During the process of getting divorced, you may have to share some very personal or embarrassing information with the Florida courts. Everything from private health struggles to infidelity can impact your marriage and be a necessary part of your divorce proceedings. After all, how can you accurately depict the circumstances of your marriage and needs in the divorce if you don’t accurately depict your family situation?
Sadly, in the desire to get a favorable outcome, many people going through a divorce will have to share information that is intensely private and potentially very embarrassing. Using mediation to set divorce terms outside of court could help you protect your privacy.
What you say in a contested divorce is typically public record
It is typical for the Florida family courts to treat the information shared in your divorce proceedings as part of the public record.
Only in situations where a judge agrees to expunge certain information or seal your record can you keep certain embarrassing information from becoming accessible to everyone from your nosy neighbor to your adult children.
Most couples run the risk of information that they would rather keep private becoming public record that other people could potentially get a hold of.
Mediation keeps the details out of court
The reason that you have to share personal information with the courts usually stems from the impact of those personal considerations on property division or custody. If you get to file an uncontested divorce, the courts only need to look at the conditions and terms you set, not at the personal factors that led to that specific decision.
As long as your mediation attempt proves successful, information that you don’t want to share with the public can stay confidentially sealed behind the doors of the mediator’s office.
