West Palm Beach Family Lawyer
A petition filed at the Main Judicial Complex on North Dixie Highway can reset your finances, your calendar with your children, and your housing within a matter of months. Williams & Varsegi, LLC is a boutique firm that practices exclusively in divorce and family law, serving clients across Palm Beach County and Broward County, and works with people searching for a West Palm Beach family lawyer who knows how these cases are decided here.
Family cases in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit are heard in the Family Court division, which handles divorce, time-sharing, child support, alimony, and domestic violence injunctions. Florida law has shifted in the last few years: permanent alimony no longer exists for new cases, and courts now begin from a presumption that equal time-sharing is in a child’s best interests. What those changes mean for you depends on your marriage, your income, and your children.
The stakes are concrete. A property division order can fix who keeps the house and the business. A time-sharing schedule can govern your weekends for a decade. Getting the first filings right matters more than most people expect.
Why Choose Williams & Varsegi, LLC as Your Palm Beach County Family Law Firm
Williams & Varsegi, LLC handles family law for clients throughout Palm Beach County, including West Palm Beach, as well as Broward County and the communities of Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Parkland, and Delray Beach. The firm practices only divorce and family law, with more than twenty years of experience behind its attorneys, and takes on matters ranging from high-net-worth, high-conflict divorces to uncontested and simplified cases. That range matters in this market, where one client may need a forensic accountant to trace a business interest and another simply needs an agreement drafted correctly.
Clients work directly with experienced attorneys who know their case. Two of those attorneys are Katie and Emerald Williams, whose names appear repeatedly in client reviews. Reviewers describe Katie and her team as responsive and knowledgeable, credit Emerald Williams with keeping every promise made at the first consultation, and praise the staff for being on time. One client who was represented for more than three years said the process felt smoother and less anxious. The firm holds a 5-star rating from its clients.
The firm’s lawyers are skilled negotiators and experienced litigators with extensive courtroom experience. Some cases resolve through mediation or collaborative work, and others need a trial judge. The firm prepares for either, and brings in forensic accountants, business valuators, and other experts when the numbers require them. It also handles divorces involving physicians, federal employees, and police and fire personnel, whose pensions, benefits, and licenses raise their own questions.
Family Law Issues We Handle for West Palm Beach Clients
- Divorce, Contested and Uncontested: Florida is a no-fault state, so the usual ground 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. Contested cases involve discovery, depositions, and sometimes trial.
- Time-Sharing and Parental Responsibility: Florida’s term for custody. Courts apply a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing serves the child, and modifying an existing plan requires a substantial and material change in circumstances.
- Child Support: The statutory guideline amount is presumed correct and is built from each parent’s net income, overnights, health insurance, and child care costs. Deviations of more than five percent require written findings.
- Alimony: The available forms are temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational. Marriage length, measured from the wedding to the filing date, drives the analysis.
- Equitable Distribution: The court separates nonmarital from marital assets and starts from an equal split of the marital estate, departing from it only with justification. Real estate, closely held businesses, and retirement accounts are the usual battlegrounds.
- Relocation: A move of at least 50 miles lasting 60 consecutive days or more, when a parenting plan exists, triggers the statutory relocation process.
- Simplified Dissolution: Available to couples with no minor children, no pregnancy, full agreement on assets and debts, and mutual waiver of alimony.
- Collaborative Divorce and Mediation: Alternatives to litigation, often involving financial specialists, child specialists, and divorce coaches, that keep decisions in the spouses’ hands.
What to Do in the First Weeks of a Palm Beach County Family Case
Start with residency. At least one spouse must have lived in Florida for six months before a dissolution petition can be filed. The North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens and the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach also accept new family cases, which can be more convenient depending on where you live. Clerk offices are open Monday through Friday during business hours.
If you have been served, the clock is short. A spouse generally has twenty days to respond, and ignoring the papers invites a default. Do not wait to see whether things settle down.
Gather financial records before anything else: tax returns, pay statements, bank and brokerage statements, retirement account summaries, mortgage documents, business financials, and credit card balances. Florida requires full financial disclosure, and hiding assets can bring serious penalties, so the goal is a complete picture, not a favorable one. The date that classifies assets as marital is the earliest of a valid separation agreement date or the filing of the petition, so what you acquire after that date is usually treated differently.
If safety is a concern, a domestic violence injunction can be sought whether or not a divorce is pending. The court sets a hearing at the earliest possible time, and a temporary ex parte injunction lasts no more than fifteen days before that hearing. Petitions can be filed at the North County or South County Courthouse clerk offices.
