How to File a Divorce Petition in Florida (2026)

How to File a Divorce Petition in Florida

1. What Is a Florida Divorce Petition?

The divorce petition — formally titled a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage — is the pleading that opens your divorce case in a Florida circuit court. Filing it puts the court on notice that you are seeking to legally end your marriage, assigns your case a docket number, and triggers every procedural deadline that follows. Without a properly filed petition, the court has no jurisdiction to divide marital assets, establish a parenting plan for your children, or award support of any kind.

Under Fla. Stat. § 61.001, Florida's dissolution-of-marriage statutes exist to "mitigate the harm that may be done to the spouses and their children" when a marriage ends. The petition is more than a form — it is the legal foundation on which every subsequent order, from a temporary relief hearing to the final judgment of dissolution, is constructed. A petition that omits required information, cites an incorrect county, or fails to address minor children will be dismissed or returned by the clerk, costing you time and filing fees.

Florida uses standardized petition forms approved by the Florida Supreme Court, but completing them correctly and strategically requires understanding what the law actually requires. If your case involves minor children, significant marital assets, real estate, a business interest, or any disputed issue, the petition is also your first opportunity to frame the legal issues in a way that protects your interests from day one.

2. Residency Requirements Before You File

Florida circuit courts cannot grant a dissolution of marriage unless at least one spouse has been a Florida resident for the six months immediately preceding the filing of the petition. This requirement, codified in Fla. Stat. § 61.021, is jurisdictional — meaning the court simply has no authority to act if it is not satisfied. Residency is established by a Florida driver's license, a Florida voter registration card, the testimony of a corroborating witness, or other competent evidence such as lease agreements, utility bills, or pay stubs showing a Florida address.

The six-month period must be continuous in the sense that Florida must be your domicile — the place where you intend to remain indefinitely. A brief trip out of state for work, family visits, or a vacation does not break residency. However, if you relocated to Florida after separating from your spouse and you have not yet lived here for six months, you may need to wait before filing. Courts take residency seriously because Florida's courts do not have unlimited authority to adjudicate marriages of people with no connection to the state.

If your spouse still lives in another state, Florida can still be the proper forum as long as one of you satisfies the residency requirement. Florida courts can exercise personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state respondent under Florida's long-arm statute once proper service is completed. Choosing the correct county for filing matters equally: under general venue rules in Florida family law, you must file in a county where either you or your spouse currently resides. Filing in the wrong county can result in a transfer motion that adds months to your timeline.

3. Grounds for Dissolution of Marriage in Florida

Florida is a no-fault divorce state. Fla. Stat. § 61.052(1) directs a court to grant a dissolution of marriage when: (a) the marriage is irretrievably broken, or (b) one spouse has been adjudicated mentally incapacitated for at least three years preceding the filing. In practice, virtually every petition is filed on the ground of irretrievable breakdown, and neither spouse is required to prove fault, adultery, cruelty, or any wrongdoing to obtain a divorce.

This does not mean that marital misconduct is irrelevant to every downstream issue. While fault is not a ground for dissolution itself, economic misconduct — such as one spouse dissipating, transferring, or destroying marital assets before or during the proceedings — can and does influence property division under Fla. Stat. § 61.075. Domestic violence, though not a divorce ground, directly shapes how parenting plans are structured under Fla. Stat. § 61.13. Certain forms of misconduct may also be considered as a factor when a court evaluates alimony under Fla. Stat. § 61.08(2)(l). Knowing where misconduct is legally relevant — and where it is not — is essential to deciding what your petition needs to address.

The "irretrievably broken" standard is intentionally low. If one spouse asserts that the marriage is irretrievably broken, the court is generally required to accept that assertion and move the case forward; the other spouse cannot force a reconciliation simply by disputing the ground. The only exception is when both parties request a 30-day continuance and the court believes there is a reasonable possibility of reconciliation — a scenario that almost never occurs in litigation-track divorces. Florida's no-fault framework reflects a deliberate legislative choice not to keep unwilling parties trapped in broken marriages.

