Category Archives: Latest News

Today we are celebrating the 29-year anniversary of opening The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin!

On this special day, we share a special note from Board Certified Expert in Marital and Family Law, Gary S. Dolgin – Attorney at Law:

“Today is the 29th anniversary of the opening of my law office.

After gaining courtroom experience as both a prosecutor and public defender, I opened up my solo practice on April 1, 1993 with no clients, no runs and no errors!

The late Arnold Levine referred me my first case, a young man charged with driving with a suspended license and a worthless check.

A few weeks later I was referred my first divorce case and seven years later became Board Certified in Marital and Family Law with the help of mentors including the late Joe Hood, Steve Sessums and Fraser Himes.

Thank you to all of my clients for trusting me to help them get through some of the most difficult times in their lives. Thank you to my colleagues, past clients and even some of their ex spouses who continue to refer me cases. This week I was thrilled to open two new cases referred by two different ex-spouses of former clients.

The picture in this post was taken by my then fiancée and wife Wendi of 31 years. It is the day I was sworn into the Florida Bar in September, 1990 by the late Judge Harry Lee Coe III (who I played tennis with since I was a junior player) and my dad Dr. David Dolgin, Tampa’s first periodontist (and Board Certified)who taught me how to treat clients(patients for him) and paid for tennis lessons, college and law school with my mother Dr. Ann Dolgin.

Thank you to all of my great legal assistants/paralegals – Dawn, Susan, Nancy, Karen, Laurel, and Cynthia who treat our clients right and have been so dedicated to me.

Lastly, thank you to my wife Wendi, and my children Mallory, Corey and Ari.”

To learn more about our family law practice located in downtown Tampa, visit:
Family Lawyer Tampa, Gary S. Dolgin

Despite gains in education, employment and earnings in recent decades, American women still face a rockier road to secure retirement than men. Yet they live longer and are more apt to encounter illness, disability and the eventual need for expensive long-term care.

Economists attribute much of the retirement gender gap to “the motherhood penalty.” Women who raise children have fewer and lower-paid years in the work force than men or childless women, and “they never completely make up for the deficits,” said Matthew Rutledge, a research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Divorces in late middle age may improve women’s emotional well-being — they initiate them more often than men — but frequently devastate their financial health.

Marriage combines incomes, reduces living costs and works “to smooth out the fluctuations, the job losses, the periods of disability, the years you took off to care for an elderly parent,” Dr. Rutledge said. “It’s almost like getting an insurance policy.”

Losing that insurance takes a financial toll on women at any age, but after 50 “there’s less time to recoup,” Dr. I-Fen Lin, a sociologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, explained. “It’s hard to get back into the labor force, if you’re not working. And you don’t have as many years left to work and recover.” Moreover, older working women face both age and gender discrimination.

Read the full article here.

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping women, men and families in the Tampa Bay area with their family law issues for over 30 years.

To learn more about our family law practice in Tampa, visit:
Family Attorney Tampa, Gary S. Dolgin

Senate Bill 1796, which was passed last Wednesday, would change how alimony is paid if signed into law.

This legislation would do away with permanent alimony and set up maximum payments based on the duration of the marriage.

One of the most controversial parts of this legislation would change the process for modification of alimony when people who have been paying alimony seek to retire. This could potentially impoverish older ex-spouses who have been homemakers and are dependent on the payments.

The ex-spouses who pay would have to give one year’s notice indicating they intend to retire and could stop payments upon retirement, except under certain circumstances.

This Bill also codifies a 50-50 presumption of timesharing into Florida law, which is not in the best interest of Florida’s children.

The Family Law Section of The Florida Bar immediately asked Wednesday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis veto the bill.

Read the full article here.

To easily and automatically email Governor DeSantis about this important issue, click this link: https://www.votervoice.net/VetoAlimonyBill/campaigns/92547/respond

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping women, men and families in the Tampa Bay area with their family law issues, including alimony and divorce for over 30 years.

To learn more about our family law practice in Tampa, visit:
Family Lawyer Tampa, Gary S. Dolgin

Trent and Denise Montagu never stopped caring for each other after their divorce.

The couple divorced after 22 years of marriage, when substance abuse and old patterns created a wedge between them too large to bridge.

Denise resented Trent for not participating enough in the family and resorting to substance abuse, and Trent resented Denise for controlling everything.

Ultimately their resentment for each other resulted in divorce, however they both acknowledge that the divorce prompted them to work on their shortcomings.

Denise says she now values her close relationships more and is conscious of not being controlling, both with her current and former spouse.

Trent has stopped abusing alcohol and drugs and has taken control of his finances and other life decisions.

Trent says that the divorce forced him to really focus on himself and finally grow up.

Read the full article at here.

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping women, men and families in the Tampa Bay area with their family law issues for over 30 years.

To learn more about our family law practice in Tampa, visit:
Family Law Attorney Tampa, Gary S. Dolgin

Starting at age 60 (or 50 for those who are disabled) a survivor can either apply for a deceased spouse’s Social Security benefits or apply for them temporarily and delay claiming their own, allowing their benefit to increase until they reach full retirement age or beyond.

