A no-contest divorce in Florida is available when both spouses agree on every issue — property, debts, alimony, and anything involving the children — and at least one spouse has lived in Florida for the six months before filing.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.021 – Residence Requirements You file a petition stating the marriage is irretrievably broken, submit a written settlement agreement along with sworn financial disclosures, wait at least 20 days, and attend a short final hearing where the judge signs the final judgment.
Who Qualifies
Two statutory conditions have to be met before you file. At least one spouse must have been a Florida resident for six months.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.021 – Residence Requirements And the petition must state that the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” the only no-fault ground Florida recognizes.2FindLaw. Florida Code 61.052 – Dissolution of Marriage
The practical requirement is agreement. “Uncontested” means you and your spouse have resolved everything on your own, with nothing left for a judge to decide. The judge’s role at the final hearing is to confirm the agreement is fair and voluntary, not to negotiate terms.
Uncontested Is Not the Same as Simplified Dissolution
Florida has a separate, stripped-down track called simplified dissolution of marriage. It has stricter rules: neither spouse can have minor or dependent children, the wife cannot be pregnant, neither party can be seeking alimony, and both spouses must waive the right to trial and appeal and appear together at the final hearing.3Escambia County Clerk, FL. Divorce / Simplified Dissolution of Marriage
If you don’t fit every one of those conditions, the standard uncontested route is your path. It accommodates couples with children, alimony arrangements, and more complex finances.
What You Have to Agree On
Reaching a complete written agreement is the work of a no-contest divorce. The agreement, called a Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA), has to cover every open issue.
Property and Debts
Florida uses equitable distribution, which starts from a presumption of a roughly equal split of marital assets and debts unless specific factors justify something different.4Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.075 – Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets and Liabilities “Marital” generally means anything acquired during the marriage, including retirement benefits that vested during the marriage, even if only one spouse’s name is on the account. Property owned before the marriage, inherited separately, or received as a personal gift usually stays with that spouse.5Florida Legislature. Florida Code 61.075 – Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets and Liabilities
Inventory everything together: real estate, bank and investment accounts, vehicles, retirement funds, mortgages, credit cards, and student loans. Decide who keeps what and who pays what. That decision goes into the MSA and becomes a binding court order once the judge signs the final judgment.
One technical point on retirement accounts. Dividing a 401(k), pension, or similar employer plan requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) so the transfer stays tax-free and penalty-free.6Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – QDRO: Qualified Domestic Relations Order IRAs don’t need a QDRO; a transfer under the divorce decree is not a taxable event.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts Cashing out and handing over a check does trigger tax and possible penalties.
Alimony
Your MSA has to say whether anyone pays alimony or whether you both waive it. Say it explicitly either way; a court will hold you to what you signed. Florida’s 2023 alimony reform eliminated permanent alimony. The remaining categories are temporary (during the proceedings), bridge-the-gap (capped at two years), rehabilitative (capped at five years, tied to a plan), and durational (set period based on the length of the marriage).8Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.08 – Alimony The type matters because it affects whether the award can be modified later: bridge-the-gap cannot be modified at all. If you agree on alimony, your settlement should specify type, amount, and duration.
Children: Parenting Plan and Support
With minor children, your agreement has to include a full parenting plan laying out the time-sharing schedule, which parent decides what regarding healthcare, education, and extracurriculars, and how the child communicates with each parent during the other’s time.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing Florida law carries a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interest, so a plan departing significantly from 50/50 will prompt the judge to ask why.
Child support has to follow Florida’s guidelines, which use both parents’ net incomes and the overnight time-sharing split. A judge can accept a figure that deviates up to five percent from the guideline without explanation; a larger deviation requires written justification.10FindLaw. Florida Code 61.30 – Child Support Guidelines
Both parents also have to complete a Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course, a minimum of four hours, before the judge will sign the final judgment. The course must be approved by the Florida Department of Children and Families.11Florida Department of Children and Families. Florida Administrative Code 65C-32 – Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course File the completion certificates with the court before the final hearing.
Forms You File
- Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. Opens the case, states residency is met and the marriage is irretrievably broken. Spouses can sign a joint petition, or one spouse files and the other signs a waiver acknowledging notice.