4. What the Florida Divorce Petition Must Include

The Florida Supreme Court has approved two primary petition forms: Form 12.901(a) for cases with dependent or minor children, and Form 12.901(b)(1) for cases with no dependent or minor children. Both require the petitioner to state the ground for dissolution, confirm that at least one spouse satisfies the six-month residency requirement, and identify the date and place of the marriage. The petition must also disclose whether the wife is currently pregnant, whether domestic violence injunctions exist between the parties, and each party's current address.

When minor or dependent children are involved, Fla. Stat. § 61.13 requires the petition to address parental responsibility and time-sharing. You must either attach a proposed parenting plan or acknowledge that one needs to be established. A complete parenting plan addresses the child's primary residence, a detailed time-sharing schedule covering regular weeks, holidays, school breaks, and birthdays, and how the parents will share decision-making authority over education, health care, extracurricular activities, and travel. Courts will not enter a final judgment of dissolution that affects minor children without an approved parenting plan in place.

Property issues — both assets and liabilities — should be identified in the petition or in an accompanying schedule. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.075, Florida follows equitable distribution, beginning with a presumption of equal division but allowing adjustments based on the duration of the marriage, each spouse's economic circumstances, contributions to the marital estate (including homemaking), and any intentional dissipation of marital assets. While the petition itself does not require you to resolve every property dispute, clearly articulating your claims gives the opposing party and the court early notice of what is in contention. For a full overview of what must accompany your initial filing, see Florida divorce filing requirements.

5. Serving Your Spouse with the Petition

Once you file the petition and pay the applicable filing fee — which varies by county and case type — the circuit court clerk issues a summons. The summons and a copy of the petition must then be served on your spouse (the respondent) in a manner authorized by Florida law. Fla. Stat. § 48.031 and the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure govern personal service on individuals within Florida. Service is typically carried out by a licensed process server or a sheriff's deputy who physically delivers the documents to the respondent.

If your spouse lives in another state, service can still be effectuated under Florida's long-arm statute, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, and the applicable rules of the state where service will be made. Florida courts routinely obtain jurisdiction over out-of-state respondents in these circumstances. If your spouse's whereabouts are genuinely unknown after a diligent, documented search — including checking social media, last known address, the DMV, and voter rolls — Fla. Stat. § 49.011 permits service by publication, which involves publishing a legal notice in a local newspaper for a statutory period. Service by publication, however, significantly limits the relief available in a default judgment; the court generally cannot adjudicate property or support matters affecting the absent respondent without personal service. For more detail on how publication service works and when it is appropriate, see Florida divorce by publication.

Once the respondent is properly served, a 20-day response window opens under the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure. If no response is filed within that period, the petitioner may move for a clerk's default, allowing the case to proceed without the respondent's active participation. A default does not mean you automatically receive everything you asked for in the petition — the court still reviews the relief requested and may require a hearing before entering a final default judgment, especially where children are involved.

6. The Respondent's Answer and the Mandatory Waiting Period

After service, the respondent files an Answer to Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (Florida Supreme Court Form 12.903). The answer may admit or deny specific allegations, assert affirmative defenses, and include a counterclaim — which is essentially the respondent's own petition, setting out their own requests for relief regarding property, support, and parenting. If the respondent files a counterclaim, the petitioner must respond to it as well, and both parties' claims are litigated together in the same proceeding.

Florida imposes a mandatory 20-day waiting period between the date of service on the respondent and the entry of a final judgment of dissolution, pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 61.19. This period exists to ensure that both parties have a genuine opportunity to respond before a judge permanently dissolves the marriage. In uncontested cases where the parties have already reached agreement on all issues, this 20-day window is typically used to prepare and finalize a marital settlement agreement, child support guidelines worksheet, and proposed final judgment, followed by a brief hearing before the judge.

In contested cases, the period between filing the petition and entry of a final judgment can extend significantly — typically six months to two years depending on the complexity of the financial issues, the number of disputed parenting questions, the court's docket, and whether the parties can resolve their differences through mediation. Florida courts are required by Fla. Stat. § 44.102 to refer most contested family law cases to mediation before allowing the matter to proceed to trial. Understanding that contested divorces take time helps you plan financially, emotionally, and strategically.

7. Mandatory Financial Disclosure

Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285 requires both parties to exchange mandatory disclosure within 45 days of service of the petition. This exchange includes the last three years of federal and state tax returns, the last 12 months of pay stubs or income documentation, bank and investment account statements, documentation of all retirement accounts, and a signed financial affidavit. The financial affidavit — either the short form (12.902(b), for incomes under $50,000 per year) or the long form (12.902(c)) — must itemize monthly income and expenses under oath.

