Sponsor Spotlight

Headquartered in New Jersey and with locations in Juno Beach, Winter Park and Plantation, Smolin, Lupin & Co., LLC has been growing its Florida presence since 2021. Its team of more than 100 employees provides forensic accounting and financial services in a wide variety of industries.



The team of Alex Krasnomowitz, CPA, Nick Gutzmer, CPA, Rory Gannon, CPA, Henry Rinder, CPA and Jack Tangeman, CVA, have cases presently pending throughout Florida including, Palm Beach, Broward, Orange, Lee, Collier, Duval, and Miami-Dade.  Alex has also presented at the Marital & Family Law Review Course, and at the American Academy of Matrimonial Law, Florida Chapter, Institute.

Thank you for your generous support over the past five years! We look forward to continuing our partnership with your team and to seeing you at our next live event!

Suicide Prevention Month

By Michael Tupper, Esq. on behalf of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee

September 10, 2024, marks the celebration in recognition of World Suicide Prevention Day. The celebration is organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). The purpose behind this important observance is to raise global awareness that suicide is in fact preventable.

If you have not been impacted by suicide in your personal or professional lives, consider yourself fortunate. Suicide has been recognized as a major public health concern by the WHO, with more than 700,000 deaths globally each year. Fortunately, the signs of potential suicidality are often observable. According to the American Association of Suicidology, the tell-tale signs can include:

• Discussing death or suicide: This warning sign can take many forms, and it is essential to pay attention to the context, frequency, and intensity of these conversations.
• Feelings of hopelessness: Such feelings can take many forms and are often associated with a sense of despair, futility, or a belief that things will never get better.
• Changes in behavior: These changes might involve a person’s daily routines, social interactions, habits, or overall demeanor. Because everyone’s behavior can vary over time, it is crucial to look for significant changes that seem out of character or that persist over time.
• Self-isolation: When a person starts withdrawing from friends, family, or activities they once loved, they may need support and safety.
• Making plans: If someone begins giving away personal belongings or making arrangements for when they are gone, this can signal active suicidal ideation. Other actions might include researching suicide methods, acquiring means to die by suicide, or scouting locations.

Those of us in the legal profession should take care to keep a keen eye on our colleagues for these signs. A recent study indicated that nearly 8.5% of the lawyer participants admitted to experiencing suicidal ideations, which is about twice the rate of the general working population. Risk factors specifically identified for lawyers include: the expectation that they work long hours, meet tight deadlines, and handle complex legal issues, all while maintaining a high level of professionalism and client satisfaction. The study suggests that interventions aimed at reducing work overcommitment, stress, and loneliness, and addressing gender-specific risk factors, may be effective in reducing the risk of suicidal ideation among lawyers.

 If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. The suicide and crisis lifeline can be reached by dialing 988. Florida Lawyers Assistance is also available to provide free and confidential assistance to lawyers, judges and law students HERE.

Predictors for Suicidal Ideation: Being Spread Too Thin, Stress, Loneliness, and Being Male

By Jack Moring, Esq. on behalf of the Health and Wellness Committee

“Lawyers contemplate suicide (suicidal ideation) at an exceedingly high rate. Suicidal ideations, defined as thoughts, ideas, or ruminations about ending one’s own life, are the first step to suicide and are predictive of suicide attempts. Prior estimates suggest that between 10 and 12 percent of lawyers in the U.S. have contemplated suicide, compared to 4.2% of adults ≥ 18 years of age in U.S. population. Given the high rates of suicidal ideation among lawyers, it is crucial to identify factors that potentially contribute to their suicide risk.”

Thus begins the recent study, “Stressed, Lonely and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk,” published last year in Volume 11, Issue 4 of Healthcare. Bedtime reading it is not, unless you’re trying to avoid sleep. The study’s authors surveyed almost two thousand California and D.C. lawyers engaged in the active practice of law. 8.5% of the lawyers in the final sample experienced suicidal ideations, two times higher than the rate among the general working population. Stress was the most common finding as being one of the root causes for suicidal thinking. The odds of one contemplating suicide were 22 times higher among lawyers with high stress as opposed to those with low stress. The authors commented on the profession’s seeming ability to work to alleviate stress (with lackluster results, as most lawyers have indicated such efforts as “highly ineffective) and its inability “in throttling the causes.”

