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After the Trumpocalypse: Politics and Divorce

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Thursday, November 17, 2016.

The stress of Brexit is adding to pressure on couples on the brink of divorce. Lots of comparisons are made between the Brexit vote and our recent presidential election. Is America’s divorce rate about to increase like London’s?

According to the London Guardian, for partners who voted different ways in the Brexit referendum, the difficulty of reconciling opposing political views may be the final straw according to British divorce lawyers.

So much so, that a Dutch entrepreneur announced plans to set up a divorce hotel in the UK to help separating couples sort out their problems over the course of a weekend. The hotel may be just in time because the Brexit vote was a traumatic rupture from the idea of a European union.

“We have come across a number of families in this country [who are splitting up] because one them voted differently [to the other] in the referendum,” Shepherd said. “They fell out in a big way because one voted for remain and one for leave.

A similar phenomenon may be happening in the U.S. between warring couples split between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I have written about the cause of divorce in the past.

Asked about the effect of Brexit on relationships, the Guardian reported:

“[I]t has imposed an added strain on relationships, one in which people might not be talking to each other as well. Brexit has been an issue.”

While the UK may be experiencing an increase in divorces due to the Brexit vote, only time will tell if the U.S. will suffer similar pressures from the election of Donald Trump.

The Guardian article is here.

Future First Lady and Divorce

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, November 14, 2016.

There is a rumor going viral on the internet that Melania Trump is filing for divorce from her husband, president-elect Donald Trump. Is it true?

According to one source, the Nevada County Scooper (motto: what we lack in credibility we make up for in humor) reports:

Donald Trump, the brash entrepreneur who is running for President in the 2016 election, is filing for divorce from wife Melania. Melania, a model and designer, has been married to Donald since 2005. She is Donald’s third wife.

Sources cite growing discord between the once happy couple. They have been seen arguing frequently and spending most of the time apart from each other.

An anonymous source, spoke to us about the split. He said, “Donald just feels like she has not risen to his level of greatness. She has not embraced The Donald’s persona.”

I checked with Snopes, and they find: “there was no truth to this story.” But, what if the story was true? I’ve written about preparing for divorce before. There are some things any spouse should do to remain financially secure in divorce.

Surround Yourself with Professionals

You need to hire your own lawyer, not rely on your spouse’s attorney to be fair. Another professional is a financial planner or accountant, or both.

Secure Your Financial Documents

Before anyone can assist you, you need to understand your financial situation: all the assets and debts, not just the joint property. This is much easier to do when you have gathered the essential tax, banking and credit card documents.

Update your Will

Many couples have a will they made when married. If so, you may need to update it in order to give power to the provision in your marital settlement agreement.

Child and Spousal Support

Child support and alimony are big issues when you prepare for divorce. How much you receive or have to pay in support is governed by Florida law or it can be a decision you and your spouse may agree to within reason.

The Nevada County Scooper article is here.

President-Elect Trump and Divorce

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Thursday, November 10, 2016.

Major events can have an impact on people going through divorce. With the stunning election results from yesterday, what does a Trump presidency mean for divorce and family law?

Not much. Divorces are state concerns. With the rising mobility of families, many cases cross state lines and international borders. In August, President Obama signed the implementing treaty for the Hague Convention on the Recovery of International Child Support.

However, the president has had little impact in this area of law. Even on a personal level, presidents have little connection to divorce. Ronald Reagan was the only president of the United States who was even divorced. Until now. President Elect Donald Trump has been divorced twice.

I’ve written about divorce statistics before. There are some very interesting statistics about divorce:

– In America, the divorce rate for a first marriage is around 41%.

– The divorce rate for a second marriage is 60%.

– The divorce rate for a third marriage is 73%.

– The average length of divorce proceedings in the United States is 1 year.

– Western states have the highest marriage and divorce rates, followed by the South. The Northeast has the lowest marriage and divorce rates.

– Nevada has the highest rate of divorce at 14.7%.

– Florida’s rate of divorce is around 13.%

– If a spouse has gained more than 20% of his or her body weight, divorce is more likely.

– The most expensive divorce was Rupert and Anna Murdoch’s in 1999: $1.7 billion.

In answer to the question “what a Trump presidency means for divorce and family law?” Probably lots of funny late-night impersonators and not much else.

Scary Divorce Stories

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, October 31, 2016.

