Author: WB Admin

After a separation, disagreements often surface over who gets the final word on school choices, medical care, or extracurricular activities. Florida law generally favors shared decision-making between parents, so when one parent starts making these calls alone, it can raise real legal questions.

Shared Responsibility, Specific Authority, and Records

Florida no longer uses the word “custody” in its statutes. Instead, parents share parental responsibility, meaning both retain rights and must confer on major decisions affecting the child, unless a court finds that the arrangement would be detrimental. Even within shared responsibility, a judge can still give one parent ultimate say over a defined area, such as education or nonemergency health care. 

Florida appellate courts distinguish between narrow, evidence-supported final decision-making authority and broad, catch-all control. Courts have reversed orders that effectively gave one parent sweeping authority inconsistent with shared parental responsibility. 

Recent Florida case law also stresses due process: Before a parent loses decision-making power over an issue such as schooling, that parent must receive clear notice and a fair opportunity to be heard. Separately, access to a child’s medical, dental, and school records generally cannot be denied to either parent unless a court order says otherwise, even when one parent has less say over the underlying decisions.

Document the Pattern and Ask for the Right Remedy

A parent who feels shut out should start by rereading the parenting plan, since it may already spell out who decides what. From there, it helps to keep a simple, dated record of ignored messages, missed appointments, unilateral school or medical choices, and any denied access to records or providers. 

Retaliating by withholding time-sharing or records tends to backfire and can expose a parent to sanctions. Depending on the situation, the right path forward may be enforcement of the existing order or a modification request, which requires showing a substantial and material change in circumstances along with the child’s best interests.

If school, medical, or activity decisions have become a one-sided fight, we at Wickersham & Bowers can help you understand your options under Florida law. Call us at 386-252-3000 or contact us to talk through your parenting plan and next steps.

When a marriage ends, a closely held business can become one of the hardest assets to divide. A closely held business is a company owned by a small number of people, often spouses, relatives, or a single owner. In Florida divorces, problems often arise when business income, household expenses, company accounts, and personal assets overlap.

Florida Courts First Classify the Business Interest

Florida uses equitable distribution in divorce. That means the court starts with the idea that marital assets and debts should be divided equally, unless specific facts support a different result. The court must also separate marital property from nonmarital property before dividing anything.

A business may raise questions in both categories. One spouse may have started it before marriage, but the business may have grown during the marriage. A spouse may own the shares, while both spouses helped build the company. The court may also look at whether marital money paid business debts, covered payroll gaps, bought equipment, or supported expansion.

That does not mean one spouse automatically receives half the company itself. Often, the real issue is the value of the marital interest and how that value fits into the larger property division.

Mixed Finances Can Make Valuation Harder

Business valuation becomes more difficult when personal and company finances blur. For example, a spouse may pay personal expenses through the business, use company vehicles for family needs, delay income, or run personal purchases through business accounts.

Florida law now addresses closely held business interests more directly. For marital interests in closely held businesses, Florida Statute § 61.075 uses fair market value as the standard. Fair market value generally means the price a willing buyer and willing seller would agree to when both understand the relevant facts and neither faces pressure to act.

Goodwill can also matter. Goodwill is the value of a business beyond its equipment, cash, and physical property. Florida’s updated statute distinguishes between business value and value tied to one person’s continued involvement, skill, or reputation.

Protect Your Business and Your Financial Future

At Wickersham & Bowers, we help clients address divorce, property division, and related family law issues with careful attention to the facts. When a closely held business is involved, we can help you understand what questions need answers before you make long-term decisions.

Call 386-252-3000 or reach out through our contact form to discuss your situation.

A parenting plan is a court-approved plan that explains how parents share time and decision-making for their child. During the school year, even a plan that looked workable on paper can start to break down. Homework, transportation, after-school activities, sick days, and school meetings can expose gaps that parents did not notice before. When those problems repeat, families may need to look closer at the plan and decide whether it needs clearer rules or legal enforcement.

School Schedules Can Expose Weak Spots

Florida parenting plans generally address parental responsibility and time-sharing. Parental responsibility covers major decisions, such as education and health care. Time-sharing covers when the child stays with each parent.

School-year conflict often starts when those two parts overlap. One parent may schedule tutoring on the other parent’s time. Another may miss pickup, ignore school emails, or make education decisions without discussion. These issues may seem small at first. Over time, they can affect the child’s routine and create stress that follows them into the classroom.

A strong parenting plan should explain more than where the child sleeps. It should also give practical direction for school transportation, notices from teachers, extracurricular activities, and who handles urgent school-day problems.

Courts Focus on the Child’s Best Interests

Florida courts use the child’s best interests as the guiding standard in parenting disputes. That does not mean every inconvenience justifies a court fight. A judge will usually look at the pattern, the seriousness of the problem, and how the conflict affects the child.

For instance, if you’re occasionally late, you may need to communicate better. Repeated missed exchanges, refusal to share school information, or decisions that block the other parent’s involvement may raise larger concerns.

If the same school-year issues keep coming up, written proof can help. Save teacher emails, attendance notes, pickup details, texts, and activity schedules so the pattern is easier to explain later.

Talk Through Your Options Before the Conflict Grows

School-year parenting disputes can wear down both parents and children. We help Florida families review parenting plans, address custody and support concerns, and consider practical next steps before the conflict becomes harder to manage.

To speak with Wickersham & Bowers, call 386-252-3000 or fill out our contact form.