Marital and Family Law

The area of marital and family law encompasses the most personal and emotional issues that people can face in a court proceeding, including:

• Dissolving a marriage
• Establishing paternity over a child whose parents are not married
• Establishing parental responsibility, parenting plans and timesharing schedules for minor children
• Establishing and modifying alimony and child support
• Dividing assets and liabilities
• Seeking attorney’s fees and costs from the other party to cover the expense of litigation
• Prosecuting and defending civil domestic violence injunctions
• Negotiating and drafting prenuptial and postnuptial agreements

Marital and family law cases generally fall into one of three categories:

1. initial proceedings for dissolution of marriage or for the establishment of paternity in which the parties are establishing their rights and obligations for the first time;
2. post-judgment enforcement proceedings in which one or both of the parties is seeking to enforce a court order; e.g. a contempt proceeding to enforce the payment of alimony; and,
3. post-judgment modification proceedings in which one or both of the parties is seeking to modify a prior court order; e.g. a proceeding to increase the amount of time a party is allowed to spend with his/her children.

OLDER, LUNDY & WEISMAN is Different from Other Family Law Firms

What is special about our practice group.

• OLDER, LUNDY & WEISMAN delivers extraordinary personal service to its clients. Our attorneys are available to our clients seven days a week. Whereas most attorneys at other firms leave the office and leave behind all of their clients’ problems, all of our clients have our mobile phone numbers so that they can reach us after normal business hours and on weekends. If you call us, you always get a return phone call that day, usually within a matter of an hour.
• We have six highly skilled, aggressive and experienced attorneys and a full-time forensic account that work exclusively in the area of marital and family law. The size of our family law team enables us to staff each and every case with multiple attorneys and, when appropriate, an accountant. This means that we can tackle any issue with exceptional efficiency and always be extremely responsive to our clients, the Court, and opposing attorneys. Some cases require extraordinary turnaround time and we can always make any deadline or handle any emergency. We are never the reason that a case is not moving quickly enough.

We treat each case as unique.

• We match the right attorneys and staff to each client’s case. By doing so, we have had tremendous success at creating a trusting and comfortable environment for our clients. This is important because our clients are facing some of the most difficult and stressful situations of their lives. We can handle any kind of family law case at any stage and against any other attorney. We do not make excuses or exceptions.

We are innovative.

• We employ the most cutting edge technology and training, which helps our attorneys and staff most accurately and efficiently research and analyze all of the issues that can arise in any family law case.
• At the end of 2010, we made a critical decision to bring on a full-time forensic accountant. Forensic accounting often is an essential part of a family law case. It can involve valuing assets, tracing lost monies or performing a variety of alimony and/or child support analysis. Having an accounting professional on our team often gives us a deeper understanding of the financial issues in the case much sooner than our opponents and without having to rely on a more costly outside third party.

We know how to amicably resolve cases.

• OLDER, LUNDY & WEISMAN has a very hands-on, personal and family-oriented approach to our clients’ cases. We place a lot of emphasis on negotiation and settlement of family disputes, rather than overly aggressive and costly litigation.
• In every case, we emphasize the value and importance of amicably resolving the issues. The vast majority of our cases are settled, in whole or in part, at mediation or outside of court.
• Four out of our six family law attorneys are trained in the area of collaborative family law, which is a relatively new and alternative approach to resolving family law matters that is often much more private and dignified than litigation.

If the case cannot be settled, we know how to aggressively litigate.

• While we are always trying to resolve cases outside of court, we recognize that the nature of family law is adversarial. We are always ready, willing and able to aggressively pursue our clients' rights in court, which from time to time is absolutely necessary.
• In one of our recent cases (August 2010), the other party in the case moved from Florida to Ohio with the parties’ two minor children without our client’s consent or a court order. This was a clear violation of Florida law and our client’s rights under his Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage. We immediately filed an emergency motion for contempt and for the return of the children to this jurisdiction, and soon thereafter our client’s rights were restored, the children were returned to Florida, and the other party was ordered to pay all of our attorney’s fees. This was a good example of when aggressive litigation was simply necessary. If and when that time comes, we are ready to fight for our clients and have some of the most tenacious family law trial attorneys in the Tampa Bay area.

We know how to do things that many other family law practices don’t.

• OLDER, LUNDY & WEISMAN attorneys also handle more technical areas of family law, including the preparation of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, or QDROs, which are necessary in order to divide certain retirement accounts and pensions. Many family law attorneys do not have training or experience in this area and they have to refer their clients to us or to other firms when these issues arise. In this and other senses, we provide more comprehensive service than most other family law firms.
• OLDER, LUNDY & WEISMAN handles family law appeals. Most other family law firms refer their appeals to other attorneys who may not be as familiar with the case and who were not a part of the proceeding that is the subject of the appeal.

This is the bottom line – YOUR case is about YOUR family and YOUR life.

• Above all else, we believe that family issues are best resolved by families.
• We give our clients the advice they need to help them make their own decisions. We do not interfere with our clients’ personal decisions or create problems where they do not exist.
• We are committed first and foremost to our clients’ needs and goals.
• We never lose sight of the fact that our job is to provide good advice, strong legal representation, and to help people resolve disputes as quickly and discreetly as is possible.