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The Florida Senate

2024 Florida Statutes

Title VI CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
Chapter 61 DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE; SUPPORT; TIME-SHARING Entire Chapter
SECTION 56
Definitions.
F.S. 61.56
61.56 Definitions.—As used in this part, the term:
(1) “Collaborative attorney” means an attorney who represents a party in a collaborative law process.
(2) “Collaborative law communication” means an oral or written statement, including a statement made in a record, or nonverbal conduct that:
(a) Is made in the conduct of or in the course of participating in, continuing, or reconvening for a collaborative law process; and
(b) Occurs after the parties sign a collaborative law participation agreement and before the collaborative law process is concluded or terminated.
(3) “Collaborative law participation agreement” means an agreement between persons to participate in a collaborative law process.
(4) “Collaborative law process” means a process intended to resolve a collaborative matter without intervention by a tribunal and in which persons sign a collaborative law participation agreement and are represented by collaborative attorneys.
(5) “Collaborative matter” means a dispute, a transaction, a claim, a problem, or an issue for resolution, including a dispute, a claim, or an issue in a proceeding which is described in a collaborative law participation agreement and arises under chapter 61 or chapter 742, including, but not limited to:
(a) Marriage, divorce, dissolution, annulment, and marital property distribution.
(b) Child custody, visitation, parenting plan, and parenting time.
(c) Alimony, maintenance, and child support.
(d) Parental relocation with a child.
(e) Parentage and paternity.
(f) Premarital, marital, and postmarital agreements.
(6) “Law firm” means:
(a) One or more attorneys who practice law in a partnership, professional corporation, sole proprietorship, limited liability company, or association; or
(b) One or more attorneys employed in a legal services organization, the legal department of a corporation or other organization, or the legal department of a governmental entity, subdivision, agency, or instrumentality.
(7) “Nonparty participant” means a person, other than a party and the party’s collaborative attorney, who participates in a collaborative law process.
(8) “Party” means a person who signs a collaborative law participation agreement and whose consent is necessary to resolve a collaborative matter.
(9) “Person” means an individual; a corporation; a business trust; an estate; a trust; a partnership; a limited liability company; an association; a joint venture; a public corporation; a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or any other legal or commercial entity.
(10) “Proceeding” means a judicial, an administrative, an arbitral, or any other adjudicative process before a tribunal, including related prehearing and posthearing motions, conferences, and discovery.
(11) “Prospective party” means a person who discusses with a prospective collaborative attorney the possibility of signing a collaborative law participation agreement.
(12) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(13) “Related to a collaborative matter” means involving the same parties, transaction or occurrence, nucleus of operative fact, dispute, claim, or issue as the collaborative matter.
(14) “Sign” means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record, to:
(a) Execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(b) Attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.
(15) “Tribunal” means a court, an arbitrator, an administrative agency, or other body acting in an adjudicative capacity which, after presentation of evidence or legal argument, has jurisdiction to render a decision affecting a party’s interests in a matter.
History.—s. 5, ch. 2016-93.