Obtaining a Florida Divorce is not complicated.

FILING THE PETITION. Florida is a no-fault state. Accordingly, there are no grounds required to establish entitlement for a Florida divorces. The process is generally streamlined. If you meet the residency requirements and your marriage is irretrievably broken, a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage is filed which outlines any claims that you have for things like child support, custody, alimony, division of property and debts, etc. In general, the other party has to be served with the papers by a process server and then the requirements of various court rules and procedures come into effect. In the petition the parties must establish that one of the parties to the marriage has resided exclusively in the State of Florida for at least six before the filing of the petition.61.021

Dissolution of marriage - Once residency issues are established, the court is statutorily required to consider if

a) The marriage is irretrievably broken. and (b) Mental incapacity of one of the parties.

Based on the evidence at the hearing, the court willl dispose of the petition for dissolution of marriage when the petition is based on the allegation that the marriage is irretrievably broken as follows if there is no minor child of the marriage and if the responding party does not deny that the marriage is irretrievably broken, the court shall enter a judgment of dissolution of the marriage if the court finds that the marriage is irretrievably broken.

THE FINAL HEARING  At the final heaing one party needs to testify that the marriage is "irretrievably broken." In other words, it cannot be put back together through marriage counseling or any other means. Generally speaking, few people ever contest whether the marriage is irretrievably broken. Therefore, in most cases you can get a divorce simply by asking for one and there is little that your spouse can do about it.  

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET A FLORIDA DIVORCE  As to how long the case will take, depends on whether it is contested or uncontested. An uncontested divorce means that both parties agree on absolutely everything such as child support, custody, time sharing, division of property and debts and alimony, if any.  An uncontested divorce can take as little as four to five weeks if all of the necessary paperwork is completed. If the matter is contested, that is there are one or more issues which the Court has to decide, such as custody, child support, or alimony, etc., the case can take six months or longer. In the Florida counties where the Courts are extremely busy, it can easily take a year or more. Hopefully at some point short of a trial, the case can be settled through compromise by both parties or through the mediation process.