Wellington Family Lawyer
Williams & Varsegi, LLC represents Wellington residents who are ending a marriage, sorting out time-sharing, or revisiting support orders, and the firm does so from a practice devoted entirely to divorce and family law. We serve families in Palm Beach County, including Wellington, and across Broward County and the wider South Florida area, handling everything from high-net worth, high-conflict disputes to uncontested and simplified cases.
Anyone searching for a Wellington family lawyer usually has a specific pressure point: a spouse who has hired counsel, a parenting schedule that no longer works, a support order that no longer fits, or a job or home that is about to change. Wellington is a village in Palm Beach County, so family cases from here are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit’s Family Court, and the Florida rules that govern those cases changed meaningfully in 2023. Time-sharing now starts from a presumption of equal time, permanent alimony no longer exists for new cases, and several modification rules were rewritten.
Those changes matter for anyone who is currently married, recently divorced, or living under an order entered years ago. What you were told by a friend or read in an older article may no longer be the law.
Why Choose Williams & Varsegi, LLC for Wellington Family Law Matters
Williams & Varsegi, LLC is a boutique firm that practices exclusively in divorce and family law, with over twenty years of experience serving clients in Palm Beach and Broward County. The caseload runs from high-net worth, high-conflict litigation to uncontested and simplified dissolutions, and the firm adjusts its strategy to fit the case rather than forcing every family into the same process. Clients work directly with experienced attorneys who know their file, and the firm brings in forensic accountants, business valuators, and other experts when the numbers demand it.
The attorneys are Katie and Emerald Williams, Lawyer. Client reviews of the firm point to the same themes: responsiveness, knowledge, a team that keeps its promises and its schedule, and a process that felt smoother and less anxious than expected. One client described Katie representing her for more than three years; another said Emerald kept every promise made at the first consultation. The firm carries a 5-Star Rating from clients.
For a Wellington family, this matters in practical ways. Specialization means familiarity with how Palm Beach County family judges approach time-sharing and financial disclosure. It means the attorney reading your financial affidavit has seen how equestrian businesses, closely held companies, investment portfolios, and real estate holdings get valued and divided. Some matters resolve through negotiation or mediation, and the firm is skilled at both. When a case cannot settle, the attorneys have extensive courtroom experience and prepare for trial from the start.
Family Law Issues Wellington Clients Bring Us
- Divorce Filing and Residency: At least one spouse must have lived in Florida for six months before a petition is filed. Florida is a no-fault state, so the standard is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. The only other ground, mental incapacity, requires that the spouse has been adjudged incapacitated for at least three years.
- Time-Sharing and Parental Responsibility: Florida law now begins with a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing serves a child’s best interests. Fights tend to center on school logistics, work schedules, and whether the presumption should be rebutted.
- Child Support: The statutory guideline amount presumptively sets support. It is built from each parent’s net income, the combined figure, and an adjustment once a parent has at least 20 percent of overnights, roughly 73 nights a year. Households with higher combined income add a percentage of the income above the top of the schedule.
- Alimony: Florida recognizes temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational alimony. Permanent alimony was eliminated for new cases, though older permanent awards remain in place and can be challenged under the modification statute.
- Property Division: The court starts with an equal division of marital assets and liabilities and departs from it only with justification. Business interests, investment accounts, retirement assets, and real estate are common sources of dispute.
- Relocation: A move of at least 50 miles that lasts at least 60 consecutive days triggers Florida’s relocation statute, which comes up often for Wellington families with job offers or family elsewhere.
- Modification of Existing Orders: Changing a parenting plan requires a substantial and material change in circumstances, and support and alimony orders have their own modification standards.
- Premarital Agreements: A written, signed agreement is enforceable without consideration beyond the marriage, but it can be set aside for involuntariness, fraud, duress, coercion, overreaching, or unconscionability combined with inadequate financial disclosure.
What to Do First if Your Family Case Is Starting in Palm Beach County
Start with documents. Gather recent tax returns, pay records, bank and brokerage statements, retirement account statements, mortgage and property records, business financials if either spouse owns a company, and a list of debts. Florida requires full financial disclosure in dissolution cases, and the person who walks into the first consultation with organized records saves time and money.
Be careful about the date of filing. For classifying marital assets and debts, the cut-off is the earliest of a valid separation agreement’s date, another date set by such an agreement, or the filing of the petition. Length of marriage for alimony purposes also runs to the filing date, so a marriage near the ten- or twenty-year line deserves a conversation before anyone files.
Wellington families file in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. Palm Beach County Family Court hears divorce, support, time-sharing, and domestic violence cases, and filings can be made at the Main Judicial Complex in West Palm Beach or the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens. The South County Courthouse in Delray Beach also accepts family cases and domestic violence injunction petitions. Clerk offices are open Monday through Friday during business hours. Parties in Broward are in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit instead, which matters if a spouse lives or files there.
If there is violence or a credible threat, the process is different. A domestic violence injunction can be sought whether or not a family case is pending, though any pending case must be disclosed in the petition. A court sets the hearing at the earliest possible time, and an ex parte temporary injunction lasts no more than 15 days before that hearing.
Avoid the common missteps. Do not move assets, close accounts, or run up debt. Do not move out of Florida with the children, because relocation without agreement or court approval creates serious problems. Do not sign a marital settlement agreement before an attorney has reviewed the valuation of every significant asset. If you are served, an answer is due within 20 days, and ignoring papers invites a default.
