One county, two courthouses.
Pinellas family-law cases are heard in two places, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, and which one your case lands in shapes your drive, your filing, and your schedule. We practice in both, and we tell you which one you are dealing with before you ever set foot inside it.
Family-law focused since 1992. Every consultation is confidential.
Pinellas County sits in Florida's Sixth Judicial Circuit, which serves Pinellas and Pasco counties. The circuit's Family Law Division handles the matters that reshape a family's life: dissolution of marriage, child support, time-sharing and parenting plans, domestic-violence injunctions, name changes, and adoptions. If your family lives anywhere from Tarpon Springs down to the southern tip of St. Petersburg, this is the system your case moves through.
Rechel & Associates has practiced family law exclusively since 1992 from our office in Tampa, and Pinellas is part of the territory we work. The bay in between is not an obstacle. The thing that actually matters, and the thing most people do not learn until they are already in a case, is which of the county's two court locations their matter will run through. We put that question first.
Here is the plain version: an ordinary Pinellas divorce, support, or time-sharing case is heard in the circuit's family division sections at the county courthouse on Court Street in downtown Clearwater, and since 2022 the St. Petersburg Judicial Building has had Family Court courtrooms of its own. The Justice Center on 49th Street North is a different animal: its Unified Family Court handles juvenile and dependency matters, not an ordinary divorce. Where you land determines where you drive, where documents go, and how hearings get scheduled. We map that for you at the first conversation, not the first hearing.
Most counties give you one answer to "where is my court date." Pinellas gives you two, one in Clearwater and one in St. Petersburg. We practice in both, and sorting out which one your case runs through is one of the first things we do.
315 Court Street, Clearwater, FL 33756
The circuit's family division sections sit at the county courthouse in downtown Clearwater. This is where an ordinary Pinellas dissolution, support, or time-sharing case is heard, and it is also home to the Clerk of the Circuit Court, where petitions are filed and recorded. For most Pinellas families, this is the building their case moves through.
14250 49th Street North, Clearwater, FL 33762
The Justice Center on 49th Street North houses the county's Unified Family Court, which handles juvenile and dependency matters. It is a name that trips people up: despite the words "family court," an ordinary divorce does not belong here. Knowing that before you drive across the county is exactly the kind of detail we sort out on day one.
545 First Avenue North, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
The Judicial Building houses Pinellas Circuit and County courts in downtown St. Petersburg, and a 2022 modernization added Family Court courtrooms. That means family-law matters can be heard here too, which for a St. Petersburg family can be the difference between a courthouse ten minutes away and one across the county.
Travel · Filing · Scheduling
Which building your case lands in decides practical things: how far you drive on hearing days, where your paperwork moves, and how your schedule bends around the court's. None of it changes the law, but all of it changes your months. We answer it at the start so nothing about the process surprises you later.
Which venue and which judge your case draws depends on the specifics of your matter. What we offer is a clear picture of the road ahead, never a claim about what happens at the end of it.
What does a parent of a toddler need from a divorce that a couple parting after decades together does not? Almost everything, which is exactly what a first conversation is for.
Divorce with young children: time-sharing, two homes, and starting the next chapter on solid footing.
Explore →Peak-career assets, teenagers, and a season where everything runs at once.
Explore →Long marriages, retirement accounts, and the questions that come with the next chapter.
Explore →St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin, Largo, Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor: wherever in Pinellas your family lives, the case runs through one of the county's two court locations, and the attention you get from this firm is the same. Each city page above covers what a family matter looks like from that particular place.
If your family's life sits closer to the Hillsborough shore, the Tampa Bay area page is the better place to start with the firm.
Serving Tampa Bay →Source: Google Business Profile, verified June 2026
Ratings reflect reviews of the firm as a whole, across our full Tampa Bay practice.
Read our Google reviewsOne of two. An ordinary Pinellas divorce, support, or time-sharing case is heard in the Sixth Circuit's family division sections at the Pinellas County Courthouse, 315 Court Street in downtown Clearwater. And since a 2022 modernization added Family Court courtrooms to the St. Petersburg Judicial Building at 545 First Avenue North, family-law matters can be heard there as well. Where your case lands depends on its specifics, and pinning that down is one of the first things we do with you, because it settles your travel, your scheduling, and where your paperwork goes.
Yes. The firm practices in both Pinellas venues, the county courthouse in downtown Clearwater and the Judicial Building in St. Petersburg. Our office is in Tampa, and that is exactly why the venue question gets answered on day one: we plan the case around the courthouse it will actually run through, not the one it would be convenient to assume.
Dissolution petitions in Pinellas County are filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court at the main county courthouse, 315 Court Street in downtown Clearwater. Filing is a clerical step, not a hearing, and in most cases we prepare and handle the filing for you, so your first personal encounter with a courthouse comes later, and comes prepared.
Rarely. Most of what a case asks of you happens by document, phone, and a handful of scheduled meetings we set around your hours. When something genuinely calls for sitting down in person, we arrange it at a time and place that fit your days. What matters for a Pinellas family is not the drive to our office. It is knowing which courthouse your case runs through, and we sort that out early.
Clearwater or St. Petersburg. One steady plan.
The hardest part of a family case is rarely the address of the courtroom. It is walking into a building you have never had business in, on one of the harder mornings of your life, without knowing what the day will ask of you.
Because Pinellas hears family cases in both Clearwater and St. Petersburg, we start by telling you plainly which building your case runs through and what that means for your drive, your filings, and your calendar. Then we prepare you for the specific rooms and rhythm you will meet, so a place that once loomed large becomes an ordinary morning you have already rehearsed.
Rechel & Associates has practiced family law exclusively since 1992. Your case is guided in person by an AV Peer Rated attorney who will steady you, calmly and thoroughly, through each step in the Pinellas courts.
Book a confidential consultation. We will walk through where things stand, which courthouse your case runs through, and what a steady path forward can look like.
Every consultation is confidential.
