Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure

What is discovery in a Florida family law case? This refers to a process in which each party can request documents or other evidence to prove his or her side of the case. For example, in discovery, a party might request the other party’s bank statements, paystubs and tax returns to determine income for purposes of calculating alimony or child support. Is there a limit on discovery? This was an issue in the case Flynn v. Flynn, 2D22-1172 (Fla. 2d DCA March 10, 2023).

In this case, at issue was the former husband’s petition for downward modification of alimony and the former wife’s motion for contempt for the former husband’s failure to pay court-ordered support. As part of discovery, the former wife sought information related to the sale of real property awarded to the former husband when the parties divorced. The former husband objected to this request. The trial court upheld the former husband’s objection, reasoning that requiring the former husband to use the proceeds of the sale of his assets to satisfy an alimony claim would be inequitable. It therefore found that discovery of what the former husband did with the funds after the sale of the property would not lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. The former wife filed a petition for writ of certiorari alleging the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in denying her discovery request.

The appellate court granted the writ and determined the trial court did depart from the essential requirements of the law. It held “While a party may not be required to deplete or exhaust assets in order to satisfy alimony obligations, here, the Office Building has already been sold, and even if the argument could be made that the Former Husband should not be required to use all of that income to pay his alimony obligations, the Former Wife is still entitled to inquire as to the proceeds in order to aid and assist the lower court in ultimately determining whether the Former Husband has the ability to pay his previously ordered alimony obligation.” The court concluded “Accordingly, the proceeds from the sale of the Office Building are assets for proper consideration by the lower court in connection with both the Former Husband's petition to modify alimony and the Former Wife's motion for civil contempt, and thus, the Former Wife is entitled to discovery of all assets related thereto.”

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