In honor of Halloween, below is a series of some scary divorce stories published in various websites which should bring a chill into the holiday.

The Nazi Uniform

I’ve written about this one before: Heath Campbell entered court dressed in a full Nazi uniform, donning a trimmed mustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler – the man he named his firstborn child after. The hearing was for visitation rights to his youngest child. The family gained national attention when a stope refused to write “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler” on a birthday cake.

When Your Ex Moves Next Door

After a lengthy and harshly contested divorce case, the wife looked out her window on the day after the trial ended and saw a moving van at the house next door. It was her ex moving in. He had purchased their neighbor’s house secretly during the trial.

Hairless Hair Follicle Test

A client was ordered to submit to a hair follicle drug test, then shows up for the test having shaved their head. Hair follicle tests can be achieved with leg hair, hair from the armpit or pubic hair; it’s even better when the client realizes that any hair can be used, so waxes their whole body and calls it a ‘lifestyle choice.’

Chicken Dinner Divorce

A husband was shooting the breeze with his wife and she said to him, ‘Do you want chicken or fish tonight for dinner? Oh, and by the way, I’m having an affair with the neighbor so I want a divorce.’ Her nonchalance really threw him into a tailspin. He became convinced she was trying to kill him, and installed a deadbolt on his room, bought a mini-fridge and a hotplate, and didn’t leaveuntil the divorce was final.

Tool Time

“My client hated his wife so much that idea of her having his toolbox was abhorrent to him. He asked for temporary use and possession in a $3,000 hearing for tools that were worth $500. He could have bought a top-of-the-line new set at his lawyer’s hourly rate – and without looking so petty in front of the judge.

Dividing the Cat Allergy

During a very heated divorce, it came as a surprise when the wife, who had been fighting for the contents of the house, quickly agreed to give up the living room furniture set to her husband. When the movers delivered the furniture, the husband start wheezing and sneezing. He was allergic to cats. Right after he moved out, she bought three Persians who slept all over the living room furniture.

The Huffington Post article is here.

HBO’s Divorce

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, October 24, 2016.

Nora Ephron once said, “Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.” With that in mind, how is Sarah Jessica Parker’s new television program: Divorce holding up?

The New Yorker reviews Parker’s new series. Explaining in the first episode why she wants to divorce, Parker’s character, Frances, says to her husband, Robert, “I want to save my life while I still care about it.”

I’ve written about fault and divorce before. Florida abolished fault as grounds for filing a divorce. The only ground you need to file for divorce in Florida is to prove your marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

As the article explains, can “no fault” ever truly mean no fault? Regardless of which divorce route the fictional Frances and Robert may be on, there are some old-style recriminations flowing from her affair with another man. He says, “You’re the villain here, not me.”

“Remember that divorce you wanted? Well, I want one, too. But that sneaky, easy, friendly way that you were hoping for? You can forget it.”

In “Divorce,” the husband is poised to make an alimony claim on his wife’s income. Frances’s friend warns her, “Unless you want to end up with nothing, you need to destroy him before he destroys you.”

“Isn’t there a way to do this without lawyers?” is the setup for the too-common trajectory from attempts at civilized resolution to protracted war, in which empathy for the other drops out entirely.

The article finishes by noting that how a couple lived in their marriage – who spent more time with the children, who worked longer hours, who made more money, who sacrificed a job or earning potential – becomes the material with which legal divorce claims are constructed.

The New Yorker article is here.

Information on the HBO series can be found here.

International Child Abduction & The Hague

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in International Child Custody on Friday, October 7, 2016.

A New Yorker is raising awareness to a growing issue of International Child Abduction. It happens when a child is wrongfully taken and held in another country. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon.

According to Channel 10 news in New York, Corey McKeighan shares custody of his son with his mother who is from Russia. What was supposed to be a mother and son three week trip to her country, has McKeighan worried he will never get his son back.

McKeighan’s ex-wife agreed to return on September 16th. “The day before they were supposed to return, she had called me and said, ‘We’re not coming back and you’ll never see us again.'”

In a panic, McKeighan contacted the U.S. State Department, FBI, and congressional leaders. They are working with the foreign government to resolve this case that they say is international child abduction.

In Russia, it is difficult because Russia and the United States are not in a treaty relationship. However, Russia and the United States are signatories to the Hague Convention.

A U.S. State Department official says:

“We are aware of the reports regarding an international parental child abduction case. Due to privacy considerations, we decline to provide additional details.

