“This order was written for the life we had back then.”
Florida law accounts for that. When circumstances change substantially, certain terms of a final judgment can change with them.
Post-judgment modification is how Florida law updates a final divorce or paternity judgment when life has changed in a lasting way. Courts in Tampa and across Hillsborough County can modify parenting plans, time-sharing, child support, and most forms of alimony when the change is substantial, material, and was not anticipated when the judgment was entered. Rechel & Associates has handled these cases for Tampa Bay families since 1992, on both sides: people seeking a change, and people defending an order that still works.
We get a supplemental petition on file promptly, because a court generally cannot reach back before the filing date.
A support order is built on the numbers that existed the day it was entered. When a job ends or an income drops in a lasting way, the order does not adjust itself, and falling behind on an amount you can no longer pay creates problems of its own. Florida law allows support to be recalculated when the change is substantial and lasting, not just a bad month. The worst move is waiting and hoping.
No. If the order is right but ignored, the tool is enforcement, and we handle that as well.
Modification changes the terms of an order. Enforcement makes someone comply with the terms that already exist. If support is unpaid or time-sharing is being denied under a plan that still fits your family, what you likely need is enforcement of the existing order rather than a new one. Some situations call for both at once. Sorting out which is which is one of the first things we do in a consultation.
We build the case for the schedule the evidence supports, not the standard template.
The parenting plan that fit your family five years ago may not fit the family you have now. Exchanges built around nap schedules make little sense once there are team practices, part-time jobs, and a driver's license in the picture. Florida courts can modify a parenting plan when circumstances have substantially changed and a new arrangement serves the child's best interests. Age alone is not always enough on its own, which is why the evidence matters.
Florida has a specific relocation statute. We start with it, never with guesswork.
A move of 50 miles or more from your current home, lasting 60 days or longer, triggers Florida's relocation statute. That law requires either a written agreement with the other parent that the court approves, or a petition to relocate that the court grants. Packing first and litigating later can cost you the move and a great deal more. Handled correctly, with the statute's factors addressed head-on, a relocation case is presented the way courts expect to see it.
The standard is settled. A Florida court can modify certain terms of a final judgment when there has been a substantial, material change in circumstances that was not anticipated at the time of the judgment. For changes to a parenting plan, the child's best interests must also support the change. Some terms can be revisited under that standard and some are fixed forever, and knowing the difference before you file is most of the battle. Each part below unpacks one piece of it, in plain terms.
Substantial, material, and unanticipated. The change must be significant, must bear on the terms at issue, and must be something the original judgment did not already account for. For parenting changes, the child's best interests carry the day. A rough season usually does not qualify. A lasting shift often does.
Schedules, exchanges, and the designation of decision-making authority can all be revisited when circumstances have substantially changed and a new arrangement serves the child. How Florida builds these plans in the first place is covered on our parenting plans and time-sharing page.
Support is recalculated under Florida's guidelines when income or the children's circumstances have changed in a substantial, lasting way. The guidelines themselves set thresholds for when a difference is large enough to matter. Our child support page explains how the numbers are built.
Durational and rehabilitative alimony can generally be modified or ended when circumstances change substantially, including retirement under Florida's 2023 alimony reform, which eliminated permanent alimony for new cases and set rules for how a payor's reasonable retirement is treated. An award the parties made non-modifiable stays that way.
Equitable distribution is final. The division of property and debts in your judgment will not be reopened because values moved or one side has second thoughts. Alimony that was waived or made non-modifiable by agreement is likewise fixed. This is why those terms deserve so much care the first time through.
If the order still fits your family but is not being followed, the remedy is enforcement, not modification. If the order no longer fits, enforcing the old terms helps no one. Many families need one, some need both at once, and choosing the right vehicle at the start saves wasted effort.
The order should fit the family you have now.
Modification work is judgment work. The statute supplies the standard, but the case is won or lost on whether the change you are describing is documented, lasting, and genuinely different from what the judgment already contemplated. We spend our effort there, on the record, before we ever spend it on argument.
We do not bring cookie-cutter schedules to a courtroom. An order that made sense for a toddler rarely fits a teenager, and a support figure built on a job that no longer exists is not made real by insisting on it. We build the case for the arrangement the evidence supports rather than forcing your family into the standard template.
