Author: WB Admin

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.

In Florida, shared parental responsibility means both parents keep full parental rights and must work together on major decisions affecting their child. That sounds straightforward until a real disagreement shows up. One parent wants a school change. The other says no. A medical issue comes up, and both parents dig in. 

Shared Parental Responsibility Does Not Mean Constant Agreement

Florida courts generally order shared parental responsibility unless the arrangement would be detrimental to the child. The focus stays on major decisions, not every routine choice. A court-approved parenting plan must spell out how parents will handle daily responsibilities, time-sharing, communication, and decision-making for matters such as health care, school-related issues, and other activities.

That structure helps, but it does not eliminate conflict. A deadlock happens when parents with shared decision-making authority cannot reach an agreement on an important issue. In many families, the hardest disputes involve education, nonemergency medical care, counseling, and extracurricular commitments. Florida law does not expect parents to agree on everything. It does expect the parenting plan and, if needed, the court order to address how major decisions will be made.

Florida Courts Can Assign Final Say on Specific Issues

When repeated stalemates make co-parenting harder, a Florida court may give one parent ultimate responsibility over specific aspects of the child’s welfare. That authority is not unlimited. The court may assign final decision-making in defined areas, such as education or health care, based on the child’s best interests. Courts do not award one parent blanket control over every part of the child’s life just because the parents disagree.

If shared parental responsibility would be harmful to the child, the court may instead order sole parental responsibility. Florida law specifically directs courts to consider evidence of domestic violence, abuse, neglect, and related safety concerns when deciding whether shared responsibility is detrimental.

Build a Better Parenting Plan

A strong parenting plan can prevent future deadlocks before they start. Wickersham & Bowers handles family law matters involving child custody and support, divorce, mediation, parental rights, grandparent rights, paternity, and domestic violence issues in Florida. We can help you review whether your current parenting plan gives enough direction when major decisions stall. To discuss your situation, call 386-252-3000 or reach out through our contact form.