Allyson
Hughes

Florida once reserved the words "specialist" and "expert" for Board Certified attorneys alone. That restriction no longer stands. Today any Florida attorney may state that they specialize in family law, and under the current rule the attorney is expected to support that claim only if it is later questioned. No one confirms it before it appears.

Board Certification works the other way. The Florida Bar tests the attorney by written examination, reviews the work with the judges and opposing counsel who have seen it, and confirms the record before the credential is ever granted.

That distinction follows your case into the courtroom with Allyson Hughes. As a Board Certified specialist, she is authorized to sign her pleadings with the letters "B.C.S.," a designation the Florida Bar reserves for certified attorneys alone. She has held that certification since 1998.

Fewer than three hundred Florida attorneys hold this certification, less than one percent of the state's lawyers. Allyson Hughes is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a distinction held by approximately one hundred Florida attorneys. When your marriage, your children, and your financial future are on the line, certification is the clearest proof you can confirm before you decide.

Board Certification in Marital and Family Law is administered by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education under Rule 6-3, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.

Eligibility and certification standards are governed by Rule 6-6.3, which requires a minimum of five years in the practice of law, substantial involvement of fifty percent or more in marital and family law during the five years immediately preceding application, the handling of at least twenty-five contested marital and family law cases during those five years with at least seven tried to conclusion, seventy-five hours of approved continuing legal education in the specialty area, peer review by judges and attorneys familiar with the applicant's work, and a passing score on a written examination covering Florida marital and family law.

Certification must be renewed every five years under Rule 6-3.6, which requires continued substantial involvement and updated peer review.

Standing Board Policy 6.1 establishes the substantive testing requirements for the Marital and Family Law certification examination.

Board Certification adds something the description cannot: an independent judgment by The Florida Bar, reached through a formal vetting process, that the attorney's work meets the standard of a specialist.

The Florida Bar checks the work with the people who saw it. An applicant submits references from six attorneys and three judges, undergoes peer review that gathers the assessments of the opposing counsel and the judges who faced the attorney in court, and sits a written examination, given in two three-hour sessions, covering the full range of Florida marital and family law, from equitable distribution and alimony to parental responsibility, taxation, and trial procedure. Certification must then be renewed every five years.

Fewer than three hundred Florida attorneys have met that standard, less than one percent of the lawyers in the state. Allyson Hughes has been Board Certified since 1998 and is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a distinction held by approximately one hundred Florida attorneys.

Florida Bar Board Certification in Marital and Family Law is governed by Rule 6-3, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, with specialty-specific standards under Rule 6-6.3. The certification was created to provide a regulated mechanism for identifying attorneys with demonstrated expertise in a specific practice area, separate from years of practice or self-described specialty.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, founded in 1962, governs Fellowship eligibility through its national admission criteria and the Bounds of Advocacy, the Academy's standards of conduct that exceed minimum bar requirements. AAML Florida Chapter Fellows must demonstrate substantial matrimonial practice, peer endorsement, and adherence to the Bounds.

Allyson Hughes has been Board Certified in Marital and Family Law since 1998 and serves as Past Chair of the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar.

In a collaborative divorce, both spouses retain their own attorneys and sign a participation agreement committing to resolve the matter without litigation. Neutral financial professionals and family specialists join the team as needed. If either party walks away from the process, both attorneys must withdraw, which gives every participant a strong incentive to stay at the table.

Collaborative divorce works well for couples who can communicate, who share parenting responsibilities they want to preserve, and who have complex financial matters that benefit from neutral expertise rather than adversarial discovery. It is particularly effective for business owners, professionals, and high-net-worth families who value privacy.

It does not work well in cases involving hidden assets, domestic violence, or one party who refuses to negotiate in good faith.

The Collaborative Law Process Act, codified at § 61.55 through § 61.58, Florida Statutes, governs the collaborative divorce process in Florida. § 61.56 defines the collaborative law participation agreement, the trigger for the privilege, and the conditions under which the process begins and ends. § 61.57 establishes that communications made during the collaborative process are confidential and inadmissible in any subsequent litigation, with limited statutory exceptions. § 61.58 requires the disqualification of both attorneys if the matter proceeds to contested litigation, the structural feature that aligns the parties' incentives toward settlement. The ethical framework for attorneys representing clients in collaborative matters is governed by Rule 4-1.19 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, which addresses informed consent, scope of representation, and the duties created by the disqualification provision. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.745 governs filing and procedural requirements for collaborative cases that conclude with court approval.

The analysis turns on three questions: when was the business started, how was it grown during the marriage, and what is it worth today. If started before the marriage, the portion of value attributable to growth during the marriage is generally marital. If started during the marriage, it is typically marital in full.

The business must be valued, usually by a forensic accountant or certified business valuation expert, and the valuation often becomes the most contested issue in the case. The owning spouse usually keeps the business and offsets the other spouse's share with cash, other assets, or a structured buyout over time.

Professional practices, trades businesses, and closely held companies each present specific valuation challenges. Goodwill, enterprise versus personal, owner compensation normalization, and minority discounts are the technical points where outcomes are won or lost.

