Under Florida law, though, divorce is considered no-fault. Under the no-fault laws, your spouse does not have to consent to dissolving the marriage. When filing on no-fault grounds, you only have to file the paperwork with the court and state that you and your spouse have irreconcilable differences.
A: If one party doesn't agree to the divorce in Florida, the process will be significantly longer. This can range from a few months to years. If one party doesn't agree to resolve issues relating to the children, assets and debts, or alimony considerations, the process will be longer than most others.
However, in Florida, a spouse's refusal to sign the divorce papers cannot prevent the divorce from proceeding. If a spouse refuses to sign divorce papers, the court will assume they are not interested in participating in the proceedings. They will consider the divorce petition without the uncooperative spouse's input.
If you don't respond, the petitioning spouse can file a motion to default and the divorce can be finalized without your input. If you don't want to sign divorce papers, you can choose to reconcile, file a counterclaim and attend counseling, file a postnuptial agreement, or contest the divorce.
If your spouse won't engage in your divorce, then your only option for ending your marriage will have to be to go to court. Mediation will be a waste of time because your spouse won't participate. Collaborative divorce won't work. You will have to litigate your divorce.
If due diligence fails and the spouse successfully avoids the attempts to serve the papers, the process moves into a default divorce process. In this case, the respondent has essentially given up their rights to negotiate the separation of marital assets and any issues of child custody and support orders.
An uncontested divorce in Florida takes between six weeks and three months. A contested divorce takes between six months to a year to come to a resolution. Keep in mind that you must meet Florida state residency requirements prior to filing for divorce.
Is Florida a 50/50 divorce state? No, it's an equitable distribution state, which means couples split up their marital assets in a way deemed fair by the presiding court. The division may or may not be 50/50.