Tampa Family Lawyers Guide Clients to Successful Resolutions

Gulf Coast firm advises Floridians on matrimonial and parenting issues

Family law matters can affect you and your loved ones for the rest of your lives. With so much at stake, finding a highly credentialed attorney to represent you is crucial. At Sessums Law Group, P.A. in Tampa, attorney Mark Sessums is one of only four Florida attorneys out of approximately 90,000 lawyers in the state to be Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and Marital and Family Law. Whether you are going through a divorce, have been victimized by domestic violence, need help with a parenting matter or have any other domestic legal concern, our skilled attorneys will safeguard your rights and work diligently to achieve a positive outcome.

Hardworking Tampa lawyers provide effective family law representation

Florida domestic relations law touches on many issues. We draw on more than 30 years of experience to guide you through legal conflicts related to:

• Divorce — We capably manage the divorce process from beginning to end, whether your breakup is amicable or contentious. We help clients reach marital settlement agreements through negotiations and mediations whenever possible so they can have an uncontested divorce, but we will also assert your rights in court when litigation is necessary.
• Alimony — Spousal maintenance can be granted if one party lacks the ability to be self-supporting. Our Tampa family lawyers will advise you on the numerous factors that judges take into account in alimony cases and apply them to your situation.
• Child custody — We work tirelessly to establish fair custody arrangements so that children can grow up in a healthy environment and maintain relationships with both parents whenever possible.
• Visitation — When a parent does not have physical custody of a child, the court usually awards regular visitation, if contact is in the best interest of the child. We work to protect our clients’ parental rights, even under the most difficult circumstances.
• Child support — Our firm also represents clients when conflicts arise relating to the establishment, modification or enforcement of child support.
• Domestic violence — We assist victims of domestic violence in getting protective orders, and we represent persons targeted by such orders, protecting their due process rights and working toward a fair resolution.
• Prenuptial agreements and postnuptial agreements — We help clients who are engaged or married protect their property rights by negotiating, drafting, and reviewing marital agreements.
• Appeals — We appeal erroneous court rulings to ensure your rights have the full protection of the law.
• Legal separations — If you are not ready or able to get divorced, we can help you file for a legal separation, settling all the same issues you would with a final divorce.
• Relocation — Child custody disputes reach a heightened level of intensity when a custodial parent seeks to leave the state with the children or relocate at a distance that burdens the other parent’s exercise of visitation rights. We help resolve conflicts through negotiation or litigation.
• Post-divorce modification and enforcement — When circumstances in your life change substantially, it may be time to ask the court to modify aspects of your divorce decree. We represent parties on either side of a motion to modify an order, as well as in actions to enforce existing terms.
• Guardianship — We help concerned persons gain legal authority as guardians to care for minor children and incapacitated adults.
• Paternity — We represent single mothers, putative fathers, and children in actions to establish paternity for purposes of child support, child custody and visitation, and inheritance.
• Name changes — We help clients legally change their names after a divorce or when paternity has been established.

When you retain our services for any family law issue, you get determined legal representation focused on positive results.

Trends in Florida family law filings

For the first few years of this century, family court filings outpaced other civil, criminal and probate cases in Florida, being on average about 44 percent of all cases filed in the state’s circuit courts. But, starting in 2004, the family court percentage of circuit court filings declined, reaching its lowest point in 2008 as the country went into recession. From that point forward, family court case filings increased, reaching 38.5 percent of all circuit court filings from 2016 to 2017.

As for divorce cases, simplified dissolution filings have risen substantially in recent years, while the volume of marriage dissolution filings has shown little change. Child support filings, along with domestic violence cases, have barely fluctuated. On a positive note, juvenile delinquency filings have declined significantly over the same period.

Contact our accomplished Tampa family law attorneys

Sessums Law Group, P.A. represents Florida clients in a full range of family law matters. Please call 813-435-5058 or contact us online to schedule an appointment at our Tampa office. We also have locations in Lakeland, Sebring and Sarasota.