Temporary Relief Unpacked: What It Is, Who It Helps, and Why It Matters • Your Divorce Case
Temporary Relief in Your Divorce
In the latest installment of the Your Divorce Case series, Seth Nelson and Pete Wright dive into the complex world of temporary relief. Join them as they explore what temporary relief is, who it helps, who it hurts, and why it matters in the grand scheme of your divorce proceedings.
Navigating the Choppy Waters of Divorce
Seth and Pete break down the concept of temporary relief, a legal lifeline designed to keep families afloat during the tumultuous divorce process. They discuss how temporary relief can address critical issues like parenting plans, alimony, child support, and attorney's fees. The hosts also delve into the pros and cons of seeking temporary relief and the potential impact on the final outcome of your case.
Questions we answer in this episode:
What is temporary relief and how can it help during a divorce?
How do you request temporary relief and what can you ask for?
What are the potential drawbacks of pursuing temporary relief?
Key Takeaways:
Temporary relief can level the playing field in contentious divorces
Requesting temporary relief involves filing motions and attending hearings
Seeking temporary relief can be costly and time-consuming, so weigh the pros and cons
Seth and Pete emphasize that while temporary relief can provide much-needed support during a divorce, it's crucial to consider the financial and emotional costs involved. They offer valuable insights into the strategic decisions you'll face when contemplating temporary relief in your own divorce case.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating divorce. With their trademark wit and expertise, Seth and Pete provide the guidance you need to make informed decisions about temporary relief and protect your interests during this challenging time.
Links & Notes
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Pete Wright:
Welcome to How to Split a Toaster, a Divorce Podcast about saving your relationships from TruStory FM. Today, Toaster, you're off the hook, but don't get used to it.
Seth Nelson:
Welcome to the show, everybody. I'm Seth Nelson. As always, I'm here with my good friend, Pete Wright. Today we're diving into the murky waters of temporary relief. I'm doing that in quotes, Pete. In Florida, divorces, imagine a couple, let's call them Alex and Sam. Locked in a bitter separation once again in quotes, as their assets freeze and the tensions rise. Who pays the mortgage? Who gets to stay in the family home? And what about the children caught in the crossfire? Enter the concept of temporary relief, a legal lifeline designed to keep families afloat in the choppy seas of divorce. Sounds like the opening of a book.
Pete Wright:
One, I want you to know just how much I wanted to make it Florida Ocean kind of. I wanted to give you a theme when we looked at that introduction. Choppy waters, nothing smooth there right now. Nothing.
Seth Nelson:
I heard that. It's a little too soon, when you tell a joke too soon to the hurricane coming through, Pete. Little too soon.
Pete Wright:
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Too soon. We are talking about temporary relief and I feel like this is a concept we've danced around and probably did just a dash of mind-blowing the last time we talked about it. Today, you're going to answer the big question. What is it? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Why do we care?
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. There's a lot all bundled in there, in pros and cons. So let's just talk about conceptually what it's supposed to do and what do the words temporary relief mean? We all know temporary, that's just not permanent, for a short period of time. Then relief. What is relief? Well, in the law, we like the word... Use terms to confuse people and relief is one of them. What are you asking the judge to do? That's the relief you're seeking.
Pete Wright:
What I hear is I'm getting a break. There's something that hurts me and I'm getting a break from feeling that pain.
Seth Nelson:
If things go well. So what happens a lot, and this is not going to be a surprise to any of our listeners, that won't be a surprise to you, Pete. People don't always play nice when they get divorced. One party might withhold the money and stop paying the bills. Another one might run up credit card debt. Another one might withhold the children. Another one might start cashing out stocks and bonds, canceling people's car insurance or health insurance and all these really, really bad things that lawyers advise their clients not to do, but people do it anyway. Or let's just say someone's paying all the bills, they're doing everything they're supposed to do, but you don't have money for an attorney and you need attorney's fees, but you don't have access to any capital, any cash, any credit cards, you just don't have it. What can you do? In Florida Family Law, you can file a motion, which we've covered what a motion is. A motion for temporary relief. That's the title.
