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Family Law

We can help you solve most legal problems that affect your family, including:

  • Estate Planning
    • Drafting Wills, Trusts, Advance Health Care Directives, and Living Wills
  • Probate
    • Administration of a Last Will & Testament After a Loved One Dies
    • Will contests
  • Elder Law and Guardianship/Incapacity Proceedings
    • We represent relatives in court actions to have incapacitated loved ones declared incapacitated, followed by the appointment of a guardian.
    • It is not only the elderly who sometimes need a guardian to be appointed. We represented the mother of a disabled child who needed to be adjudged her child’s legal guardian when he turned 18.
    • Elder law tort and contract litigation.
    • We represent victims of nursing home and other elder abuse, such as financial exploitation of the elderly.
    • We are currently representing a respondent accused of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult who is not guilty and is being legally attacked—is a victim of malicious prosecution and abuse of process—by the real exploiter.
  • Injuries Caused by the Negligence of Others
    • Medical Malpractice
    • Auto Accidents
    • Semi Truck Accidents
    • Slip/Trip & Fall
    • Accidents at Work
  • Victimization by Insurance Companies
    • First-Party Property Insurance
    • Underpayments and Denials
    • Hurricane Damages
    • Windstorm (Other than Hurricane) Damages
    • Hail Damages
    • Plumbing Leaks
    • Cast Iron Pipe Claims
    • Vandalism
    • Collapse Damages Caused by Weight of Rain or Hidden Decay
    • Rodent and Insect Damages
    • Water Damages Caused by Upstairs Neighbor in a Condominium Building
    • Largest recovery: $2.2 million recovered for a commercial property owner after the property was damaged by Hurricane Irma
    • Largest verdict: $187,000.00 awarded by a jury for a modest single family home with a shingle roof that our client had replaced for $11,000.00 (*** Past results are not a guarantee of future success. Every case is different and turns on its facts. ***)
  • Property Disputes
    • Landlord-Tenant Disputes
    • Disputes with Neighbors
    • Contract Review and Consulting
  • Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Disputes
    • Liquidations
    • Rehabilitations/Reorganizations
    • Litigation (Adversary Proceedings)
    • Debt collection defense
    • Foreclosure defense
    • Landlord-Tenant disputes
    • Mr. Donner is admitted to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida
  • Foreclosure Defense and Workouts
    • During the 2008 “Great Recession,” Mr. Donner represented dozens of families in foreclosure defense matters.
    • Mr. Donner also helped dozens of victims of the 2008 real estate crash litigate to recover their deposits on pre-construction condominiums that were never finished.
    • Are you behind on your mortgage and being threatened with foreclosure? We can help you.
  • Credit Score Repair Advocacy
    • We can sue “creditors” who have falsely damaged your credit score.
    • We deal with the big credit score companies to get your credit score fixed.
  • Immigration Advocacy
    • Adjustment of Status to Lawful Permanent Resident (“Green Cards”)
    • Removal (Deportation) Defense
    • We speak Spanish and Hungarian.
  • Divorce and Related Matters
    • Dissolution of Marriage (“Divorce”)
      • Contested
      • Uncontested
      • Simplified
    • Parenting Plan (Formerly Known as “Custody” and “Visitation”)
      • Development and Modification of Parenting Plans
      • Timesharing and “Visitation” Disputes
      • Grandparents’ Visitation Rights
    • Mediations
    • Marital Settlement Agreements
    • Pre- and Post-Nuptial Agreements
      • Drafting, Reviewing, and Enforcement of Prenups and Postnups
    • Child Support
      • Calculation of Child Support
      • Child Support Modifications
      • Enforcement of Child Support Orders
    • Modification of Orders
      • Child Custody Modifications
      • Alimony Modifications
      • Parenting Plan and Timesharing (“Visitation”) Modifications
    • Property Division
      • Equitable Distribution of Assets and Liabilities
      • Division of Complex Assets (businesses, investments, retirement accounts)
    • Alimony and Spousal Support
      • Temporary, Permanent, or Rehabilitative Alimony
      • Alimony Modifications
      • Enforcement of Alimony
      • Defense Against Award of Alimony
    • Relocation Disputes
      • Parental Relocation with a Child
      • Objections to Relocation
    • Adoptions
      • Stepparent Adoption
      • Private Domestic Adoption
    • Appeals
      • Family Law Appeals of Divorce or Custody Rulings
    • Uncontested and Simplified Divorces for a Reasonable Flat Fee
    • Complex Contested Divorces with Children and Property Disputes
    • In his personal life, Mr. Donner has, unfortunately, been through a divorce with minor children. He knows firsthand how painful and downright scary a divorce is for parents who are worried about their children. Mr. Donner provides empathetic, sensitive, and imaginative counseling in this area—because nothing is more important than your children—and he often persuades the parties to get to a more calm and reasonable position. The best interests of the children is the primary concern at all times.
  • Business Contracts Litigation
    • We represent both plaintiffs and defendants. For example, we represented a small business owned by a husband and wife that needed to sue a contractor for delay regarding the remodeling of a franchisee restaurant. We took the case all the way through a jury trial, which we won.