Almost six million of the nation’s 65 million Social Security beneficiaries receive survivor’s benefits, including children. The purpose is to care for the survivors who lose their romantic and economic partners, which is a huge financial hardship.

The Social Security Administration now allows same-sex couples to receive survivor’s benefits if they can show that they were in a committed relationship and would have married had that been possible.

With this change to Social Security policy, survivors of same-sex partners can now start the process of applying for their deceased partners’ Social Security benefits, regardless of how long ago their partners or spouses died.

When applying for a deceased partner’s Social Security benefits survivors have to produce evidence like joint bank accounts, leases, mortgages, insurance policies or wills that name a partner as beneficiary or heir in order for Social Security agents to consider approving the request.

Read the full article here.

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping families in the Tampa Bay area with their family law issues for over 30 years.

To learn more about our family law practice in Tampa, visit:
Best Family Lawyer Tampa, The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin

Happy Holidays from The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin!

In our special edition Holiday Newsletter, Gary Dolgin shares his family highlights for 2021 and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of good health and prosperity.

We also take this special opportunity to thank our wonderful fellow colleagues and past clients who have placed their faith in us by referring us new clients this year.

To see our Holiday Newsletter, please visit: December 2021 Newsletter

Here at The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been serving the community to help with their family law and divorce issues since in the Tampa area since 1990.

To learn more about our family law practice, visit:
Family Law Attorney Tampa, The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin

A divorced mother of two advises divorced parents to plan ahead during the holidays to avoid feeling lonely while their children are celebrating holidays with the other parent.

She explains how difficult it was for her to get through special holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah while her children were with their father.

However, once she started planning ahead to take on projects and schedule trips with friends during those times, it helped make getting through the holidays without her children more manageable.

Read the full article here.

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping families in the Tampa Bay area with their family law issues for over 30 years.

To learn more about our family law practice in Tampa, visit:
Best Family Law Attorney Tampa, The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin

After Bill and Melinda Gates just announced their plans to divorce after decades of marriage, we realize that more and more older couples are parting ways.

What we tend to see nowadays is that long-standing marriages are ending because couples feel that their marriages no longer bring them joy and fulfillment. In many instances, the parties agree that they each want to pursue different paths in life for the years they have left.

This article discusses the issue in more detail:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/06/opinions/older-couples-gates-divorcing-wellness/index.html

Here at The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping husbands and wives of all ages with their divorce issues, whether contested or uncontested.

If you are having any divorce issue, including alimony, division of marital assets and liabilities, child custody, child support, or any family law issue, we are here to help you.

To schedule a consultation with Board Certified Expert in Marital and Family Law, Gary S. Dolgin, give us a call at (813) 999-2772.

Learn more at:
Divorce Attorney in Tampa

In Florida, it is not presumed that one parent gets more time-sharing with their child based on gender after divorce or separation.

Florida Law recognizes the contributions that both parents make to rearing healthy children and intends for both parents to be actively involved with their children after divorce or separation.

Parents should try to agree on a time-sharing schedule together such that each parent gets blocks of continuous time with the child, including overnight time and that the blocks of time should be long enough to ensure that each parent remains an involved parent.

If you are having trouble reaching a time-sharing agreement with your child’s other parent, we are here to help you.

With over 30 years in practice, and being a Board Certified Expert in Marital and Family Law, as well as a Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator, Gary Dolgin can help with any child custody issue you may be facing, including time-sharing and time-sharing modifications.

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we will work diligently to protect your child’s best interests and advocate for your parental rights.

To schedule a child custody consultation with Gary S. Dolgin, give us a call today at (813) 999-2772 and it will be our pleasure to help you.

To learn more about child custody and how we can help you, visit:
Child Custody in Tampa, Florida

For the past several years, efforts to rewrite Florida’s alimony laws have sparked much debate.

The proposed alimony reform aimed to do away with permanent alimony and significantly reduce the duration of alimony when couples get divorced.

The breadwinners in the marriage argue that permanent alimony forces them to continue working past retirement age in order to afford making the required monthly payments to their ex-spouses.

However the stay-at-home wife or husband and lower-income earners argue that they sacrificed their careers to care for the home and should be provided with financial support from the breadwinner long after the end of the marriage to compensate for their possibly reduced earning potential.

In addition, the alimony reform bill included a provision that would require judges to begin with a “presumption” that children should split their time equally between parents, which raises much controversary as well, especially in the cases when one parent is not fit to care for the child.

The alimony reform bill has been shelved for 2021, however, it is expected to be proposed once again for 2022.

You can read the full article here:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-nsf-florida-scraps-alimony-reform-effort-20210420-djh6crwrorhzflbxn57nczgwma-story.html

At The Law Offices of Gary S. Dolgin, we have been helping both men and women with their alimony issues for over 30 years, and we are here to help you too.

To schedule a consultation with Board Certified Expert in Marital and Family Law, Gary Dolgin, please call (813) 999-2772 and it will be our pleasure to help you.

To learn more about how alimony lawyer in Tampa, Gary Dolgin can help you, visit:
Alimony Lawyer in Tampa