A Florida family law pretrial conference is not just a scheduling hearing. It is where the court narrows the issues, confirms what still needs to be done, addresses witnesses and exhibits, and decides whether the case is truly ready for trial. In contested divorce, custody, support, and enforcement cases, pretrial preparation can shape settlement leverage and trial strategy.

In Florida, marriage does not automatically change a spouse’s legal name, and divorce does not force anyone to change it back. This article explains how Florida law treats married names, birth names, former name restoration, and name-change requests in divorce cases.

Summary judgment is no longer just a tool for ordinary civil cases. In Florida family law, motions for summary judgment or partial summary judgment may help resolve key issues before trial, including marital versus non-marital property, military retirement division, paternity, and whether a claimed substantial change in circumstances can legally support modification.

Florida’s 2023 time-sharing law changed the starting point in child custody cases. Courts now begin with a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in a child’s best interests, but that presumption can still be challenged with evidence tied to the child’s best interests, parental fitness, distance, safety, and the realities of the family.

Florida’s alimony reform changed the landscape of divorce litigation. The law ended routine permanent alimony, created tighter rules for durational alimony, clarified the burden of proving need and ability to pay, and gave courts new statutory tools for retirement and supportive relationship modification cases.