  • Criminal Defense and Related Defense Against Government Abuse
    • Civil rights
    • Police misconduct
    • Government abuse of citizens
    • Criminal record expungement—we can help you clear your criminal record to improve employment opportunities
    • We represented a female federal prisoner who was sexual abused by four male prison guards in the federal prison in Miami. We took that matter to trial, where the court found that our client’s factual allegations were proven. See S.R. v. United States, 555 F. Supp. 2d 1350 (S.D. Fla. 2008)
  • Health Care Law
    • Assisting clients with health care decisions, insurance claims, and patient rights
  • Defense Against Government Administrative Actions (Code Enforcement)
    • Mr. Donner served as the chief code enforcement prosecutor for the City of Miami Beach. During that time, he prosecuted hundreds of municipal code violations, in such areas as excessive noise, littering, unlicensed commercial use of single family homes, building code violations, and nuisance. In private practice, Mr. Donner has used the experience and expertise he gained working for the City of Miami Beach to defend people and businesses accused of municipal code violations.
    • For example, Mr. Donner represented an elderly gentleman who was being harassed by the city concerning alleged failure to mow the grass and otherwise keep his front yard sufficiently presentable. The client, who was disabled, had received numerous code enforcement fines that were increasing by the day (faster than his grass was growing). Mr. Donner successfully negotiated a settlement with the city—reducing the fine by over 90%—and assisted the client in getting the help he needed.
  • Personal Civil Disputes and Litigation
    • We represent plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of civil litigation matters.
    • We represented a client who lives in a tall condo building. Through no fault of her own, a water leak from her unit damaged her neighbor’s unit below. Unfortunately, our client did not have homeowners insurance, and the neighbor sued her for the damages. We provided a defense for our client and resolved the matter quickly and with a resolution that was very favorable for our client.
    • We represented a real estate investor who owns a commercial building that was damaged by workers conducting an excavation project on a sidewalk that abuts our client’s building. We filed a lawsuit against multiple defendants—the contractor, the subcontractor, the engineer, the party that ordered the work to be done, and our client’s own insurance company—and reached a very favorable settlement for our client.
    • We are currently representing a client on the other side of the condo leak problem. His upstairs neighbor illegally modified the sprinkler system—essentially making it vulnerable to being broken by a heavy entertainment system wall mounting setup. The entertainment system fell and broke the sprinkler (which was foreseeable), causing thousands of gallons of water to flood my client’s unit below. We are currently litigating against the neighbor, his insurance company, and my client’s own insurance company to determine who is going to pay for my client’s damages.
    • We successfully represented a high-profile client (he was on the Oprah Winfrey Show) in a federal lawsuit against a website owner who allowed our client to be defamed—by content posted by third parties—on the website. The sole purpose of the website was to host defamatory content, and the case involved cutting edge legal issues concerning the federal Communications Decency Act. Is a website that allows comments analogous to a street corner, meaning the website’s owner is not liable for any content posted by third parties, or must the website’s owner moderate the content to avoid facing liability for defamation? At the time we handled this case, section 230 of the CDA had recently been amended and we were dealing with cutting-edge issues. Our client was himself a lawyer, but he hired Mr. Donner for his particular skills in complex federal litigation.
    • We have represented high-net-worth individuals in disputes and litigation against their condominium neighbors concerning various disagreements and problems.
  • Discrimination and Civil Rights—Employment and Education (Americans with Disabilities Act and Related Laws)
    • Failure of employer to pay overtime wages
    • Discrimination claims
    • Mr. Donner has successfully represented clients in employment discrimination cases involving racial discrimination and discrimination based on disabilities.
    • We are currently discreetly representing a family in a sensitive matter concerning the right of a child with autism to be permitted to participate on a high school athletics team when the child is otherwise easily qualified and poses no harm to others.
    • During the “COVID era,” we represented families challenging the right of a school board to force their children to wear a mask all day in school.
  • Mediation
    • We are available to serve as a neutral mediator
    • Resolving disputes by agreement out of court
  • Appeals
    • Mr. Donner is a lawyer’s lawyer who takes pride in his legal research and writing ability. He has a special ability to analyze, research, and understand complex and nuanced legal arguments. He creates focused, concise, and hard-hitting legal work product that educates and persuades judges. This is the type of tight, purposeful work that must be done to have any chance of success on appeal. Mr. Donner is available to represent you or co-counsel with your trial lawyer on an appeal of a trial court’s ruling, even if he was not your lawyer at the trial court phase of the case.