The financial affidavit is one of the most consequential documents in any Florida divorce. Courts rely on it directly to calculate child support under Fla. Stat. § 61.30, to evaluate alimony under Fla. Stat. § 61.08, to assess each party's ability to pay interim attorney fees under Fla. Stat. § 61.071, and to frame the equitable distribution analysis under Fla. Stat. § 61.075. Understating income or overstating expenses on a sworn financial affidavit is perjury — a felony under Florida law — and courts can impose evidentiary sanctions and draw adverse inferences against a party who provides inaccurate disclosures.

Failure to comply with mandatory disclosure on time can result in a motion to compel, court-ordered sanctions, and exclusion of evidence at trial. If you have reason to believe your spouse is concealing income, hiding assets in a business, or failing to disclose accounts, the formal discovery process — including interrogatories, requests for production, depositions, and subpoenas to financial institutions — is available after the petition is filed. Alerting your attorney early to disclosure concerns allows targeted discovery to begin before the opposing party can move assets or restructure compensation.

8. Property Division Under the Equitable Distribution Framework

Florida divides marital assets and marital liabilities equitably under Fla. Stat. § 61.075. Marital property generally includes all assets and debts acquired by either spouse during the marriage, regardless of whose name appears on the title, deed, or account. Non-marital property — assets owned by a spouse before the marriage, inheritances or gifts received by one spouse individually during the marriage, and assets that the parties have agreed in a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement to treat as separate — is set aside and returned to the owning spouse without division.

Equal distribution (50/50) is the starting presumption, but the court may deviate from equality based on statutory factors. Those factors include: the duration of the marriage; each spouse's economic circumstances at the time the proposed distribution takes effect; each party's contribution to the acquisition of marital assets, including the contribution of a spouse who served as homemaker or primary caregiver; the desirability of retaining a particular asset (such as the marital home) intact for the benefit of a minor child; and any intentional waste, dissipation, depletion, or destruction of marital assets within two years before the petition was filed or at any point during the pendency of the proceedings.

Business interests, retirement accounts (including IRAs, 401(k)s, and pensions), stock options and restricted stock units, intellectual property royalties, and real estate holdings are all potentially subject to equitable distribution as marital assets. Dividing retirement accounts often requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) to accomplish the transfer without triggering immediate tax consequences. Real property transfers in a divorce that involve a mortgage may implicate Florida's documentary stamp tax. Understanding the full inventory of your marital estate before or shortly after filing the petition allows your attorney to identify which assets may require appraisal, business valuation, or expert testimony.

9. Minor Children: Parenting Plans and Child Support

If you and your spouse have minor or dependent children, the petition must address both parental responsibility and time-sharing. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.13, Florida law favors frequent, continuing contact between minor children and both parents, and courts are directed to approve or establish a parenting plan that serves the best interests of each child. The statute lists 20 factors courts must evaluate, including each parent's demonstrated capacity to facilitate the child's relationship with the other parent, the child's developmental needs and school placement, each parent's physical and mental health, any history of domestic violence or substance abuse, and the geographic distance between the parents' residences.

Child support is calculated using the income shares model under Fla. Stat. § 61.30. Both parents' net monthly incomes are combined to produce a base guideline amount, which is then adjusted for the cost of health insurance premiums, child care, and extraordinary medical or educational expenses. The number of overnights each parent exercises also affects the calculation — parents with 20% or more of overnight time are entitled to a time-sharing adjustment. Courts may deviate from the guideline amount only when deviation is in the child's best interest, and any order deviating from guidelines must state the guideline amount, the actual amount ordered, and the specific reason for the deviation.

Your petition should propose a parenting plan and include a preliminary child support calculation, even if the numbers are estimates pending full financial disclosure. Courts are increasingly attuned to petitioners who conflate custody with financial negotiation — treating children as leverage in a property dispute is a litigation posture that courts view unfavorably and that can color a judge's impressions of a party's co-parenting capacity. For a thorough overview of Florida's custody framework, see Florida child custody laws.

