Florida Family Law · Attorney-reviewed

Silence doesn’t stop a divorce in Florida

A spouse who refuses to respond to divorce papers doesn’t get to hold the process hostage. Florida law allows a case to proceed to a default judgment if the other party is properly served and simply doesn’t respond within the required time.

That said, “properly served” and “correctly documented” are doing a lot of work in that sentence, and it’s exactly where default cases go wrong.

How a default actually gets entered

Once a spouse is served and fails to file a response within the statutory window, the filing party can request a clerk’s default. From there, the case moves toward a default final hearing, where the court finalizes the divorce and the terms requested in the petition without the non-responsive spouse’s participation.

It sounds simple, and for straightforward cases, it largely is. The complexity shows up around what exactly can be granted at that hearing.

The paperwork detail that can sink an otherwise clean default

Florida procedural rules require that a Financial Affidavit be served alongside the initial divorce petition. Skip that step, and opposing counsel — or the defaulted spouse if they eventually appear — can move to dismiss based on the omission. Once the case is properly underway, later financial affidavit updates only need to be mailed to the respondent’s last known address, with a certificate of service filed.

That one document, served at the right moment, is often the difference between a clean default and a case that gets kicked back to square one.

What you can ask for — and what requires more paperwork

General equitable distribution language in a petition is enough to divide most personal property at a default hearing, as long as every asset is listed on the Financial Affidavit. But if real property is involved, or you’re asking for an unequal distribution in your favor, the petition typically needs to specifically plead that, which may mean amending and re-serving before you can proceed.

Skipping that step doesn’t just risk denial of the request. It can delay the entire default hearing while the petition gets fixed.

Getting to your default hearing without delay

If there’s a lease or shared property tied to a timeline, like a lease expiring on a set date, it’s often smarter to skip filing temporary relief motions that won’t be heard before that date anyway, and instead move straight toward the uncontested default final hearing. Temporary motions can feel productive, but if the math shows they won’t be resolved before the underlying issue resolves itself, they’re just delay dressed up as action.

The fastest path through a default case is usually the most boring one: file everything correctly the first time, serve what’s required when it’s required, and go straight to the hearing.