FAMILY LAW MEDIATION SERVICES
Attorney Lee Mercado is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, meaning she has successfully completed a rigorous 40-hour course required by the Florida Supreme Court in order to bear its certification.
Try Mercado Family Law Mediation’s Services to help navigate through tough decisions towards common sense solutions.
Divorce
Florida’s term for divorce is dissolution of marriage. The main issues that arise during a divorce revolve around your children, your property and your debt.
Equitable Distribution is a fancy phrase that means dividing up all of your marital property and marital debt in a fair manner, which is usually equally but may not be depending on certain circumstances. Your property consists of real estate, personal property and intangible property (such as money, retirement accounts and investments).
Parenting Plans are required to be filed under Florida Law, and they detail how decisions will be made regarding the children’s welfare, the time-sharing schedule, how exchanges will be conducted, and many other details and rules of how the parents are to parent the children together, while living apart. To see a sample Parenting Plan form click the button below.
Parental Responsibility is another fancy phrase that replaced “custody” in the Florida Statutes, and it refers to who has authority to make decisions in the children’s lives. Most often parental responsibility is shared, and only on rare occasions will a parent be awarded sole parental responsibility. With shared parental responsibility, the parents are expected to co-parent the children by jointly making decisions regarding all major issues including, but not limited to medical care, education, religion, and discipline.
Child Support is the children’s right and cannot legally be waived by a parent. The amount is determined by the Florida Child Support Guidelines, using a math formula that plugs in the parents’ net incomes, cost of health insurance and cost of child care. To see the Florida Child Support Guidelines click the button below.
Spousal support is commonly called alimony. There are no guidelines in Florida for determining a proper amount of alimony, but the starting points are one party’s need for support and the other party’s ability to pay. The length of the marriage is also key in determining the appropriateness of ordering alimony, and if appropriate, the type of alimony that should be ordered.
Attorney Lee Mercado can lead parties to settlement of all the above issues, plus she can draft the settlement agreement and Parenting plan, if desired.
Paternity
This term refers to a type of case where the Court is making a determination of who is the Father of the child. Likewise, a paternity lawsuit contains all of the same issues pertaining to children that were detailed above. This includes issues of parental responsibility, time sharing, and child support. This type of case also requires a Parenting Plan. As a mediator, Attorney Mercado can help you reach an agreement as to all of these issues, as well as draft the settlement agreement and required Parenting Plan.
Modifications to final judgment
As time goes on, things change – children grow, jobs are lost and new jobs gained, sometimes residential moves are required. When these changes in circumstance occur, there may be a need to make changes, or modifications, to the Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage or Final Judgment of Paternity. The modification could be regarding a residential address, time sharing schedule, support amount, or other issue. If the parties cannot agree to a particular modification, the choices are to go to court for a judge to decide or use a third party such as a mediator, to help resolve the issue.
Attorney SErvices
If an attorney is needed to best represent your interests at this stage of the process, Attorney Lee Mercado is well equipped to represent you.