10. Alimony Considerations in the Petition

Alimony — still referenced as such in Fla. Stat. § 61.08 — may be requested in the petition by either spouse. Florida's 2023 alimony reform legislation made significant changes to the framework, most notably eliminating permanent alimony and capping durational alimony at 50% of the length of the marriage for marriages of fewer than 20 years, and at 60% for marriages of 20 years or more. These changes apply to petitions filed on or after July 1, 2023. Courts must now evaluate both the requesting spouse's need and the paying spouse's ability to pay, applying the factors in Fla. Stat. § 61.08(2), which include the standard of living established during the marriage, the duration of the marriage, the age and health of each party, the parties' respective earning capacities and employability, and contributions to the marriage including homemaking, child-rearing, and support of the other spouse's career or education.

Florida now recognizes bridge-the-gap alimony (short-term transition support, maximum two years), rehabilitative alimony (while a spouse completes retraining or education under a specific plan), and durational alimony (for a period not exceeding the cap based on marriage length). The 2023 reform also introduced a rebuttable presumption against alimony when the requesting spouse has the ability to be self-supporting and the paying spouse would be left with significantly less income post-award. For a full breakdown of how these reforms affect your case, see Florida alimony reform 2023.

If your petition requests alimony, you should prepare a detailed financial affidavit and be ready to produce evidence of the marital standard of living — bank statements, credit card records, and tax returns from the marriage years frequently become relevant. Courts look at both current income and earning capacity; if one spouse voluntarily reduced income before filing the petition, the court may impute income based on prior earnings or the prevailing wage for that person's occupation and qualifications. Conversely, if you are the spouse from whom alimony is sought, early identification of income volatility — particularly for self-employed individuals or those with commission-based compensation — shapes how your attorney presents your financial picture at hearing.

11. What Happens After the Petition Is Filed?

After the petition is filed, served, and answered, your case moves along one of two tracks: uncontested or contested. In an uncontested divorce, both parties reach a full marital settlement agreement covering all property, all liabilities, alimony (or its waiver), parenting, and child support. The agreement is filed with the court along with a proposed final judgment, a parenting plan and child support guidelines worksheet if children are involved, and proof of the mandatory financial affidavit exchange. The final hearing is typically brief — a few minutes — during which the petitioner confirms residency and that the marriage is irretrievably broken, after which the judge signs the final judgment and the divorce is final.

In contested cases, the court sets a case management schedule with firm deadlines for completing mandatory disclosure, conducting formal discovery, completing mediation, and, if necessary, appearing at trial. Under Fla. Stat. § 44.102, mediation is required in the vast majority of Florida family law cases before the court will schedule a trial. Mediation frequently resolves all or most contested issues, even in high-conflict cases — the combination of a neutral mediator, the cost of litigation, and the uncertainty of a trial outcome often creates conditions for settlement that bilateral negotiation could not achieve. If mediation fails, the case proceeds to a bench trial, meaning the judge — not a jury — decides all issues.

Along the way, either party may file for temporary relief — asking the court to issue interim orders governing who stays in the marital home, temporary support, temporary custody arrangements, and restrictions on dissipating marital assets. Temporary relief hearings are often the first contested hearing in a divorce and can set the practical reality of the case for months or years. A well-drafted petition that clearly identifies the relief being sought gives your attorney a stronger foundation to argue for favorable temporary orders. For a step-by-step walkthrough of the full timeline, see Florida divorce process.

Bottom line

The divorce petition is the most consequential document you will file in a Florida dissolution case — it determines which court has jurisdiction, frames every issue from property to parenting, and sets the procedural clock in motion. Filing it accurately, completely, and strategically under Fla. Stat. §§ 61.021, 61.052, 61.075, 61.13, and 61.08 is not a clerical task. If you are ready to take the next step, visit our services page to learn how Louis Law Group approaches dissolution of marriage cases throughout Florida.

Attorney Advertising Disclaimer

This article is general legal information only and does not constitute legal advice. It reflects Florida law as of 2026 and is subject to change without notice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Louis Law Group, PLLC, or any of its attorneys. Every case is different; the outcome of any particular matter depends on facts, circumstances, and legal developments specific to that case. Past results achieved by Louis Law Group do not guarantee or predict the outcome of your matter. You should consult a licensed Florida family law attorney for advice specific to your situation before taking any legal action.