Post-Judgment Modifications and Enforcement Actions
Highly-Rated Bradenton, Sarasota, and Venice, Florida Lawyer for Your Post-Judgment Modification or Enforcement Lawsuit
After a Final Judgment has been entered in a family law case, it sometimes becomes necessary to modify the terms and conditions of the Final Judgment. Circumstances in life often change after a divorce of other important family law case. Oftentimes, changing circumstances involving the parties’ minor children will require a change to your Final Judgment. Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice, Florida Attorney Matthew Z. Martell has experience handling filing post-divorce modification actions. To ensure that your voice is heard, you should contact a Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice, Florida family law attorney that handles post-judgment modification and enforcement lawsuits.
POST JUDGMENT MODIFICATION
Parental responsibility and time-sharing provisions contained in your Parenting Plan and incorporated into your Final Judgment may only be modified if there has been a substantial change in circumstances since the time that the judgment was entered. A variety of changes might satisfy this requirement, but the bar is set very high. For a child custody case, even if there has been a change in circumstances, the court will only allow the modification if there has been a major change and if what you are requesting is in the child’s best interest. In making this determination, the court will assess several different factors related to this change in situation and how it affects your children. A Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice, Florida family law attorney like Matthew Z. Martell can help you identify possible changes to your situation that may justify a successful post-judgment modification action.
POST JUDGMENT ENFORCEMENT
The Law Offices of Matthew Z. Martell, P.A. provides legal representation with post-judgment issues such as child support, time-sharing (child visitation), parental responsibility (child custody), relocation of parents, and alimony. Our law firm routinely files lawsuits to enforce previous settlement agreements and orders of the court regarding alimony, distribution of property or debts, child support, time-sharing (child visitation) and parental responsibility (child custody). This also includes Motions for Contempt when necessary and warranted for willful and deliberate violations of prior court orders or marital settlement agreements. If a party is not complying with terms of the judgment, then there may be options to compel compliance and punish the non-compliant party. For example, if a party is willfully disobeying the judgment then you may be able to file a contempt action to seek fines, penalties, and even jail on rare occasion. If a parent is delinquent in his or her child support payments, then there may be options available to compel and receive payment. Some of these options are enforced by the state. This may include garnishing wages, collecting from tax refunds, suspending driver’s and professional licenses and contempt of court. When disputes arise post-divorce, it is best to obtain legal representation before the problem gets too far out of hand. There is not necessarily a legal advantage to being the first ex-spouse to file for a post-divorce modification of enforcement action. However, the first party to file such a case usually gains a tactical advantage because he or she will have already hired an attorney, prepared for their lawsuit, and has started getting the legal process moving forward to deal with the current dispute. The non-filing ex-spouse is then normally left in a position of scrambling to hire an attorney, drafting and filing the required responsive legal paperwork and then later trying to play “catch up” in order to attempt to legally bring any potential legal claims they may have to the Court’s attention.
GET HELP WITH YOUR Sarasota, Bradenton AND VENICE, FLORIDA POST-JUDGMENT MODIFICATION OR ENFORCEMENT FAMILY LAW CASE
Contact Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice, Florida post-judgment modification and post-judgment enforcement lawyer Matthew Z. Martell for help. Our law firm offers a free 15-minute initial phone consultation to assist you in determining whether you need to re-open your divorce or family law case. Call the Law Offices of Matthew Z. Martell, P.A. today at (941) 556-7020.
