Brannock & Humphries Wins Family Law Appeal

The Second District Court of Appeal today reversed the distribution of marital assets and liabilities in a final judgment of divorce, ruling in favor of a Brannock & Humphries client who claimed that the judgment unfairly saddled her with virtually all of the former couple’s debts while awarding her ex-husband most of their assets.

One of the primary issues in many divorce cases involves how to divide up the parties’ property and assets, including their money, their home, and their debts.  Florida law generally provides that the distribution of such marital assets and liabilities should be equal, but trial courts are also given discretion to modify the distribution based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases.  The trial court decided to do so here, approving a dramatically unequal distribution requested by the former husband.

That’s where Brannock & Humphries entered the picture.  Following written briefing and an energetic oral argument at the historic courthouse in Dade City, Brannock & Humphries persuaded the Second District to reverse the trial court’s unequal distribution scheme.  As the three-judge panel unanimously noted in its written decision, the evidence did not support an unequal distribution.  Thus, the appellate court fully embraced the arguments advanced by Brannock & Humphries and sent the case back to the trial court for an even division of the parties’ assets.   

The opinion can be found here.