Many Brandon Divorce Attorneys are often asked frankly about why divorce cases take so long to conclude. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Divorces are somewhat unique in the sense that require two parties, who often want nothing to do with one another, to essentially work together to resolve complicated issues with one another. We have attempted to identify the most common reasons for a delay in your Tampa divorce.
First, many cases are delayed by the very nature of Florida’s court system. Simply put, there are a ton of cases filed in Florida every day. If you look at the numbers on the back end of your family law case number, those numbers represent how many cases have been filed in your circuits family law courts that year alone. As I am sure you are aware, many cases because the size of the debts or assets frankly take more than a year to resolve because the size of those financial assets. When you combine the number of cases filed annually, the previous year’s cases that are still pending and previous family law cases that have been reopened, you can now begin to see sheer volume of cases the courts are trying to handle. The volume of cases attributes to why it is so difficult to get a quick hearing for motions and case management conferences. Many Tampa divorce attorneys will tell you that family law cases never really close until the children turn eighteen (18) years old, they are only perpetually continued.
Secondly, the delays are likely attributable to either party failing to complete their financial affidavit and mandatory disclosures. As we have told many clients, once these documents are filed, we can quickly begin forcing the case to move forward more quickly. Unfortunately, there is no real quick way to complete these documents for clients; they must be completed by the clients. This is one of the most frustrating parts of a case for your Brandon Divorce Attorneys because it is waste of your time and money, when the case is delayed because of these issues. When these documents are not timely produced, the parties must write good faith letters, file motions to compel and set the same for hearings, which obviously leads to major delays in these cases. This most often occurs when the other party has either totally moved on and has absolutely no interest in the case or when they have not moved on yet and do not believe they are actually going to get a divorce. Unfortunately, both situations create major issues in the case.
Lastly, the complexity of divorces often forces the delays in the handling of the case. For example, a common car accident crash only involves a monetary settlement. A divorce may involve monetary settlements, child time sharing issues, child support, equitable distribution of assets and debts and other varying issues, including what to do with the marital home, civil no-contact orders, etc. As you can imagine, the more issues a case has the more time it takes to resolve it. Unfortunately, one party cannot force the other side to resolve their case or even really expedite matters. Brandon Divorce Attorneys can put together reasonable offers to attempt to settle the case, but if the other party is being unreasonable or is not interested in resolving the matter without a trial, there is very little that they can do.
If you or someone you know has questions concerning their Tampa divorce, contact the Brandon Divorce Attorneys of Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We have handled hundreds of divorce, involving a wide variety of issues all across the Bay Area. If you would like to contact one of our Brandon Divorce Attorneys immediately, please use the “contact us now” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website. We appreciate you taking the time to check out our Tampa divorce attorney blog and look forward to working with you.