I’ve written about the topic of custody before. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction provides remedies for a “left-behind” parent, like Mr. McKeighan, to obtain the wrongfully removed or retained child to the country of his habitual residence.

The Convention seeks to deter abducting parent by eliminating their primary motivation for doing so: to “deprive the abduction parent’s actions of any practical or juridical consequences.”

So, when a child under 16 who was habitually residing in one signatory country is wrongfully removed to, or retained in, another signatory country, the Hague Convention provides that the other country: “order the return of the child forthwith” and “shall not decide on the merits of rights of custody.”

The removal or the retention of a child is to be considered wrongful where:

a) it is in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person, an institution or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and

b) at the time of removal or retention those rights were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.

The news 10 article can be found here. 

Angelina’s Plan to Destroy Brad

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.

Brad Pitt is an angry, unfaithful villain. No, not a new role. Rumor has it that Angelina Jolie is running a smear campaign. This may be a form of divorce planning if it turns out to be true.

As Us Weekly reports, the most disturbing story came from TMZ September 22:

The site reported that the actor – who Jolie, 41, his partner of 12 years, praised as a “wonderful father” in 2013 – became “verbally abusive and physical with his children” in front of their mother aboard a private jet September 14.

But while Jolie’s friends insist Pitt indeed has a terrible temper, Us has confirmed the Maleficent star long plotted to leave him – and gain physical custody of their six children.

I’ve written about how not to behave during the divorce process, and also on how good relations with your Ex could even save your life. Whether you’re in court or outside of court, how you treat yourself, your children and the other parent of your children counts.

The divorce process forces you to view your spouse as an enemy. It is easy to let those feelings take over. The results can be tragic, as the tension can cause you to say and do things in front of your children (or in the press) that they should be protected from.

Steps you don’t want to take, but should, are things like: not yelling in front of your children, taking the high road when dealing with problems, and respecting your soon to be ex-spouse.

According to Us Weekly,

Jolie has been deeply unhappy with Pitt after years of fighting and had been quietly laying the groundwork to leave her husband. A yelling incident on a plane may have provided her with an opportunity to get the upper hand in a custody battle and keep the kids overseas.

Multiple sources confirm Jolie barely gave her husband notice that she had decided to seek a divorce, and blocked Pitt’s number from her phone. It is rumored that Jolie and the children are staying in a Malibu house.

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt, it is claimed, hasn’t seen the children since Jolie filed for divorce:

“Angelina filed the papers a minute before the courts closed. He didn’t have a lawyer or anything,” says a Pitt source. “He has been crying constantly.”

Jolie was given a humanitarian honor at the 2013 Oscar Awards.

The Us Weekly article is here.

Divorce Records & Privacy

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, September 26, 2016.

Tonight is the first presidential debate. Because of the importance of presidential elections, should Donald Trump’s New York divorce records be released to the public?

A New York judge has rejected a media request to make public the contents of a 25-year-old court file on Donald Trump’s divorce from wife Ivana, saying the courts have no business deciding what information could be useful to voters.

Family Court records in New York are not open to indiscriminate public inspection. In order to access them, you must make an application to the Court. It is solely up to the judge to permit the inspection.

The New York Times and the Gannett newspaper chain filed a motion to unseal Donald Trump’s records, arguing the move was needed to contribute to public debate over Trump’s fitness for the presidency.

I’ve written about the issue of public access to divorce records before. For example, in the Tom Cruise divorce, his ex-wife could have filed in New York or California. So, why did she choose New York?

One of the main reasons is New York’s privacy law. Florida has different rules on privacy. In an effort to protect the privacy of parties to a divorce, and prevent identity theft, Florida recently adopted a confidentiality rule to better protect social security and bank account numbers for instance. But Florida court filings are not private.

Earlier this month, lawyers for both Donald and Ivana Trump filed legal papers opposing the unsealing.

His ex-wife agreed, but also contended that since she is not running for office, she should not have to sacrifice her privacy even if the court found an enhanced interest in her husband’s actions.

Her submission to the court noted published reports alleging that she claimed during the divorce that he had raped her. However, Ivana Trump’s brief said that was not her view and dismissed those reports as “previous misinterpreted statements and allegations.”

The judge agreed with Ivana Trump that there was no reason to intrude on her privacy.