Pete Wright:
And that just says we want the judge to move his hand or her hand to sign on the line, which is dotted.
Seth Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
That says this is in my favor. Okay.
Seth Nelson:
This is the order. I'm signing an order. Perfect. And what you're going to do in this motion is ask for potentially the following things. I want a temporary parenting plan. Judge, the kids have a right to know what night they're going to spend with each parent. They have a right to know what parent's going to be in the house. They have a right to know who's going to take them on what weekends and what a temporary holiday schedule might look like. And I want you to order that from the date of your order till the final judgment, which either will come if people agree and they enter into a parenting plan or at the end of the trial, this is the rules that I want to have in place. This will be the temporary parenting plan. So that's one thing you might ask for.
Pete Wright:
Okay, that sounds completely reasonable right now.
Seth Nelson:
It does. It's just hard to get there. We're going to talk.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. So then if you're there, you might as well talk about other things. The next one in our piece, parenting plan, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, everything else. You might want to ask for a partial or an interim distribution of marital assets. There's $200,000 in the bank and Alex has control of it. It's only in Alex's name. Then Sam says, I want a hundred grand of it, Judge. We can argue later on whether or not it is going to be the division of assets under equitable distribution. We can argue later whether it's going to be temporary alimony that got paid. We could argue later whether it was child support, but I want a hundred grand that I have control over. Okay?
Pete Wright:
That just says, we'll figure out the who owes who later. But right now I have pain and that a hundred grand's going to help me not feel so much pain.
Seth Nelson:
You got it. Okay? Then you go to temporary alimony. See, judge, don't give me the hundred grand. Or maybe you ask for [inaudible 00:05:39]. I need... And this is Sam talking, I need Alex to pay me $6,000 a month and temporary alimony. And when you do that, and I do the math, if we go to child support, here's what Alex should pay me in child support based upon the parenting plan that I think should be temporary as well. Okay?
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Seth Nelson:
And then based upon that, here's what I need for my attorney's fees and costs. And there's certain rules in different jurisdictions within Florida because Florida, any Florida judge that's a circuit court judge can hear any divorce anywhere in Florida. But venue where the case is actually heard is another concept. So if you're in Hillsborough County, be careful everywhere. Check your local rules, check any administrative orders because depending on how much you ask for, your lawyer has to do certain things. If you're asking for 10 grand, just go in and ask for the 10 grand. Let them know how many hours you'll take, what your hourly rate is. But if you're asking for like 50 grand or more, you might have to have more detailed understanding of why do you need 50 grand as opposed to 10.
Pete Wright:
Can you give me an example of what that might look like? Let's just say I'm asking you, it's going to be 50 grand. Tell me what you're going to write in that report.
Seth Nelson:
If it's you Pete, we're going to make it 150. So here's what we're going to do.
Pete Wright:
Okay.All right.
Seth Nelson:
We're going to say, judge, unfortunately in this case I represent Sam. Alex suffers from alcoholism. We're going to need a social investigation and an alcohol assessment. We might need sober link. Before you even do a temporary plan, I want him to be on sober link and I need to prove that to you. So I'm going to need money for that. I'm going to need a social investigation to do psychological evaluation because Alex was Baker Acted three years ago. They're like, oh judge, three years not since then. You don't need that, right? Back and forth. That's going to cost 20 grand. Alex runs a closely held business. I'm going to need a forensic accountant and that forensic accountant is going to cost me 30 grand, right? So it's all these temporary fees.
Pete Wright:
Adds up.
Seth Nelson:
Right.
Pete Wright:
So far all those fees are directly in service of the case, right? I mean, the specific investigation that you're doing for the case.
