-criminal lawsuits and can involve a great deal of time and money at issue. Unlawful Detainer lawsuits are among our practice areas.

Celebrity Bankruptcies Florida: Bankruptcy in Florida

The Bankruptcy of Curtis James Jackson, III: How One Celebrity Chapter 11 Filing Has Reduced the Stigma Associated with Bankruptcy Introduction: A New Brand of Celebrity Bankruptcy is Born. On July 13, 2015, a seemingly routine bankruptcy petition was submitted to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut, Hartford Division. This petition was made by Curtis James Jackson, III as he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Most will recognize Jackson by his musician’s name, “50 Cent.” Jackson rose to fame after living a life of squalor that nearly cost the celebrity his life. Jackson’s background featured the sort of impoverishment that millions of people can relate to on a deeply personal level. His music touched and hearts and minds of an incalculable number of people across the world. This is why, when Jackson declared bankruptcy, after showing the world that he had risen to the height of fame and fortune, his filing became one of the most shocking tabloid stories in years. Jackson’s bankruptcy was similar to several other celebrity bankruptcies Florida and to bankruptcy in Florida in general because of the Bankruptcy Code itself. To find th ebest Orlando bankruptcy attorney, call the Jacobs Law Firm.

Few could have predicted that an affluent celebrity musician would file for bankruptcy and use the bankruptcy process to rehabilitate and recover financially. Even fewer would have believed that this financial comeback would cause significant conflict with the bankruptcy court whose purported purpose is to help the honest but unfortunate debtor restore his financial viability. This ostensible paradox will be unraveled throughout the progression of this Article (this is just the first part) and in additional blog posts about bankruptcy in Florida. To speak with an Orlando bankruptcy attorney, call the Jacobs Law Firm today!

Bankruptcy in Florida

This Article contends that the bankruptcy of Curtis James Jackson, III is unique in that it is unlike any bankruptcy proceeding that the public has been exposed to. Consequently, Jackson’s bankruptcy has become a spectacle. The scuttlebutt nature of his bankruptcy is not necessarily detrimental to him as a debtor, but it casts aspersions on the bankruptcy system and its centuries’ old stereotypes and stigmas. As will be discussed later in this Article, the bankrupt debtor has been socially stigmatized and subjected to a multitudinous assault based on ridicule and scorn. The old stigma of financial failure and the perception of a debtor as inept and dispossessed of all power is undergoing a shift and it does not apply to Jackson as a debtor. Jackson’s bankruptcy has been in the public’s purview and it has allowed the spotlight to be squarely placed onto a debtor with a fighting spirit and millions of curious fans and spectators that crave an inside look into the bankruptcy process. Bankruptcy in Florida, like bankruptcy in Connecticut and New York, is largely based on the Federal Rules.

Orlando Bankruptcy Attorney

This Article also considers the impact of social media and the instantaneous nature of the twenty-four hour broadcasting that permeates the consciousness of onlookers through the global internet apparatus. As one author points out, the perception of bankruptcy and the practice of bankruptcy law cannot be viewed as being ensnared in some stigmatic vacuum, rather it is rightly studied in the “context of both the social world and the legal field.” Do you need an Orlando bankruptcy attorney?

This Article argues that the controversial nature of Jackson’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has brought attention to the meaning of bankruptcy, and how it impacts not only the proverbial little guy, but also the celebrity hero that has been financially dethroned and made to be vulnerable. Jackson’s reactions to the Bankruptcy Court’s decisions regarding his formerly enormous portfolio of wealth, have had a visceral effect on millions of people that are gaining a rare and incisive insight into the field of bankruptcy law, many for the first time. It is this sort of shared experience, made possible by the reach of social media, that has shifted or at least has begun to modify the general perception of bankruptcy from being largely negative, to instead being a rehabilitative opportunity for the debtor that is willing to fight for his financial rights. For more information on Bankruptcy in Florida, contact the Jacobs Law Firm. The Jacobs Law Firm can direct you to the best Orlando bankruptcy attorney.

Linda Coco, Stigma, Prestige and the Cultural Context of Debt: A Critical Analysis of the Bankruptcy Judge’s Non-Article III Status, 16 Mich. J. Race & L. 181, 186 (2011).

Bankruptcy is just one of the many types of contentious civil litigation that occur throughout the Florida Courts every day. For more information on civil lawsuits, read throughout our law blogs and civil litigation page.

Florida Rear End Statute

The Florida rear end Statute is terribly vague, and yet it is precise and specific simultaneously. How is this paradox possible and does it make practical sense for the Florida Legislature to have provided such an arguable provision under the law? The Florida rear end statute provides that one driver shall not drive so near another car/driver any more closely than is “reasonable and prudent.” It may be reasonable and prudent to drive closely to another car when stuck in gridlock traffic. It may be reasonable and prudent to drive multiple car lengths away from the car in front of you when driving on the highway at a high velocity. Then again, how far is too far or how close is too close when driving on the non-highway regular roadways? This is a question of fact, circumstance, and the answer may vary in every collision case. This is why the Florida rear end statute is both vague and specific. The Florida rear end statute cannot possibly account for every car accident case in the state, but it can provide guidance for attorneys to argue their client’s case before a judge and jury. Jonathan Jacobs is an Orlando Florida car accident lawyer.

Florida Statute Rear End Collision

The Florida Statute rear end collision further describes how far from motor trucks other motor trucks must follow, and provides guidance on enabling other vehicles to enter or pass on the roadways in the presumed absence of danger.

Moreover, provision/subsection 4 of the Florida Statute rear end collision Statute makes it clear that a violation of this Statute is not per se criminal, rather any violation will be punished as though it is a moving violation. This is an important distinction.

Really, all Florida drivers have a different style of driving because people are unique. Often, following closely may be safe and without any pitfalls. Generally, following too closely however, can lead to the obscuring of what is happening in front of the driver in front of the care in the rear. This leaves very little time for safe driving when circumstances happen lightning quick. That is what can make driving too closely so dangerous.

Orlando Florida Car Accident Lawyer

Jonathan Jacobs is an Orlando Florida car accident lawyer. He has personal experience with being involved in accidents, and is a skilled litigator that can help you win your case. Litigation involves a massive amount of practice and preparation. Litigation involves a great deal of discovery, negotiation, planning, strategizing, and intellectual will.