- Marital Settlement Agreement. The written contract covering property, debts, and alimony. Signed by both spouses; its terms become part of the final judgment.
- Family Law Financial Affidavit. Each spouse files one disclosing income, expenses, assets, and debts. Short form (Form 12.902(b)) if gross annual income is under $50,000; long form (Form 12.902(c)) at $50,000 or more. The parties cannot waive this requirement.12Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Form 12.902(b) – Family Law Financial Affidavit (Short Form)13The Florida Bar. Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
- Parenting Plan. Required with minor children.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing
- Child Support Guidelines Worksheet. Also required with children; shows the math behind the agreed amount.10FindLaw. Florida Code 61.30 – Child Support Guidelines
If either spouse wants a former name restored, request it in the petition. The judge can order restoration in the final judgment, which spares you a separate name-change case later.
Fees and Where to File
File with the Clerk of Court in the county where either spouse lives. Florida uses electronic filing through the state e-filing portal. The dissolution filing fee runs roughly $398 to $408 depending on the county. If you can’t afford it, apply for a determination of civil indigent status; applicants with household income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines qualify for a fee waiver.14Florida Senate. Florida Code 57.082 – Determination of Civil Indigent Status
The 20-Day Wait and the Final Hearing
No judge can sign a final judgment of dissolution until at least 20 days have passed since the petition was filed.15Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.19 – Entry of Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage Scheduling the hearing usually takes longer than that anyway, but 20 days is the absolute floor.
At the hearing, the judge reviews the settlement agreement, the financial affidavits, and (if children are involved) the parenting plan. Expect brief questions confirming residency, that neither spouse was pressured, and that both understand the terms. With children, the judge also checks that the plan serves the children’s best interests and that both parents finished the parenting course. Some Florida circuits allow uncontested cases to be finalized on a written submission with no in-person hearing; that varies by county and judge.
If everything is in order, the judge signs the Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage, which ends the marriage and converts your settlement into a court order. Order certified copies afterward; clerks’ offices typically charge roughly $8 to $25 per copy, and you’ll need them to update identification, bank accounts, and property titles.
Protect Yourself on Joint Debts
This is where people get burned. Your MSA can assign a joint credit card or car loan to one spouse, and the judge can order that. Creditors are not bound by your divorce decree. They enforce the original contract, so if your ex misses payments on a joint debt, the creditor pursues both of you and the late payments hit both credit reports.
The safer path is to close or refinance joint accounts before or just after the divorce. The spouse keeping the house should refinance the mortgage into their own name. Joint credit cards should be paid off and closed. When refinancing can’t happen immediately, build the timeline into the MSA — a clause requiring refinance within 90 days, for example — so you have a mechanism to go back to court if it doesn’t happen.
Tax Points to Plan For
Your filing status for the whole tax year turns on whether you’re legally divorced on December 31. If the divorce is finalized at any point during the year, the IRS treats you as unmarried for that entire year. If it isn’t final by December 31, you’re still married for tax purposes and file jointly or separately.
Alimony under any divorce agreement executed after December 31, 2018, has no income tax effect for either party. The payer gets no deduction; the recipient reports no income.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 71 – Alimony and Separate Maintenance Payments (Repealed) So there’s no tax reason to label a payment as alimony versus a property settlement.
Property transfers between spouses as part of the divorce are generally not taxable events. The receiving spouse inherits the original cost basis, which matters at sale. A house transferred with $200,000 in built-in gain carries that gain forward to the person who takes it. Factor that into the negotiations.
If Your Ex Doesn’t Follow Through
Once the MSA is incorporated into the final judgment, it is a court order. If your ex fails to transfer a car title, make alimony payments, or refinance a joint mortgage, you can file a motion for enforcement. Violations are treated like any other failure to comply with a court order and can carry contempt penalties.
The court can only enforce what’s actually written. Verbal side deals and vague language (“spouse will handle the credit card debt”) create problems. Specify dollar amounts, deadlines, account numbers, and the consequence for a missed deadline. Time spent getting the MSA right before filing is the best protection you have against enforcement trouble later.