Florida divorce law changed substantially in 2023, and a fair amount of information still circulating online — including on other legal websites — describes the law as it existed before that change. Here’s what Florida Statutes Chapter 61 actually requires today.
You Need Six Months of Residency First
Before anyone can file for dissolution of marriage in Florida, Florida Statute 61.021 requires that at least one spouse “reside 6 months in the state before the filing of the petition.” This is a threshold requirement — without it, the court doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case at all, regardless of how straightforward the rest of the divorce might be.
Florida Is a No-Fault State, With One Additional Ground
Florida Statute 61.052 allows dissolution on the ground that “the marriage is irretrievably broken” — neither spouse has to prove the other did anything wrong. This is the ground used in the overwhelming majority of Florida divorces. There’s a second, much less commonly used ground: the mental incapacity of one spouse, which requires that the spouse have been adjudicated incapacitated for at least three years prior to filing. For the vast majority of cases, though, “irretrievably broken” is the only ground that matters, and it doesn’t require any showing of fault by either party.
How Property Actually Gets Divided
Florida uses equitable distribution, not automatic 50/50 division. Under Florida Statute 61.075, the court first identifies which assets and debts are marital (acquired during the marriage) versus non-marital (generally, owned before the marriage or received individually as a gift or inheritance), then divides the marital portion based on what’s fair given the specific circumstances — not necessarily equal.
The statute lists specific factors the court weighs, including each spouse’s contribution to the marriage (which explicitly includes homemaking, child care, and supporting the other spouse’s education or career), the economic circumstances of each party, any career or education interruption either spouse experienced because of the marriage, and each spouse’s contribution to the other’s earning capacity. The court can also consider “any other factors necessary to do equity and justice between the parties” — a catch-all that gives real discretion to account for a marriage’s specific facts.
Alimony Changed Significantly in 2023 — Permanent Alimony No Longer Exists
This is the area where outdated information is most likely to mislead someone. Under Senate Bill 1416, effective July 1, 2023, Florida eliminated permanent alimony entirely for any final judgment entered on or after that date. If you’re researching Florida alimony and a source describes “permanent periodic alimony” as a current option, it’s describing the law as it stood before this reform — not the law as it exists now. (Divorces finalized before July 1, 2023 aren’t retroactively affected; the change applies going forward.)
Florida Statute 61.08 now recognizes four types of alimony:
- Temporary alimony — support during the divorce proceeding itself, ending when a final judgment is entered
- Bridge-the-gap alimony — short-term support to help a spouse transition to single life, capped by statute at no more than 2 years, and not modifiable once awarded
- Rehabilitative alimony — support tied to a specific, court-approved written plan for the recipient to gain education, training, or work experience toward self-sufficiency
- Durational alimony — support for a set period, used when the other types don’t fit the situation. The statute caps the length based on how long the marriage lasted, and the amount is capped at the lesser of the recipient’s demonstrated need or 35% of the difference between the spouses’ net incomes.
Marriage length itself is defined in three tiers under the current statute: a short-term marriage is one under 10 years, a moderate-term marriage is 10 to 20 years, and a long-term marriage is 20 years or longer. These tiers set the outer limit on durational alimony — capped at 50% of the marriage’s length for a short-term marriage, 60% for a moderate-term marriage, and 75% for a long-term marriage. Durational alimony generally isn’t available at all for marriages under 3 years.
Child Timesharing, Not “Custody”
Florida no longer uses the terms “custody” and “visitation” in its statutes — the current framework, under Florida Statute 61.20, is built around a parenting plan and time-sharing schedule. The law starts from a presumption that equal shared parental responsibility is in the child’s best interest, meaning both parents share in major decisions about the child unless evidence shows that arrangement isn’t appropriate — for example, in cases involving domestic violence or abuse.
Every actual decision within the parenting plan is measured against the “best interests of the child” standard, which the statute breaks down into specific factors: each parent’s demonstrated ability to put the child’s needs ahead of their own, willingness to facilitate a close relationship between the child and the other parent, the child’s home stability, geographic proximity between the parents, and any history of violence or abuse in the household.
Child Support Follows a Formula, With Real Limits on Deviation
Florida Statute 61.30 sets guideline child support amounts based primarily on both parents’ income and the amount of time each parent spends with the child. The guideline amount is presumptively what gets ordered — a judge can deviate up or down by 5% without special justification, but going beyond that 5% band requires a written finding explaining specifically why the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate in that case.
For an existing support order, the standard for modification is specific: the difference between the current obligation and what the guidelines would now produce must be at least 15% or $50, whichever is greater, before that difference alone counts as a substantial change in circumstances. Support generally continues until a child turns 18, with one notable extension: if the child is 18 or 19, still in high school, and on track to graduate before turning 19, support continues through graduation.