We also tell people when they do not have a case. Not every hard stretch is a substantial change, and filing a weak petition can cost more than waiting for the right moment. A firm that has done this work since 1992 knows the difference, and you deserve to hear it straight.
No one files these cases for fun. Something real has shifted: a paycheck, a household, a child's needs, a retirement date. Each of these has its own legal test, and each is winnable or losable on preparation.
A layoff, a business downturn, a disability, or a significant raise on either side can justify recalculating support. The change has to be substantial and lasting, and it has to be proven with real financial records rather than asserted. Timing matters, because relief generally runs from the filing date.
Florida's relocation statute governs any move of 50 miles or more lasting 60 days or longer. It requires a court-approved agreement or a granted petition before the children relocate. These cases turn on the statute's factors, prepared early and taken seriously.
Remarriage, a supportive relationship, retirement, or a lasting change in either party's finances can put an award back in front of a judge, unless the award was made non-modifiable. The 2023 reform's retirement provisions changed this landscape, and older assumptions may no longer hold.
Children grow, health changes, work schedules shift, and a plan drafted years ago can quietly stop serving anyone. If both parents see it, an agreed modification can be straightforward. If not, the case turns on evidence of what has changed and what the children need now.
There is no single number that fits every family. Florida courts look for a change that is substantial, material, and lasting, not a rough month or a temporary dip. For child support, the state's guidelines include their own thresholds for when a recalculated amount is different enough to justify a change, and the analysis runs on real, documented income. What matters most is that the change is genuine and likely to continue. If your income has shifted in a lasting way, timing matters too, because a court generally cannot reach back before the date a petition is filed. That makes it worth a conversation sooner rather than later.
You can agree, and courts generally welcome parents and former spouses who work things out. But a handshake does not change the order. Until a court enters your agreement, the original judgment remains the enforceable one, and unpaid support can keep accruing under it no matter what you told each other. We see the damage years later, when one side decides the informal deal never happened. If you have both agreed to a change, the right move is to put it in writing and have the court adopt it, which is usually the simplest kind of modification there is. Then the order and your real arrangement finally match.
It depends on how far, and on your order. Florida's relocation statute applies when a parent wants to move 50 miles or more from their current home for at least 60 days. Under that law you need either a written agreement with the other parent that the court approves, or a petition to relocate that the court grants after weighing factors centered on the child. Moving first and asking later is one of the most serious mistakes a parent can make here, because a court can order the children returned and weigh the move against you. If a relocation is on the horizon, plan it with counsel before you commit to anything.
Remarriage generally ends most forms of alimony on its own. A new live-in partner is a different question. Florida law allows a court to reduce or terminate alimony when the person receiving it is in a supportive relationship, which the court examines through evidence: shared finances, a shared household, how the couple holds themselves out. It is not automatic, and the terms of your original award matter, especially if the alimony was made non-modifiable by agreement. If you believe a supportive relationship exists, the evidence has to be gathered carefully rather than assumed. It is exactly the kind of case that turns on preparation.
It depends on how much the two of you still disagree about. A modification the parties have essentially agreed on can move through the court with little friction. A contested case takes longer, because it runs like a focused lawsuit: a supplemental petition, financial disclosure, sometimes discovery and mediation, then a hearing if no agreement is reached. The court's calendar plays a role no attorney controls. What we can control is preparation: filing promptly, because support changes generally reach back only to the filing date, and building the evidence so the case is ready the first time it is in front of a judge.
A judgment is a snapshot. A family is a moving picture.
Post-judgment work is where a firm's habits show. The file is old, the feelings are older, and the temptation is to treat every case as a rerun of the divorce. We treat it as what it is: a focused question about what has changed and what the law allows to change with it.
Rechel & Associates has focused exclusively on family law since the firm opened in January 1992. Theodore J. Rechel has practiced law since 1990, and attorney Jacob Goss brings the same discipline to every file: document the change, respect the standard, and make the strongest honest case for the family in front of us.
If you are not sure whether what happened in your life clears Florida's bar for modification, that is a fair question, and it is exactly what a consultation is for. We will tell you where you stand, even when the honest answer is to wait.
Schedule a confidential consultation. We will look at your judgment, listen to what has changed, and give you a straight answer about whether Florida law offers a path to change it.
Every consultation is confidential.