Seth Nelson:
That's right. Then Mr. Nelson is representing me and he is going to have to do... And this is what I would do as the lawyer. Judge, I'm going to have to do depositions. I'm going to have to do discovery. I think the deposition, these witness is going to take four hours. The transcript of a four-hour deposition is going to be 2,300 bucks. So that's my estimated cost. So you go through everything you think you need to do.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Got it.
Seth Nelson:
And then you file it and the judge looks at it and says, Mr. Nelson, you're worth every penny, but I don't think you need an eight-hour deposition for that witness. You can get that done in three. So I'm only giving you temporary fees for now for three, not for eight. They're going to cut that temporary fee award. Okay, so you have to justify.
Pete Wright:
Okay. And the judge has say in the line item.
Seth Nelson:
Judge has unbelievable amount of discretion. And the reason the judge has so much discretion is this is a non-final order. By its definition, it's temporary, and on all these orders, the judge will write without prejudice, which means you can work it all out at the final hearing at the trial.
Pete Wright:
Okay. So prejudice in legal term.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. So if it's with prejudice, the judge says in this temporary relief... This would be a mistake for the judge to do. But I'm just giving you an example. The judge goes, I am giving the wife $7,000 a month in alimony during the pendency of this case with prejudice. Which means when you get to trial, you're no longer allowed to argue that it shouldn't have been seven grand. Alex is stuck with that number.
Pete Wright:
Oh, okay.
Seth Nelson:
It really should have only been-
Pete Wright:
That doesn't sound temporary at all.
Seth Nelson:
Right. It really should have only been four grand. So Alex is paying an extra three grand and Sam knows it, Sam's lawyer knows it. And Alex has to pay that seven grand until the end of the case. What does that incentivize Sam to do? Delay the end of the case.
Pete Wright:
Delay the end of the case, while Alex is incented to end the case.
Seth Nelson:
As soon as possible. So that would be with prejudice, you're stuck with it, okay? Without prejudice means Sam, I'm making Alex pay you seven. I know you think that you needed nine. Sam thinks you only needed three. I'm giving you seven now, but at the end of the case, I might give you nine, I might give you seven, I might give you zero, I might give you three. But if I give you three, Sam has already overpaid four grand a month for how long? And that's coming from somewhere.
Pete Wright:
Right. Coming from future payments we imagine, right?
Seth Nelson:
Maybe future payments, maybe when you divide up that $100,000 or 200 grand and he's already overpaid $3,000 or four-
Pete Wright:
12 grand off the top of that.
Seth Nelson:
Whatever the case is.
Pete Wright:
Okay. All right.
Seth Nelson:
Okay?
Pete Wright:
All right, I get it.
Seth Nelson:
So then it's without prejudice, means you can argue about it later. And the reason why these are so important is let's say the judge gets it wrong. You're going to say, that's okay, Seth, I've learned some stuff on this podcast, the Toaster's teaching me stuff. We can go to an appeals court, we can appeal it.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Of course we can always do that, but does this temporary relief last until the appeal is done or just until the initial decision?
Seth Nelson:
You're going to say, let's go talk to Judge Lucas on the appellate court. You're going to go to Judge Lucas and Judge Lucas is going to say Pete, good to hear from you again. But this is a non-final order, it's without prejudice. The appellate court is only going to review this if it's a final order and it's not. On the face of the order, it says temporary. It says in the body of the order, without prejudice, go back and talk to the trial judge.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
The other thing about temporary orders, they're temporary. You can file a motion to amend the temporary order during the pendency of the case. So you can have more than one motion for temporary relief. You're not one and done.
Pete Wright:
I need clarification on that. May it please the court.
Seth Nelson:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
Are we talking about a temporary order on top of a temporary order on the same topic? For example, alimony?
Seth Nelson:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
So you could get your seven and then come back and say I need another two.
