When everything is changing, you should know exactly where you stand.

You file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with the circuit court in the county where you live, along with a filing fee, a financial affidavit and, if you have children, a proposed parenting plan. One spouse must have lived in Florida for at least six months before filing. In Pasco County the petition is filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court, and the case is typically heard at the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey.

Florida law requires at least 20 days between filing and a final judgment, so the fastest possible uncontested divorce takes about three weeks. In practice an uncontested case usually takes one to three months, and a contested case involving children, a business or disputed property commonly runs nine months to over a year depending on the court calendar and how much the two sides disagree.

The two costs are the court filing fee set by the Pasco County Clerk and your attorney fees, and the second depends almost entirely on how much is contested. A genuinely uncontested divorce where both spouses agree on everything is the least expensive path, and costs rise with contested time sharing, disputed valuations and litigation. You get a written fee agreement before any work begins.

Yes. Florida is a no fault state, which means you do not have to prove adultery, cruelty or any other wrongdoing to get divorced. You only need to state that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Fault can still matter in limited situations, such as when marital money was spent on an affair, but it is not required to end the marriage.

Florida uses a statutory guideline formula based on both parents’ net monthly incomes, the number of overnights each parent has under the parenting plan, and the cost of health insurance and work related childcare. Because overnights directly change the number, the parenting plan and the support amount have to be worked out together.

A Florida judge decides time sharing on the best interests of the child, applying the factors in Florida Statute 61.13. Those include each parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs, the stability of each home, the child’s school and community record, and each parent’s willingness to support a relationship with the other parent. Florida law starts from the presumption that equal time sharing is in the child’s best interests.

Not without either written agreement from the other parent or a court order. Under Florida Statute 61.13001 a parent who wants to move more than 50 miles from their current home for more than 60 days must either get a signed agreement or file a petition to relocate. Moving first and asking later can result in the court ordering the child returned.

In most cases yes. Pasco County family courts routinely order parties to mediation before they will set a contested final hearing. Mediation is confidential, and anything that is not agreed there stays out of the courtroom. Erin Catey is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, so the firm both represents clients at mediation and serves as a neutral mediator in other attorneys’ cases.