Equitable distribution is governed by § 61.075, Florida Statutes, titled Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets and Liabilities. The statute begins with a statutory presumption that distribution should be equal, and then enumerates the factors a court must consider in deviating from equal distribution, including the contribution of each spouse to the marriage, the duration of the marriage, the economic circumstances of each party, and the desirability of retaining any asset intact. § 61.075(6) defines marital and non-marital assets and liabilities, including the treatment of enhancements in value of non-marital property attributable to marital labor or marital funds, the subsection most often controlling in business cases where one spouse owned the company before marriage. § 61.075(3) requires written findings on the value of significant marital assets and identification of which assets are marital and which are non-marital. Active appreciation of a non-marital business through marital labor is itself marital property. Florida case law distinguishes enterprise goodwill (marital, transferable with the business) from personal goodwill (non-marital, attributable to the individual practitioner). Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.285 imposes the mandatory financial disclosure requirements that govern business valuation discovery.

The twenty-day waiting period is statutory and cannot be waived in most cases. After that, timing is driven by court calendars, the complexity of assets, whether custody is contested, and how cooperative both parties remain.

Cases involving business valuations, professional practice valuations, hidden asset investigations, or contested custody routinely run longer. Mandatory disclosure under Rule 12.285 of the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure adds a baseline schedule that no case can skip.

Honest timelines matter. An attorney who promises a fast resolution before reviewing the facts is not telling the truth. Every case is different, and the realistic timeline depends on the other side as much as on you.

§ 61.19, Florida Statutes imposes the mandatory twenty-day waiting period from the date the petition for dissolution is filed before the court may enter a final judgment, except in cases where the court finds injustice would result from the delay. Jurisdictional residency requirements are governed by § 61.021, which requires that one of the parties has resided in Florida for at least six months before the filing of the petition. The grounds for dissolution are limited to the marriage being irretrievably broken or mental incapacity of one spouse, under § 61.052. Florida is a no-fault state. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.285 governs mandatory financial disclosure between the parties, including the financial affidavit, tax returns, account statements, and supporting documentation that must be exchanged within forty-five days of service of the petition. Rule 12.490 governs general magistrate proceedings, which can affect the procedural timeline in counties that route certain matters through magistrates rather than directly to circuit judges.

An attorney represents one client. Each spouse needs independent legal advice on what they are signing and what they are giving up. The rule exists because one person's gain in equitable distribution, alimony, or time-sharing is structurally the other person's loss, no matter how amicable the conversation.

Couples who believe they agree on everything often discover, in the course of preparing the paperwork, that they did not agree as completely as they thought. Retirement accounts, the business, the specific time-sharing schedule, alimony, and taxes are not conversations most couples are equipped to have on their own. It's only when the agreement is being written that the details emerge.

Rule 4-1.7, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, Conflict of Interest: Current Clients, prohibits an attorney from representing two parties whose interests are directly adverse, except in narrow circumstances requiring informed written consent and an attorney's reasonable belief that competent and diligent representation can be provided to each party. The dual representation conflict in dissolution cases is generally treated as non-consentable because the parties' interests on equitable distribution, alimony, child support, and time-sharing are structurally adverse. Rule 4-1.9 governs duties to former clients in the same matter, relevant when one spouse previously consulted the attorney and the other later seeks representation. Rule 4-1.6 governs confidentiality of information learned during representation, which becomes a barrier to subsequent dual or successive representation. The Florida Bar's Ethics Opinion 95-4 and related opinions confirm that one attorney cannot represent both spouses in a contested or uncontested dissolution. The attorney may, however, represent one spouse and prepare an agreement that the other spouse signs after independent review by separate counsel.

Four categories of alimony remain: temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational. Durational is the longest-running, and it is capped by statute. In marriages of three to ten years, durational alimony cannot exceed fifty percent of the length of the marriage. In marriages of ten to twenty years, sixty percent. In marriages of twenty years or longer, seventy-five percent. Courts can extend these caps only in specific circumstances supported by clear and convincing evidence.

The reform also caps the amount of durational alimony at the lesser of the recipient's reasonable need or thirty-five percent of the difference between the parties' net incomes. Retirement of the paying spouse is now an explicit basis for modification or termination, a major change from prior law.

The 2023 reform changed the math in nearly every alimony case. Anyone with an existing order, or anyone facing a new divorce, should understand the current law before negotiating.

Alimony in Florida is governed by § 61.08, Florida Statutes, as substantially revised by the 2023 reform. The statute eliminates permanent alimony and identifies four remaining categories: temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, and durational. Bridge-the-gap alimony is limited to two years under § 61.08(6). Rehabilitative alimony is limited to five years under § 61.08(7), requires a specific rehabilitative plan, and may be modified or terminated upon completion or noncompliance with the plan. Durational alimony is governed by § 61.08(8), which sets the duration caps tied to marriage length and the income ceiling at the lesser of reasonable need or thirty-five percent of the difference between the parties' net incomes. The statute also defines short-term, moderate-term, and long-term marriages by length, with rebuttable presumptions affecting whether durational alimony is awarded. Modification and termination of alimony are governed by § 61.14, which now includes retirement of the paying spouse as an explicit ground for modification or termination, in addition to the longstanding grounds of substantial change in circumstances and supportive relationships. The 2023 reform was enacted by Senate Bill 1416 and codified as Chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida, effective for cases pending or filed on or after July 1, 2023. § 61.30 governs child support and the income shares model, which interacts with alimony calculations when both are awarded.