Seth Nelson:
Yes. Or the other one can say, judge, we have more information. I'm filing a new motion for temporary relief. We had a forensic accountant. The forensic accountant did an analysis and this rental property we have is doing a lot of cash and it's her non-marital rental property. So it's not marital money and she's getting income for that. That income was not considered when you did the original temporary relief when you gave her the seven, she's getting an additional four grand. She only needs three.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Moving sands. Shifting sands.
Pete Wright:
Okay, so what happens to-
Seth Nelson:
I kept up with the theme of the hurricane on that.
Pete Wright:
It was really good. I like that.
Seth Nelson:
No, I appreciate your [inaudible 00:13:08]-
Pete Wright:
What happens to the initial seven? Is it just, are we looking at net? Okay, so the seven is still in place but it gets changed to three or-
Seth Nelson:
Yeah, you got it. He's been paying seven for six months now he's going to pay three until the end of the case.
Pete Wright:
All right. And because it was without prejudice, once we reach a final judgment then we're going to hash out the differences on the back of a napkin?
Seth Nelson:
Called [inaudible 00:13:30] or in court through objection-laded testimony.
Pete Wright:
Outstanding. Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay.
Pete Wright:
So far we've talked about all kinds of money-related things and some child support-related relief. What else is there that we need to consider?
Seth Nelson:
Just the parenting plan. Where are the kids going to stay? What's that going to be on a temporary basis?
Pete Wright:
Okay, I got to ask a question about that. So what about assets? Is there any temporary relief related to... Because we've talked about exclusive use of the home, right? Of the Merrill home. Is that something you could file a motion for temporary relief that says, hey, okay, so this is going to be my house until the end of the case and you can't come in for one reason or another.
Seth Nelson:
That's correct.
Pete Wright:
And that's where the kids here are going to live and that's where everything's going to be fine, but only until the end of the case we'll figure it out.
Seth Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
Oh, well that was easy.
Seth Nelson:
You can go ask for temporary relief for anything. Doesn't mean it's going to get granted, but you can ask.
Pete Wright:
Freezing assets. Can I go in and say, Hey, I want my wife not to be able to use the boat?
Seth Nelson:
You can.
Pete Wright:
Oh.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I mean, I looked really greedy about that. There's nothing exciting about that for me. I don't even have a boat.
Seth Nelson:
Right. But if that's what they say, my response is, judge, no one should use the boat. Playground rules. It's a depleting asset. You're putting more hours on the engine.
Pete Wright:
Wear and tear on the engine.
Seth Nelson:
So there's a lot of arguments to be made, okay? So arguing over toys is always difficult.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. All right.
Seth Nelson:
So this all sounds good and the reason why temporary relief is so important and a really good thing to consider, I'm using that very clearly, to consider. I'm not saying you do it in every case is because if someone's controlling stuff and you can't work it out and you try to work it out, if you go to court on temporary relief, it can even the playing field. Someone's withholding the kids, you get an order 50/50, now it's even the playing field on the kids. Someone's withholding money, they're trying to drown you out there. You get a temporary alimony award, you get temporary child support, maybe you get a sale of an asset or a division of an asset, maybe you get some attorney's fees. It starts evening the playing field a bit on all these issues. So it doesn't just make sense, Pete if that's what we should do after you file for divorce, the court should just set a temporary relief hearing to deal with these issues to get people in there and figure out this stuff so they don't fight about it.
Pete Wright:
I'm so glad you brought that up because that was going to be my next question is talk about process. How does one do this and are you just buried as a divorce attorney in constant requests for temporary relief from your clients?
Seth Nelson:
No, you're not and here's why. One, they don't necessarily know about it, but if they say like he's choking me out, I can't do this or I'm drowning in this, right? Okay, we can do a motion for temporary relief. And we file our motion. The court will require us to go to mediation first. So now we have to go mediate it. What are the chances that someone that's purposely not giving kids or purposely not giving money going to settle on time? They'll go to court. Okay?
Pete Wright:
So they're not going to go to mediation, but we already know even trying to schedule mediation is challenging.