How Florida’s 2023 Reforms Reshape Divorce and Support Cases
Alimony is where the changes bite hardest. Length of marriage now drives the framework: under 10 years is short-term, 10 to 20 is moderate, and 20 or more is long-term. Durational alimony cannot be awarded after a marriage of less than three years, and it cannot run longer than 50 percent of a short-term marriage, 60 percent of a moderate-term marriage, or 75 percent of a long-term marriage. Monthly alimony cannot exceed the lesser of the recipient’s reasonable need or 35 percent of the difference between the spouses’ net incomes. Bridge-the-gap alimony caps at two years and is not modifiable. Rehabilitative alimony caps at five years and requires a plan.
The amended modification statute also gives payors new tools. A court must reduce or terminate alimony on finding a supportive relationship with an unrelated person; that word used to be “may”. An obligor who reaches normal Social Security retirement age, or the customary retirement age for the profession, and has retired or taken real steps to retire can seek a reduction, and may file as early as six months before an anticipated retirement. These changes apply to cases filed after the effective date, so older orders follow older rules.
On the parenting side, the same legislative session created the equal time-sharing presumption and removed the “unanticipated” requirement from the standard for modifying time-sharing. The court still requires a substantial and material change before reworking a plan. For a Wellington parent with a long-standing schedule that no longer works, the question is whether the change in circumstances is real and documented.
Property division carries its own recent adjustments. The Legislature amended the equitable distribution statute in 2024 on how certain assets are defined, including the marital interest in a closely held business and interspousal gifts of real property. For families with a company, a farm operation, or inherited property held in a spouse’s name, how an asset is classified can decide the outcome. Every distribution, equal or unequal, requires written findings identifying nonmarital assets, marital assets with significant ones individually valued, and marital liabilities.
Wellington Family Law Questions Answered
How long does a divorce take in Florida?
No final judgment can be entered until at least 20 days after the original petition is filed, and a court can shorten that wait if the delay would cause injustice. Uncontested cases with no children can finish within weeks. Contested divorces involving custody, business valuations, or disputed assets commonly take a year or more.
Do I have to prove my spouse did something wrong?
No. The ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Fault is not required for the divorce itself, although a court may consider adultery and its economic impact when setting alimony.
How is the marital home divided?
The court starts from an equal division of marital assets and liabilities. Options include selling and splitting the proceeds, one spouse buying out the other, or deferring sale. Which makes sense depends on equity, who carries the mortgage, and where the children are in school.
Can I get alimony if we were married less than three years?
Durational alimony cannot be awarded after a marriage that lasted less than three years. Other forms, such as bridge-the-gap or temporary alimony during the case, are evaluated on their own terms.
Does Florida still award permanent alimony?
No. It was eliminated for cases filed after the 2023 reform. Awards entered before that date remain in effect but may be modified under the modification statute.
What does the equal time-sharing presumption mean for my case?
It means the court starts from the assumption that equal time with each parent serves the child. A parent seeking a different arrangement must rebut that presumption with evidence about the child’s best interests, such as safety, stability, or each parent’s history of caregiving.
How is child support calculated for high-income families?
Each parent’s net income is determined, the two are combined, and the guideline schedule sets support. When combined net income exceeds the top of the schedule, support is the schedule’s top amount plus a set percentage of the excess, with the percentage rising as the number of children increases. Parties can argue for a deviation, but departures beyond five percent require written findings.
What counts as a relocation, and how fast do I have to object?
A relocation is a move of at least 50 miles from the prior residence that lasts at least 60 consecutive days, excluding temporary absences for vacation, education, or a child’s health care. An objection to a relocation petition must be written, filed, and served within 20 days of service of the petition.
Can a premarital agreement be thrown out?
Yes, but the challenger carries the burden. The challenger must prove the agreement was not voluntary, or was the product of fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching, or that it was unconscionable when signed and the challenger received no fair financial disclosure. A premarital agreement also cannot adversely affect a child’s right to support.
My ex remarried or is living with a partner. Does that affect alimony?
Remarriage of the recipient ends bridge-the-gap and durational alimony. A supportive relationship with an unrelated person is a separate basis: under the amended statute, a court must reduce or terminate alimony upon such a finding in cases filed after the reform date.
Is a family lawyer worth hiring for an uncontested case?
Often, yes. Uncontested does not mean the paperwork is simple. A lawyer checks that asset valuations are right, that retirement accounts are divided correctly, and that parenting provisions will actually work, which are the places uncontested agreements most often go wrong.
Serving Wellington Families Across Palm Beach and Broward County
Williams & Varsegi, LLC represents family law clients starting in Wellington and reaching throughout Palm Beach County, including Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. We also serve families in Broward County, including Coral Springs and Parkland, and across the wider South Florida region.
Whether your case begins with a petition filed in the Palm Beach County Family Court or involves a spouse with ties to Broward County, our attorneys handle divorce, time-sharing, support, alimony, property division, relocation, and modification for clients in each of these communities. We also handle divorces involving physicians, federal employees, and police and fire personnel, whose benefits and licenses raise their own questions.
Speak With a Wellington Family Law Attorney at Williams & Varsegi, LLC
If you are weighing a divorce, responding to papers, or trying to change an order that no longer works, a conversation with a Wellington family law attorney can clarify where you stand under Florida’s current rules. Williams & Varsegi, LLC will listen, review your circumstances, and lay out a plan suited to your family. Call to schedule a consultation.
