Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce

What type of temporary relief can a court award in a pending Florida divorce case? Some examples include alimony, child support and even early equitable distribution. A judge has broad discretionary authority when it comes to temporary relief, but this is not without limits. This was an issue in the case Williams v. Williams, 1D21-2454 (Fla. 1st DCA July 5, 2023).

In this pending divorce case, the court awarded temporary alimony and temporary attorney’s fees to the wife. The husband served in the military overseas. The wife initially joined him overseas, but when she learned she was pregnant, he sent her to Florida to live. The government gave him over $15,000 for the wife’s relocation. He sent $9,000 to the wife and retained the balance. As part of temporary relief, the trial court ordered the husband to transfer the retained balance to the wife. The husband appealed.

The court upheld the alimony award of $700 per month, citing the court’s broad discretion: “We will not second-guess a trial court’s discretionary determination (read: substitute our judgment for the trial court’s) regarding both the need for temporary alimony and the amount, provided there is some evidence in the record to support it.” Regarding attorney’s fees, however, the appellate court found no evidence was presented concerning fees and reversed this award.

As to the funds ordered to be transferred, the court reversed, holding this was an improper interim distribution. It held “The directive to transfer the ERD funds is something else: distribution of money that potentially is a marital asset. A different statute, section 61.075, governs equitable distributions. That provision does authorize interim distributions, for good cause, ‘at any time after the date the dissolution of marriage is filed and served and before the final distribution of marital and nonmarital assets and marital and nonmarital liabilities.’ § 61.075(5), Fla. Stat. At the same time, the provision sets out various requirements and procedures for doing so, none of which the trial court complied with. See, e.g., id. (3)(a)–(b) (requiring that, unless there is agreement, ‘any distribution of marital assets or marital liabilities shall be supported by factual findings,’ including a ‘[c]lear identification of nonmarital assets’ and ‘marital assets’)” The court held this statute was not followed and therefore the interim distribution was improper.

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