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A majority of family law cases are filed pro se, which means people are filing in family court and representing themselves without hiring an attorney. The number of pro se filings varies from place to place, and in Gainesville, Alachua County, the pro se family law filings are well over 50%.

Excluding criminal cases, almost every single case filed in a Florida Court has to go to mediation. One of the reasons mediation is mandatory is because it works. Most cases settle out of court and that helps keep the cases moving smoothly through the court system and it usually results in a more positive court experience.

Pro Se means a person is representing him/herself in court. Most pro se litigants do not know how to prepare for trial, do not know how to present their case to the court, have fatal misconceptions about what is admissible evidence and what is NOT admissible evidence, and do not know how to move documents into evidence.

Using Self Help Legal Services is an efficient and economical way to initiate or respond to a family law case. There are three easy steps to get the legal help you need: 1) Schedule a free initial phone consultation; 2) Meet with attorney to prepare your paperwork for about 2 hours; 3) File your paperwork at the Courthouse.

You are pro se litigant if you are representing yourself in court. One of the most important things to do as a pro se litigant is to read your court mail carefully. This may sound silly but I have seen it happen over and over where a party has not carefully read the court document and failed to follow a rule, failed to comply with a request or notice, or worst of all, failed to comply with a court order.

These are stressful times, indeed. No matter which side of the aisle you’re on politically, no matter how you feel about the various government responses to the pandemic, and no matter how you are personally responding to the pandemic, it feels like we are all in pressure cooker.

Florida family financial disclosure rule 12.285 has changed. The new disclosure rule includes providing six (6) months of paycheck stubs, twelve (12) months of checking account statements, twenty-four (24)(!) months of credit card statements, and there is an entirely new requirement to include digital currency statements.