On April 25, 2013, Attorney Sarah E. Kay was presented with a lapel pin at the Sixth Annual 13th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Service Awards Ceremony in recognition of her exceptional pro bono service in 2012. Congratulations, Sarah!
On May 2–4, 2013, Attorneys Caroline Black Sikorske, and Jennifer Ficarrotta will be attending the 35th Annual Institute of the Florida Chapter American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). The AAML is a national group of leading matrimonial practitioners in the field of family law and serves to provide leadership that promotes the highest degree of professionalism and excellence in family law. Caroline is the current President of the Florida Chapter of the AAML. Click on the link below to see the schedule of events for the Institute.
Schedule for 2013 Annual Institute of the Florida Chapter of the AAML
The pending family law legislation that recently passed Florida’s House of Representatives and Senate has been getting a lot of press. The legislation makes many changes to Florida law including changes to alimony, presumptions regarding timesharing schedules, calculations affecting equitable distribution, and retroactive application of the changes. Click on the link below to read a comprehensive summary of the new legislation. Sessums Black, PA prides itself on providing superior legal representation to clients with all types of family law issues.
Senate Bill 718 passed the Florida Senate and the House of Representatives recently. It is now slated to head to the governor. The pending legislation would not only create significant changes to alimony in Florida, but it also provides for things such as a presumption for 50-50 timesharing with children. Click on the links below to read two news articles about the pending legislation and related debate.
Family law has been at the forefront of discussions during the current legislative session. Senate Bill 718 has passed the Senate and is currently pending in the House of Representatives. The bill, among other things, makes drastic changes to alimony, creates a rebuttable presumption of 50-50 timesharing, redefines lengths of marriages and how that impacts a request for alimony, creates a coverture fraction to compute the marital portion of appreciation of non-marital real estate for which marital funds were used to pay down a mortgage, outlines when issues may be bifurcated, and creates a schedule for applying for retroactive modification of previously entered alimony awards. The attorneys of Sessums Black, PA pride themselves on staying abreast of the latest trends and changes in marital and family law.
Click here to read the version of the bill pending before the house as of April 18, 2013.
On April 11, 2013, Paralegals Amy Anderson, Carol Dunlap, Kathy Mull, Frank Steinbeck, and Michele Tawzer attended, as a part of their regular membership, the monthly meeting of the Tampa Bay Paralegal Association which included a continuing legal education component titled “The Florida Juvenile Justice System and the PACE Center for Girls, Inc.” presented by the Honorable Ralph C. Stoddard of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County and Tanya Hollins, Executive Director of PACE Center for Girls, Inc.
Attorney Sarah E. Kay appeared in a picture in the April 15, 2013 edition of the Florida Bar News. Sarah, as President of the Hillsborough County Bar Association Leadership Institute Class of 2013, assisted with the beautification of the landscaping at Tampa’s Alpha House, a shelter for homeless pregnant women. Click here for a copy of the picture.