Social isolation and loneliness were also cited as a far too common experience among lawyers. Those identifying as lonely in the survey were almost three times as likely to experience suicidal ideations than those who did not so identify.

Also, suicidal ideation was two times higher for men than women. And, those who overcommit at work were two times more likely to have suicidal ideations than those who did not. Interestingly, alcohol use/abuse was not a significant predictor of suicidal ideations.

Cautioning that causality cannot be inferred, the authors note the necessity of “longitudinal studies . . . to establish the direction of the relationship between these variables.”

The study concludes:

To summarize, our findings suggest the profile of a lawyer with the highest risk for suicide is a lonely or socially isolated male with a high level of unmanageable stress, who is overly committed to their work, and may have a history of mental health problems. The heightened risk of suicidal ideation extends well beyond this specific profile, however, thereby necessitating a sustained focus on the factors we identified as predictive of that risk. Overall, these findings underscore the need for interventions to address work-related stress and loneliness in the legal profession. This may include providing education, resources, and support for lawyers to better manage their workload, modifying work demands and expectations, and promoting a culture of openness and support within law firms. Additionally, targeting interventions towards male lawyers may be particularly important given their higher risk of suicidal ideation. 

If you’re experiencing suicidal ideations, or if you think the world would be better off without you, you’re wrong. You are needed. You matter. Seek help. Call the Florida Lawyers Helpline at 833-351-9355 (833-FL1-WELL). It is free and completely confidential. You can be referred for up to five free counseling sessions.

Tech Tip: Shortcuts in Word-Symbols

By Jennifer Darley, Esq.

If you are like me, you use symbols in your writings. While there are common symbols on your number keys and around the keyboard, there are others that are missing that I would also like to quickly access. For example, the degree symbol (°), the plus/minus symbol (±), the section symbol (§), the divide symbol (¸), and an accented o symbol (ó). I will walk you through a few easy steps to create your own “shortcuts” in Microsoft Word.

• Open a blank document in Microsoft Word
• Click on the Insert Tab (should be right next to the home tab), go to the Symbol options, and select “More Symbols”.
• Select the symbol you want to create a shortcut for. For example, to add the ± shortcut, I clicked on that symbol and on the bottom left of the Symbol screen click “Shortcut Key”. If you see “Shortcut Key” listed next to it, disregard that and still click on “Shortcut Key”.
• Another screen will appear, and you will see several boxes, pay attention to the box titled “Current Keys”. If you like the shortcut that Microsoft has already provided to you, write it down and begin using it.
• Otherwise, select the option to remove the “shortcut” to remove the command prompt so you can insert a new command prompt in the box titled “Press New Shortcut Key”. After you choose your “shortcut” click “Assign”. For example, for the section symbol (§), I chose the “Alt” key and the “s” key together.
• Once the shortcut has been assigned, you can close out of the Symbol windows and try out your new shortcut.
• The only thing you will need to remember is you must press the keys at the same time, so to get the §, I press and hold the “Alt” key and then the “s” key.

If you are looking for ideas, some of the shortcuts I have created are:

• Alt key and “o” key to get the degree symbol (°);
• Alt key, the addition key (+), and the minus key (-),to get the plus/minus symbol (±);
• Alt key and slash key (/) to get the divide symbol (¸); and
• Ctrl key, single quotation mark (‘) and “o” to get an accented letter o (ó).

While it may seem silly to spend time programming these types of things into your word processor, the payout is the time you save over the long term which allows us to assist more clients, more efficiently.

Jennifer L. Darley is a licensed attorney with the Florida Bar and practices in Central Florida with her firm, Jennifer L. Darley, P.A. Her practice is devoted to family law. Ms. Darley is not affiliated with nor has an interest in Microsoft and does not receive any compensation from Microsoft.

Case Law Update

Rivera and Brito v. Salas, 2024 WL 3463697 (no rehearing pending):

By Reuben A. Doupé, Esq.

The Second District has certified conflict with the Fifth District concerning the rights of sperm donors to the resulting children. Once again, the at home sperm donation industry has found its way into Florida jurisprudence. In this case, “Mr. Rivera donated his sperm to a lesbian couple,” and “Ms. Brito was successfully impregnated using Mr. Rivera’s sperm via artificial insemination at home.” The lesbian couple married two weeks after finding out they were pregnant, making the child a legitimate child. The parents separated when the child was one; Ms. Brito left and took the child with her, and Mr. Rivera filed for paternity. The trial court dismissed the paternity suit based on Fla. Stat. § 742.14 and the appeal ensued; the Second District affirmed the dismissal.