Seth Nelson:
There you go.
Pete Wright:
And if I know anything, it's that every motion is going to require a hearing.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. So first we go to a motion for temporary relief. The judge orders us to mediation. So sometimes immediately I just do a motion to set mediation because I don't want to sit there and get jerked around about not going to mediation. So they're going to say, I'm not ready to go to mediation. I don't have the financial... I set a motion and in my motion I also will ask for discovery deadlines like Judge, we're getting no money. Here's the problem. Here's where I want the discovery done. I have a motion for temporary relief. I want to set up for mediation. Push it, push it, push it, right? Of course. Sounds good. But you still got to get in court to get that all heard. That could be months.
Pete Wright:
Well, and that's what I was saying. When you say I'm going to push it, push it, push it. What is your internal time clock? Are you saying I'm going to push it and that's going to be for next Tuesday.
Seth Nelson:
Six months.
Pete Wright:
Okay, six months is you hustling?
Seth Nelson:
I'm telling you, usually four to six months if I file right away on temporary relief.
Pete Wright:
When we open this conversation, temporary relief, there's some pain. If it goes your way, you're going to be feeling less of that pain for the duration of the case. But that implies a sense of immediacy. Temporary relief says, I feel pain now and I hope you can make me feel no pain now. And what you just said to me is don't get your hopes up.
Seth Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
You're going to be feeling pain for at least four to six months if things go your way.
Seth Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
Awful. Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Terrible.
Pete Wright:
[inaudible 00:18:22] the system.
Seth Nelson:
Which leads me to the pros and the cons. And you asked a very good question. Man, are you just dealing with temporary relief all the time? No. And the reason for that is because if I'm fortunate and I can get your case done in a year, 9, 10, 12 months, right? Do you want to spend the money for me to prepare for motion for temporary relief and do all of this just to then try your case six months later or three months later? Because there's a lot of fees that go involved with all of that. So that's the question. And one of the pros is you go through it, you even the playing field, the negative is it costs money where I'm like, just hold on, let's get it.
Pete Wright:
So implies an interesting angle. If you file a motion for temporary relief, schedule another hearing. Do motions for temporary relief implicitly delay the final judgment of a particular case?
Seth Nelson:
Not necessarily, because-
Pete Wright:
But they can?
Seth Nelson:
You can also set it for trial. And literally, I've had some where we had a motion for temporary relief and we had a trial date and they were about three months apart and the temporary relief got canceled based on a motion to continue. That was a totally legitimate motion by the other side to the point where I didn't even object. Let's say the hurricane came and the court was closed, it's just getting moved.
Pete Wright:
Sure. Right.
Seth Nelson:
Right. Then you go to the court docket and they go, yeah, good news. We didn't think we had any time before the next three months of your trial, but we have a date available a week before trial. Well, now do you take the date a week before trial?
Pete Wright:
Are you asking me? Because my guess is it's going to be no.
Seth Nelson:
And what's the reasoning for that?
Pete Wright:
Well, because it's going to cost you a lot of money when the ultimate decision may just be resolved a week later.
Seth Nelson:
That's right. That's right. Very sound legal procedure theory. I'm with you.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Except for this feels like I'm being set up.
Seth Nelson:
You're not being set up. What happens at the final hearing gets continued.
Pete Wright:
Then we will have missed our opportunity for temporary relief.
Seth Nelson:
That's right. And so then you go in there and the judge is looking at you like, really Mr. Nelson? You're here on temporary relief when we got a week before trial? I'm like, yeah, judge, because I want to try this case a week from now. We are getting ready and we just gave you a little precursor, which by the way, just tilted my hand on what we're going to argue in court a week from now because the other side got to hear it.
Pete Wright:
Right.
Seth Nelson:
But judge, I don't know what's going to happen in the next week. God forbid there could be a hurricane that floods everything and shuts us down.
