Marital infidelity is one of the toughest things a person can experience. Most times, marriages end in divorce if one of the partners are unfaithful. While it can cause painful emotions, infidelity doesn’t necessarily affect divorce proceedings in the state of Florida. Why is that? Florida happens to be a no-fault state, which means that it is not necessary to prove infidelity to get a divorce nor does infidelity often affect the outcome of the divorce proceedings.  

Florida Divorce Attorneys

When divorcing in a no-fault state, the court doesn’t care if a partner committed infidelity unless one party substantially depleted marital assets in furtherance of the affair OR the affair was open, obvious, and had a significant impact on the well-being of the children.

If you’re thinking of recording your partner in order to catch them being unfaithful, don’t do it. Not only is it illegal to record someone without their consent, the court has no interest in such proof. While spying apps that let you see calls, texts, emails, and various forms of communications are gaining popularity, the court won’t likely give text messages or recordings or information gained through spying apps much weight in divorce proceedings. These apps might prove infidelity to justify your decision to divorce, but it won’t mean much in a court of law.

Infidelity, may however, have a huge impact in dividing marital assets (your property and money) when the cheating spouse lavishly spends money on the paramour in the form of travel, gifts, cash payments, paying for cars, apartments, etc. In these cases, the court might begin to split assets 50/50, but then “credit” the non-cheating spouse with all the money the cheating spouse spent on the paramour. The court may also consider the length of time the affair took place and calculate the amount of money the cheating spouse spent and increase alimony to the non-cheating spouse to compensate them for all the “niceties” they were denied in the marriage.

If you find yourself in a situation where infidelity has occurred and are seeking a divorce, please contact the Law Offices of Michael B. Brehne, P.A.

 

Photo credit: Alamy