Sarasota County Unlawful Detainer Attorney

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I am a real estate and landlord tenant lawyer located in Venice, Florida. I routinely assist residential and commercial landlords evict tenants in Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte County. I take great pride in assisting these clients get possession of their property back.

I have also removed occupants from property under a variety of circumstances that don’t necessarily fall under landlord tenant law.

Occasionally, I meet a property owner that wants to remove someone that is not a tenant.

Often this is a situation where you have invited someone into your home and allowed them to stay as a guest, only to later find out that the person does not want to leave even after you have asked them to. These are typically domestic disputes involving ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, adult children, extended family, or friends.

These can be delicate situations with the root cause being alcohol and drug abuse. Unfortunately, the police are unable to remove these unwanted guests, and at first glance the legal system does not provide a clear solution for these kinds of problems, because they cannot be solved with a typical eviction.

Thankfully, there is a remedy, and I routinely represent clients in removing unwanted occupants from their homes in these exact situations. Continue reading →

How to Evict a Tenant in Sarasota County, Florida

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The following is a fairly comprehensive guide to evicting a residential tenant in Sarasota County, Florida. I am a landlord tenant lawyer in Sarasota County, and I wanted to create this resource for individuals who would like to learn more about how to evict a tenant.

It is important to stress that this article is for information purposes only, and is not legal advice. What I’m doing here is providing a general overview of the process. The reality is that filing an eviction is filing a lawsuit, and each step in the process could easily merit it’s own article describing the details. Your best bet is to consult with a lawyer. Failing to follow all of the steps correctly could result in your eviction getting stalled or thrown out.

With that out of the way… Continue reading →

How to Perform a Stepparent Adoption in Sarasota County

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Performing a stepparent adoption is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a family lawyer. Most of my time is spent litigating divorces and post divorce proceedings, so the chance to help a family come together is a welcome change of pace.

This article is for educational purposes only, and is designed to be a brief overview of how the stepparent adoption process works in Sarasota, Florida. I am a family law lawyer located in Venice, Florida and perform stepparent adoptions in Venice, Sarasota, Bradenton, Port Charlotte and the surrounding areas.

Contested vs. Uncontested Stepparent Adoptions

Like a fingerprint, each person’s stepparent adoption is unique to that person. Continue reading →

How is Property Divided in a Florida Divorce?

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Dividing property is often one of the greatest challenges when filing for divorce in Florida. It is very easy to get overwhelmed when trying to untangle the complicated financial issues, especially when also confronting the emotional aspects of a divorce. However, it is important to understand that there is a method to the madness, and your attorney can help guide you through the process.

In the following article I will explain the basic rules governing property division and divorce in Florida, and also touch on some practical considerations as well.

The general rule is that Florida is an “Equitable Distribution” state. Generally speaking this means that marital property, assets and liabilities acquired during the marriage with marital funds or labor, will be divided equally upon divorce. Nonmarital property, assets and liabilities acquired before the marriage, remains the sole and separate property of the spouse upon divorce.

What is “Property” Anyways?

As a preliminary matter, it’s worth taking a little time to discuss what “property” actually includes. Property includes Continue reading →

How to Change Your Name in Sarasota, Florida

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You are reading this article because you are considering having your name legally changed in the State of Florida. Maybe you have recently been divorced and did not restore your name at the end of the divorce. Or perhaps you have a different reason. After 9-11, the Florida DMV has tightened their regulations regarding renewing driver’s licenses, and I am getting an increasing number of clients who are contacting my office after having problems renewing their Florida driver’s license.

There is no doubt that you have questions, including: “How long does a name change take?” “What are the requirements for a name change in Florida?” and of course there is the all-important, “How much will it cost?”

My goal is to answer all of those questions for you in this article.

Before we get too far into this, I want to mention that I am a name change lawyer in Venice, Florida. Name changes are part of my family law practice. I regularly represent clients with family law matters, including name changes, in Venice, Sarasota, and the surrounding area.

Sarasota County happens to be part of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida so this article will discuss getting a name changed within the 12th Judicial Circuit. The rules for each circuit may be a little different so it’s important to keep that in mind.

The Basic Idea

Basically, to get your name changed you need to file what is called a Continue reading →

Commercial Evictions in Sarasota County

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I have written at length about performing residential evictions in Florida, including in-depth articles on issues like holdover tenants and sub-tenants. I have plans to write more articles on residential landlord tenant law and specifically the subject of residential evictions, but for this particular article I want to focus on commercial evictions. Since my office is in Sarasota County and I practice primarily in Sarasota County (although I also do represent clients in Manatee and Charlotte County, and will happily take cases there), I wanted to zero in on Sarasota County for purposes of writing this article.

Commercial Landlord Tenant Law vs. Residential Landlord Tenant Law

As a quick introduction, it’s important to distinguish the commercial (or “nonresidential”) section of the Florida landlord tenant statues from the residential section. The major difference between the two sections is that in the commercial landlord tenant section the parties are presumed to be more sophisticated, and the statutes allow for much greater freedom when it comes to the way commercial leases can be drafted and the kinds of clauses that can and cannot be included in a commercial lease. The legislators are presuming Continue reading →