The Second District does a nice job of telling the jurisprudential history of paternity law and the changes in the law to address gamete donations. After its survey, the Second felt that the Fifth’s logic has changed the meaning of 742.14, “As Judge Sasso said in her cogent dissent, the majority's interpretation of section 742.14 changes ‘[t]he donor of any egg, sperm, or preembryo’ into ‘[t]he donor who provides as a part of assisted reproductive technology any egg, sperm, or preembryo.’ Enriquez v. Velazquez (Sasso, J., dissenting).” (Sasso, J., dissenting).”

 A review of both cases will demonstrate that the District Courts were trying to do what was right for the children in keeping the children’s known parents in their lives. Note the stark contrast that in Enriquez, the mother was unmarried and the father had continued involvement in the child’s life after its birth; whereas in Rivera, the child was born legitimate to two parents in an intact marriage.  Rivera now offers the Florida Supreme Court a unique opportunity to resolve this conflict and provide consistency throughout the state on approaching this niche issue.

Griffin v. Griffin, 2024 WL 3514122 (Fla. 1st DCA July 24, 2024).

By Cash A. Eaton, Esq.

In Griffin, the parties’ marriage was dissolved in July 2018. Accordingly, their assets were equitably divided and distributed. This matter was previously on appeal, as the Former Husband challenged the trial court’s distribution asserting that the proceeds from his workers' compensation settlement were improperly divided. Griffin v. Griffin, 273 So. 3d 282 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019). The Appellate court overturned and remanded the judgment in an opinion that was issued in January 2020.

Additional litigation ensued between the parties on other issues. Eventually, in July 2022, the Former Husband filed a pro se motion asserting that the value of the marital home had changed, so he was entitled to have the value from any sale equally divided. The trial court denied the Former Husband’s motion, and this second appeal ensued.

The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court and relied on the explicit language of § 61.075(2), Fla. Stat., which in part states, “[T]he full amount ordered shall vest when the judgment is awarded.” (Emphasis added.) Therefore, as the Former Husband did not challenge the trial court’s distribution of the marital home, he cannot do so even though there had been years of subsequent litigation because the Former Wife’s property rights had vested.

The Former Husband also tried to argue, for the first time on appeal, that his motion should be granted pursuant to rule 12.540(b)(5). This rule provides relief from judgments when it is no longer equitable for the judgment to have prospective application. The Appellate Court would not overturn the trial court’s ruling because it was argued first on appeal. However, the Appellate Court stated that the argument would fail because the former marital home appreciating in value is not a new circumstance to grant such relief.

Zalkin v. Zalkin, 2024 WL 3682287 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024).

By Ronald H. Kauffman, Esq.

In this case, the wife appealed a temporary alimony and temporary attorney’s fees order. After noting that temporary relief awards are among the areas where trial judges have the very broadest discretion, and that appellate courts are very reluctant to interfere except under the most compelling of circumstances, the Fourth District affirmed the denial of temporary alimony but reversed the denial of temporary fees.

The Fourth District explained that the finding that the wife’s claimed expenses were greater than her actual expenses, and that her father supported her by paying the rent and other expenses, and the husband was paying many of her expenses were sufficient findings to deny temporary alimony.

The trial court’s denial of temporary fees, however, was reversed. In reaching its conclusion, the Fourth District reasoned that the wife’s choice of a large, expensive law firm; the wife’s attorney billing $35,000 more than the husband’s attorney; the trial court’s hesitancy to award prospective fees because doing so would encourage litigation; and the finding that the wife’s father was paying her fees and that she needed to repay him were all insufficient findings to deny temporary fees.

A court shouldn’t force parties into settlement by depriving one spouse of the means to maintain the action as it forces a lesser-earning spouse into an unfavorable settlement. This is especially true here, where there was a ten-to-one income disparity between the husband and the wife; the husband already spent $50,000; and the Wife’s father had paid $25,000 toward her fees, but not the entire bill. Additionally, there was no evidence the father was going to bankroll the whole divorce. Even if the wife wasn’t entitled to all her fees, the court erred in denying her motion for reasons other than the parties’ relative financial resources. Affirmed in part and reversed in part.