by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Every year, the Family Law Section of The Jacksonville Bar Association hosts the Family Law Seminar, featuring experts on domestic matters, which includes much more than dividing obligations and squabbling over who has custody of the children.
“It [the seminar] satisfies part of the continuing education credit,” said event co-chair Sandra Mathis, an attorney at Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones & Gay. “The focus of our seminar is the ‘Views from the Bench’ segment. Family law judges address matters of interest to practicing attorneys. That’s the big draw. Our goal is to educate family law attorneys, to allow them a close-at-hand experience with a judge’s thoughts and to familiarize the practitioners with each other to increase the level of effectiveness in this county and to enhance cooperation between them.”
One of this year’s highlights is an announcement by the Duval County Family Law Court Administrative Judge David Wiggins concerning changes in visitation guidelines for the 4th Judicial Circuit.
Also on the agenda are topics from family law practitioners at the Zisser Law Firm, Mahon & Farley, the law office of Hal Castillo and Mathis.
“I plan on mentioning a decision out of the 3rd District, which is liable to cause real problems because of a previous case by the Supreme Court dealing with dividing up pension benefits,” said Harry Mahon. “For the last 16, 18 years, the law has stated that if retirement benefits are equally distributed upon the dissolution of a marriage, they can’t be considered as income for alimony. The case of the 3rd District says it doesn’t make any difference. It confuses the law like crazy. If the Supreme Court upholds the 3rd District, it’s going to make a mess out of a lot of settlement agreements.”
Mathis and her co-chair, Nancy Nowlis from the Zisser Law Firm, have designed the day’s activities to include discussion about trust and estates, real property, domestic violence law updates and ethics surrounding custody evaluations.
“We’re attempting to broaden the scope of topics by bringing in attorneys that practice in other areas affecting family law or that affects clients,” explained Mathis. “[Otherwise] new developments may be missed that they need to be aware of. We try to include ancillary services.”
Robert Dawkins from Fisher, Tousey, Leas & Ball will discuss the role trusts and estates play in family law.
“The attorney has to remember that their client or their client’s spouse will both die one day,” said Dawkins. “It’s better to take that into account when property is divided and settlements are drawn, especially if child support is involved. They need to know the rights of the ex-spouse in an estate or on behalf of a child. The problem I run into is a divorced person will forget to change his beneficiary on his life insurance or IRA so the money goes to the ex-spouse when he dies. There are things a family lawyer could do at the time of the divorce to make things smoother and easier later on.”
One tool he recommends is establishing a trust fund for life insurance proceeds that a minor child does not inherit until a more mature age.
Davis Garfinkle of Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones and Gay will discuss ethical considerations regarding the attorney’s role surrounding custody evaluations.
“The problem arises when an attorney leverages the client’s financial position as a claim for custody when it’s not in the child’s best interest,” said Garfinkel. “I’ve seen attorneys actually entice clients to do that because it increases the amount of litigation and costs. An attorney’s role in a divorce case is to minimize the disruption to the child, not financial gain for himself or his client.”
Mathis says the seminar is not just for family law attorneys.
“There are a lot of general practitioners who cover different areas of the law, including family law, and they would benefit,” she said.
The Family Law Seminar is scheduled for Thursday at the Omni.