Pete Wright:
Everything gets moved again. Do you feel like what you're describing, is that sort of part of your strategy? Do you feel like you're going to take the temporary relief trial if it's important enough, you take it when you get it?
Seth Nelson:
That's a client decision.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
And I'm going to have these conversations. It's a client decision. So they sound good and the concepts are great, okay? But it takes a while to get there and a lot of clients don't want to go to court. They're afraid of the unknown. And court is an unknown category.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Can I ask another question?
Seth Nelson:
Hey, that's what we're here for, Pete. I'm so relieved. I'm temporarily relieved.
Pete Wright:
How are these things enforced? The judge says you're now going to have $7,000 and-
Seth Nelson:
A month in temporary alimony.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, in temporary alimony. What if Sam just says, screw you. You're not going to have 7,000. I don't have 7,000 a month to give. We're going to leave court and I'm just going to say, I'm washing my hands of it.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. I'm going to turn the question back on you. Pete, you're a lawyer, you've done a great job. You got seven grand a month for temporary alimony. You represent Alex. And Sam says, nope, I'm not paying. Okay? What's the one thing you can do?
Pete Wright:
Do I file a motion that my opposing client is in contempt of the court's orders? Is contempt entering into it?
Seth Nelson:
100%. I'll give you an A on that one. It's a motion for contempt.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
And enforcement.
Pete Wright:
Do you know in about six weeks, six episodes, I'd like you to just facilitate the bar exam for me. I'm just going to take it. I think we're about there.
Seth Nelson:
You're about there, you ready? Okay. I'll give you some doozies.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Okay.
Seth Nelson:
I still remember the premise of the bar exam question for criminal law. I don't know all the specific facts of the question, but I know enough of them that at the end of the show I'll tell you. I might do it on the air, but we'll see.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Member bonus.
Seth Nelson:
But you're 100%, it is a motion for contempt and enforcement. Which now what do you have to do with that? You file it with the clerk. What's your next step? Do you remember?
Pete Wright:
Well, don't you have to schedule a hearing?
Seth Nelson:
Set it for hearing.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. And everybody knows you called a judge's clerk and they love scheduling stuff. Because they're so good at it. A JA.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah, the judges JA. You got it.
Pete Wright:
And then you'll get another hearing and it'll probably be four to six months.
Seth Nelson:
Well, it could be, it could be three weeks if you get lucky. It could be two months. So yeah.
Pete Wright:
How often do you have judges who say, I just heard this, now he's in contempt. Let's get him back in here. Find a way.
Seth Nelson:
Rarely.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. They have 750 cases.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
You don't want to be your case that a lawyer ever remembers or you especially don't want to be a case that a judge remembers. Because think of all the cases they have, only the bad ones stand out. That's not where you want to be. Okay, so we've covered what is it? Why is it important? Because it can even the playing field. What are the issues you deal with? Anything? They're all open. Parenting plan, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, attorney's fees, costs. Okay, bros get you in there. Evens the playing field like we keep saying. You get a little feeling about what the judge is going to do in cons. You might only get an hour or two to do temp relief. Ready? An hour or two. Let's be generous, Pete and say we get two hours. We have five issues, the parenting plan, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, and attorney's fees and cost. Out of that two hours, you only get one, 60 minutes. Five issues. Just over 10 minutes per issue.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I can see sometimes how you feel like you might not... As a client, you feel like how could you possibly make my case for temporary relief in that amount of time.
Seth Nelson:
Parenting plan 61.13, Subsection 3, A through T, 20 different factors that you need to go through and determine the parenting plan. You have just over 10 minutes. Which means you've got 20 factors and you put on your witness, you've got to get through that very fast.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. 30 seconds per subsection. Right. Factor. Yeah. Okay. That's a disaster.
Seth Nelson:
Right. And now we have to do financials. So hopefully you just say, judge, here are the financial affidavits. They're totally different. Here's five bank statements and some pay stubs. I mean, it's so fast. And then maybe it doesn't do what it's intended to do, which is to even the playing field.