“If the court were to deprive the candidate party of his rights…on the ground that there may be something in the confidential file that would be useful in determining his fitness for office, that ground does not exist in the case of his former wife, who is not a candidate.”

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Frank Nervo rejected the New York Times’ argument in a ruling released Thursday.

“Were the court to make the confidential records available for journalistic, and thus public, scrutiny, it would impermissibly inject itself into the political process by making the value judgment of what information is useful in determining the present candidate’s, or any other candidate’s, fitness for office.”

A lawyer for the news outlets, David Schulz, said no immediate decision had been made about whether to appeal.

The article in Politico is here.

Divorce & New Rule on Experts

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, September 12, 2016.

Divorce is so complicated, we rely on experts for help. But, the new statute governing experts is being questioned by the Florida Supreme Court. What is the status?

The Florida rule for experts was amended in 2013 and is up for review by the Florida Supreme Court. There are some interesting things about the new rule.

1. The amendment was made by the Florida Legislature, not the Florida Supreme Court. That’s unusual because rulemaking authority is the court’s job.

2. The way the Rule came into being by the Legislature could create a constitutional challenge to the rule down the road.

3. The new rule forces Florida courts to abandon the 70-year old Frye test for admitting expert testimony.

4. The new rule requires Florida courts to apply the federal standard; something the Florida Supreme Court has said it doesn’t want to do.

I have spoken and written on the rule change several times. In articles and speeches, I cautioned about a possible Constitutional problem with the way the law was passed.

However, the Constitutional issues will not be resolved until the Florida Supreme Court decides it. As the Florida Bar News reports, the two issues being argued before the high court are:

1. Should the Rules of Evidence incorporate the Legislature’s 2013 law that changed the standard for expert testimony to the Daubert standard?

2. Was the amendment a substantive law, or a rule of courtroom procedure?

The Code and Rules of Evidence Committee of the Bar, which advises the court on evidence matters, recommended 16-14 against adopting the change the Legislature.

Justice Barbara Pariente questioned whether the Court should reject adopting Daubert as a rule, because it is not actually passing on the constitutionality of the rule, which it would do when a case in controversy reaches the court.

The reaction to the law has been huge, the Court received more than 180 comments on the proposed rule change. The court responded by extending the time for oral arguments from the normal 40 minutes to 60 minutes.

The vote on the Daubert/Frye issue was one of the few times in the past three decades that CREC has voted against recommending that a legislative change be adopted as an evidence rule.

The Florida Bar News article is here.

Divorce, Nigerian Princes & Mental Incapacity

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Tuesday, September 6, 2016.

Florida is a no-fault state. Divorce is granted if you prove the marriage is irretrievably broken, or mental incapacity. Kentucky doesn’t allow incompetent people to divorce. That may change.

A 1943 Kentucky decision fond that Kentucky law did not authorize a mentally incompetent person to divorce. Kentucky is one of 10 states that bar mentally incompetent people from divorcing.

The man is arguing that even a person who is deemed disabled can show what their true feelings and intentions are.

“I don’t think that they should be locked up by their guardian.”

However, the man’s wife takes a different point of view. The man’s wife argues:

She was appointed as his guardian after he sent thousands of dollars to someone he believed to be a Nigerian royal prince.

The wife’s lawyer says she still cares deeply for her husband, and he needs a guardian to stop him from wasting family money on overseas pyramid schemes.

The man filed for divorce in August 2013 after he twice sought, without success, to dissolve the disability determination and guardianship, according to an October appeals court ruling in the case. The appeals court affirmed an order dismissing his divorce petition.

The Kentucky Supreme Court has heard argument, and will render its opinion soon.

I’ve written about divorce in Florida many times. In Florida, mental incapacity does not prevent you from divorcing, but no dissolution is allowed unless the party alleged to be incapacitated has been adjudged incapacitated for a preceding period of at least 3 years.

Essentially, Florida law precludes the institution or maintenance of an action for dissolution of marriage until three years after the person has been adjudged incompetent.

The purpose of this rule is to protect individuals who have become mentally incapacitated from being suddenly divorced or abandoned by their former spouses.

Mental capacity can impact your ability to settle a divorce case. Separation agreements, such as postnuptial agreements and marital settlement agreements, must be entered into by two parties who have the mental capacity to enter into contracts.

If an individual is found to have been mentally incapable when the marital settlement agreement was entered into, then the court will likely hold that the entire contract was invalid.

The ABA article on the Kentucky case is here.