Why Choose Us?

YOU NEED A SPECIALIST

You might have heard that you need to hire a “specialist.” Our founder and lead attorney, Jeffrey T. Donner, has decades of experience solving clients’ problems in matters that affect individuals, families, and small businesses. These are often interrelated concerns.

CASE MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY

Donner Law Firm strategically maintains a case load that allows the firm to properly represent each client by devoting the time and energy required. We do not take every case that walks through the door.

Born and raised in Florida, attending the University of Florida, and living in Florida his entire life, Mr. Donner has developed a network of friends who are lawyers in every practice setting one can imagine. If you happen to have a matter that Donner Law Firm cannot help you with, we will tell you so and refer you to another law firm that might be able to help.

PERSONAL ATTENTION FROM A FLORIDA LAWYER WITH OVER 26 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

When you hire Donner Law Firm, you get big firm quality with the personal attention of a small firm. Before opening his own firm, Mr. Donner honed his skills for over a decade working with sophisticated legal teams at prestigious, large law firms. While working in that practice setting, he learned from some of the best lawyers in the country. Now Mr. Donner uses his over 26 years of experience solving clients’ problems while giving you the individual attention and focus that only a small law firm can offer.

Many law firms handling family law, immigration, and bankruptcy cases are high-volume form fillers. They have a massive volume of clients and they have paralegals—not lawyers—fill out forms. At these firms, you might never meet a lawyer. These firms often make mistakes that can cause the resolution of your matter to be delayed. Donner Law Firm does not do that. When you hire Donner Law Firm, you get a Florida lawyer with over 26 years of experience—Jeffrey T. Donner—handling all aspects of your matter.

Filing a divorce, immigration, or bankruptcy matter is not a matter of filling out a form. There are complex laws at play—nuances that can affect the resolution of your matter. Each of these types of cases must be approved, in the end, by a judge or administrative tribunal. Things have to be done right, and there can be “grey areas” that require careful advocacy. The judgment of an experienced lawyer can often make a difference in getting your matter handled correctly and resolved as quickly as possible.

WE CAN HELP YOU

Call 407-639-4223 today to get started.