Avoid the common mistakes: moving a child out of the area without following the relocation rules, posting about the case online, draining joint accounts, or signing an agreement before you understand what it waives. Call a family law attorney before making any of those moves.
How Florida Alimony and Property Division Work After the 2023 Changes
Florida eliminated permanent alimony for new cases. Awards entered earlier remain in effect but can be revisited through modification. Today, bridge-the-gap alimony helps a spouse transition to single life and cannot exceed two years. Rehabilitative alimony supports retraining or education and cannot exceed five years. Durational alimony runs for a set period, cannot be awarded after a marriage of less than three years, and is capped at a percentage of the marriage length: 50 percent for short marriages (under ten years), 60 percent for moderate ones (ten to twenty years), and 75 percent for long marriages of twenty years or more. The monthly figure cannot exceed the lesser of the recipient’s reasonable need or 35 percent of the difference between the spouses’ net incomes.
Modification rules matter too. In cases filed after the 2023 amendments, a court must reduce or terminate alimony if the recipient is in a supportive relationship with an unrelated person, and an obligor can seek a reduction on reaching retirement age, even up to six months before retiring when retirement is reasonably anticipated.
Property division follows its own logic. The court begins with an equal split of marital assets and liabilities and needs specific written findings to depart from it. A recent amendment changed how certain assets are defined, including the marital interest in a closely held business and gifts of real property between spouses. For owners of businesses and professional practices in Palm Beach County, valuation is often the central fight.
Frequently Asked Questions About Family Law in West Palm Beach
How long does a Florida divorce take?
No final judgment can be entered until at least twenty days after the petition is filed, though a court can act sooner if delay would cause injustice. An uncontested case without children can finish in roughly four to six weeks. Contested divorces with custody disputes or complex assets can run twelve to eighteen months or longer.
Do I have to prove my spouse did something wrong?
No. The ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Adultery can still be considered when the court determines the amount of alimony, to the extent it had an economic impact.
Is equal time-sharing automatic?
Not automatic, but there is a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interests. A parent seeking a different schedule has to show why it serves the child better.
How is child support calculated?
The court adds both parents’ net incomes, applies the statutory guideline, and adjusts for overnights, health insurance, and child care. The guideline result is presumed correct. Where combined net income exceeds the top of the schedule, support is the schedule minimum plus a percentage of the excess, from 5 percent for one child up to 12.5 percent for six.
Does time with the children affect support?
Yes. A parent who has at least 20 percent of overnights, roughly 73 nights a year, receives a time-sharing adjustment in the calculation.
Can I still get permanent alimony?
No. For new cases, the available forms are temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational.
My spouse owns a business. Does that change things?
Often significantly. The business may be marital, nonmarital, or partly both, and its value must be established individually. Forensic accountants and business valuators are routinely needed.
What counts as a relocation under Florida law?
A move at least 50 miles from the prior residence lasting at least 60 consecutive days, excluding temporary absences for vacation, education, or a child’s health care. A written objection must be served within twenty days of the petition to relocate.
Can a prenuptial agreement be thrown out?
Only in limited circumstances. The challenger must prove the agreement was not voluntary, or resulted from fraud, duress, coercion, or overreaching, or was unconscionable when signed and that fair financial disclosure was not given. A premarital agreement also cannot reduce a child’s right to support.
Can I change an existing time-sharing schedule later?
Yes, but you must show a substantial and material change in circumstances. The Legislature removed the requirement that the change be unanticipated.
Do I need a lawyer for an uncontested divorce?
Not legally, but a review catches problems in agreements that are hard to fix afterward, such as waived rights, unclear asset language, or support terms that do not match the guideline.
What if I retire after an alimony award?
If you reach normal Social Security retirement age or the customary retirement age for your profession and have retired or taken real steps to retire, you may ask the court to reduce or end alimony if retirement reduces your ability to pay.
Serving Family Law Clients Across Palm Beach and Broward Counties
Our work for West Palm Beach families extends throughout Palm Beach County. We represent clients in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Greenacres, Riviera Beach, North Palm Beach, and Belle Glade. Cases from these communities are heard at the county’s courthouses in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Delray Beach, and Belle Glade.
We also serve families in neighboring Broward County, including Coral Springs and Parkland, where family cases are heard by the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Whether you are a business owner in Palm Beach, a physician commuting to a hospital, a federal employee, or a first responder, we handle family law matters across South Florida.
Speak With a West Palm Beach Family Law Attorney
Talking with a West Palm Beach family law attorney early gives you room to plan before deadlines and filings start dictating your choices. Williams & Varsegi, LLC will sit down with you, learn what you need, and build a plan around your circumstances, whether that means negotiation, mediation, or trial. Call to schedule a consultation.
