Athlete and public figure divorce in Florida Athlete and public figure divorce in Florida

Florida's judicial access rule (Rule 2.420) presumes openness and permits confidentiality only within enumerated categories, on motion, with findings — and Florida courts police overbroad sealing requests. What's realistically achievable: confidential treatment of financial affidavits in some circumstances, protective orders over discovery (contract terms, endorsement deals, medical and performance data), redaction of account numbers and children's information, and agreed confidentiality around the substance of settlement.

What actually works better than motion practice: resolving the case so the file never contains the story. Florida's near-mandatory mediation is confidential and privileged by statute — the substance negotiated there stays there. A marital settlement agreement can be drafted lean, with sensitive schedules incorporated by reference and protected. The public record shows a petition, an agreement, a judgment; the details live elsewhere. That sequencing is the core of our approach for public-facing Florida clients: mediation in Florida.

Florida's 2023 alimony reform changed the math for high earners: no more permanent alimony, durational caps tied to marriage length, and amounts capped at the lesser of the recipient's need or 35% of the income differential. For volatile careers, the fights concentrate on the inputs — what's "income" in a contract year versus an injury year, how endorsement and NIL streams count, whether the averaging window catches the peak or the valley. Child support above Florida's guidelines schedule runs on the children's needs and standard of living, with case law guarding against windfalls. And on the property side, Florida's classification rules take on athlete-specific color: signing bonuses, deferred guarantees, and brand value earned across the marriage line all demand careful marital/nonmarital analysis. Equity and deferred comp mechanics: equity compensation in a Florida divorce.

Florida's equal time-sharing presumption meets the road-game calendar: the answer is a parenting plan engineered around the actual schedule — in-season and off-season structures, travel and makeup-time mechanics, communication protocols from the road — presented credibly enough for a court to adopt. Florida requires detailed parenting plans anyway; athletes just need better ones. See parenting plans in Florida.

Brown Carrington represents public-facing clients in Florida with the pairing these cases demand: sunshine-state privacy strategy and genuine financial trial depth.