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

Florida appellate courts have issued several opinions which discuss the necessity of including a transcript when appealing a Florida family law case. A transcript of the hearing at which the disputed order was entered needs to be provided so that the appellate court can review the full spectrum of what occurred at the hearing to make the trial court reach its decision. This was an issue in the case Julia v. Ramos-Baez, 6D2023-1858 (Fla. 6th DCA August 23, 2024).

In this divorce case, the trial court ultimately awarded the former wife attorney’s fees and costs from the former husband under Fla. Stat. 61.16. The former husband appealed, arguing the trial court did not include in the final judgment findings concerning the reasonable hourly rates of the wife’s attorneys and the reasonableness of the hours expended by the attorneys.

The appellate court noted that there are conflicting opinions among Florida appellate courts regarding the impact of a lack of transcript when certain findings are not included in a final judgment. Citing the seminal case Florida Patient’s Compensation Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1985), the appellate court held “Rowe requires a trial court to make certain findings in connection with granting an award of attorneys’ fees, but it does not require those findings to be in writing. We can see no logical reason why an order granting attorneys’ fees without including written findings as to the Rowe factors would be ‘fundamentally erroneous on its face’ when such an order is not erroneous on its face for failing to include the findings required by Section 61.16, Florida Statutes. A faithful application of the presumption of correctness and Section 59.041, Florida Statutes, as detailed above, requires that we apply the same rule to the findings required by Rowe that we apply to the findings required by Section 61.16.” The court then certified conflict with other district courts on this issue.

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