Overview
At Gunster, we understand that family transitions can be emotionally challenging, making it difficult to navigate important decisions and legal issues. Our Sarasota-based family law attorneys bring the knowledge and experience to guide you through the legal issues and court proceedings necessary to address family changes, with strategic and compassionate counsel tailored to your objectives.
We seek to resolve family and domestic relations matters through mediation or other negotiations whenever possible. While a fair and amicable resolution is often preferred, our family law litigators are prepared to advocate for your interests in the courtroom. Our attorneys work closely with qualified experts, including forensic accountants, business valuators, and psychologists—to strive for the best possible outcome for you and your family.
We also draw on the broad capabilities of Gunster's full-service platform, collaborating with attorneys across our tax, estate planning, real estate, corporate, and other practices to provide comprehensive counsel when family law matters intersect with other legal and financial issues.
Our Services
- Adoption: Guiding adoptive and birth parents through domestic, interstate, international, special-needs, contested, second-parent, and stepparent adoptions.
- Alimony: Evaluating the factors courts weigh in setting spousal support and advocating for you in settlement negotiations and in litigation.
- Child Custody and Visitation: Handling parental responsibility, parenting plans, and time-sharing in divorce, paternity, and post-judgment matters, with a focus on the best interests of the child.
- Child Relocation: Representing both relocating parents and parents contesting a relocation, through settlement or in Florida courts.
- Child Support: Establishing, enforcing, and modifying child support arrangements that are fair to both parents and protect the children.
- Divorce and Divorce Agreements: Counseling clients in collaborative, contested, uncontested, and high-asset divorces, including through negotiation, mediation, and litigation.
- Domestic Violence: Helping clients pursue or respond to protective injunctions and related proceedings.
- Equitable Distribution and Division of Property: Identifying, classifying, valuing, and dividing marital and non-marital assets, including business interests, retirement accounts, and complex holdings in high-net-worth matters.
- Paternity: Resolving paternity, child support, and parenting plan issues, with input from Gunster's estate planning and tax attorneys on long-term consequences.
- Post-Dissolution Modification: Representing clients who are seeking or opposing changes to time-sharing, child support, or alimony.
- Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements: Drafting, negotiating, and reviewing agreements for Sarasota-area clients, and litigating disputes over whether they are valid or enforceable.