Pete Wright:
Okay, last question for me. How often do you see motions for temporary relief throughout the case? The period of a long case actually influence or impact a final judgment? Is that a consideration?
Seth Nelson:
Oh, it [inaudible 00:26:32].
Pete Wright:
How so?
Seth Nelson:
When someone's withholding the money and they think it's their money because there's a stay at home mom. Let's say in this case, Sam's a stay-at-home mom, Alex has been working and Alex views every penny that they've earned during the marriage that he's earned through his employment as his money, not marital money. It's all in his name. He goes, hires a lawyer in town because he's got a closely held business. He had a forensic accountant. He's working through this case, he's talking to him, he's paying him a boatload of money. Sam doesn't have any access to cash.
You go in there and you say, I need $75,000 and now he's got to write a check for 75G's. That might wake him up. Because he views it as his money. And even though it says without prejudice, and we'll work it all out later, he now has to write a check to his wife's attorney for 75 grand. He now has to start paying his wife X number of dollars. He now gets what he wants, 50/50 times sharing. If you do, you better use it. Sometimes I tell my clients, give him 50/50, they won't use it all. And then you go to court and say they don't use it.
Pete Wright:
And you get it back?
Seth Nelson:
So that's the issue. It can influence, but you're not getting a lot of time. And I'm not blaming the judges. 750 cases, totally packed docket. I mean, I went on temporary relief. It was a full day. The judge was like, I gave you a lot of time, right? And that case was already set for temp relief. I got on it like the week befor.e and literally I picked up the file and went for a full day hearing on temporary relief.
Pete Wright:
Fascinating.
Seth Nelson:
So you do what you got to do.
Pete Wright:
Okay. Temporarily, if you do what you got to do, hopefully this discussion at least helps folks understand what temporary relief is, the tool that it is in service of your divorce case, and how thoughtfully you need to approach temporary relief when attempting to wield it. I have a listener question.
Seth Nelson:
Nice. Let's do it.
Pete Wright:
So this question is special. It is anonymous because it was asked to be anonymous, but I know who it is and I think you'll get why momentarily. Are you ready?
Seth Nelson:
Is it Andy?
Pete Wright:
It's not. It is not. It is not Andy. The question is this. This question shouldn't be a surprise since I just had coffee with Pete about an hour ago and I asked him this and he punted it back to the show. What a guy. The question is this, can a 19-year-old child sue his divorcing parents for a stake in marital sediment? Is there even a chance that this will be heard? Thank you guys. New listener, and already loving the show. Pete paid for coffee. Hashtag win.
Seth Nelson:
Okay, let's break this down a little bit. I want to start with you paid for coffee?
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Seth Nelson:
You've never bought me a cup of coffee.
Pete Wright:
You live in Florida. Come on out here. I'll buy you some Portland Brew.
Seth Nelson:
You're about to say we don't have coffee in Florida? Okay, so this is an adult child trying to sue his divorcing parents for a stake in the marital settlement.
Pete Wright:
Yes. Have you ever heard a question like this?
Seth Nelson:
No, but it's like one of these law school exam questions. So I think you planted a bar question on me here.
Pete Wright:
Excellent.
Seth Nelson:
So the issue is is any of what they're claiming to be marital assets, actually the 19-year old's money? Let's say there is an account, bank account that has the child's name on it that you started and it has a parent's name on it and you guys are saying, that was always our money. We just put it in, we were going to use it for their college education. And the 19-year olds, like my name's on that account, that's mine.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay? But if their name's not on any account and their parents are getting a divorce, the adult child would not have what we call in the legal world, standing. Think of this, this child doesn't have the right to stand in court in front of the judge to have their issues heard because they're not part of this. Right? If you are in a dispute with Andy, right?
Pete Wright:
Hard to believe.
Seth Nelson:
I know it's hard to believe, but if you are, and it's about you contracted with Andy to do a different podcast that had nothing to do with me and Andy totally screwed it up and now you got to sue his ass. I don't get to go into court and say, I want a piece of that action. Right? Because they have business together and they run TruStory FM, which is amazing.
Pete Wright:
And you have no standing.
Seth Nelson:
I don't have standing. None of my business.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay? Now, courts are open to the public. So this 19-year-old can go sit, not stand, sit in the back of the courtroom in the galley and watch the proceedings, but you don't get to talk. You're not in there. You're just a spectator.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. So this is a really good way though, for a 19-year-old to get cut out of the wills.
Pete Wright:
There you go. I mean, it really seems like it's also a great way for a 19-year-old to try and get ahead of the wills. Like I'll just take it now, right?
Seth Nelson:
That's true. That's a good point. I didn't think of it that way. Sue them. Sue your parents.
Pete Wright:
I actually think that's a fascinating question. Just sue the parents. I mean, some insects eat their parents after they're born, I guess, that's-
Seth Nelson:
Right. Now sometimes your adult child might be in there if there was a trust that was a revocable or non-revocable trust depending on... Well, it'd really be, I guess a non-revocable trust, which wouldn't be a marital asset. But maybe you're looking over that and so the state and trust law comes in. There's a lot of what ifs, but it's basically... Excuse me, does the 19-year-old have an asset involved in this divorce?
Pete Wright:
You can't just say, Hey, I'm 19 now. My parents are getting divorced, they're very wealthy and I want to share because I was a part of the party.
Seth Nelson:
No, that's out. But by way of example, I have a rental property. It's where I used to live. I got married. I didn't sell it, living with my wife. So my son has a very, very small stake now in that rental property. So let's pretend... I'd be in a body bag before this happens, but if I'm getting divorced from my current wife, okay?
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
I would actually have a stake in this because if I'm putting marital money into this rental property and Kai has a piece of it, see, he has part of this asset and part of it's marital, part of it's, I had it before marriage and part of it belongs to him. So he would allow to come to court and make some arguments there. But that's very similar to being on a bank account, right? You're just on an asset.
Pete Wright:
Right. And you're only making the case about a specific asset.
Seth Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Right. You don't get to say, you know what, grandpa gave dad a watch and now they're getting divorced. I want the watch. No, it's your dad's.
Pete Wright:
Got it. Well, I appreciate the question. I think it's fascinating, especially if it brings you back to law school just a little bit. Thank you for sending it. If anybody else wants to send more questions, we just did an epic, I have to say epic listener question episode that is, I think just came out and we're very excited about listener questions. But this was the first and only listener question since we recorded that episode just days ago. So we're ready. We're ready to take them on.
Seth Nelson:
Right. I mean, we just did that show, so.
Pete Wright:
I know, yeah. Days ago. So go ahead, send us some questions. Howtosplitatoaster.com, type in your question right there where it says, submit a question and Seth will answer it just like he did this one today. It's fantastic. Thank you everybody for your curiosity and your engagement. We appreciate it. That's it. That's what we have for today. Thanks very much for listening. Thanks for your time and your attention. On behalf of Seth Nelson, America's favorite divorce attorney, I'm Pete Wright and we will see you next week right here on How to Split a Toaster, a Divorce Podcast about saving your relationships.
Outro:
How to split A Toaster is part of the TruStory FM Podcast Network, produced by Andy Nelson, music by T. Bless & the Professionals and DB Studios. Seth Nelson is an attorney with NLG Divorce & Family Law with offices in Tampa, Florida. While we may be discussing family law topics, How to Split a Toaster is not intended to, nor is it providing legal advice. Every situation is different. If you have specific questions regarding your situation, please seek your own legal counsel with an attorney licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. Pete Wright is not an attorney or employee of NLG Divorce & Family Law. Seth Nelson is licensed to practice law in Florida.
