Divorce brings out financial self-help in some spouses: the girlfriend-funded credit card, the casino runs, the accounts drained into cash the month before filing. Florida law has a name for it — dissipation of marital assets — and a remedy: the wasted money can be charged against the spending spouse’s share of the marital estate, as if it were still sitting in the account. The Law Office of John Vernon Moore, P.A. brings over 89 years of combined experience to proving dissipation when a spouse has burned marital wealth — and to defending against inflated claims when ordinary spending is recast as waste.
What Counts as Dissipation in Florida?
Dissipation is the intentional depletion or waste of marital assets for a purpose unrelated to the marriage, occurring during the breakdown of the marriage. Under § 61.075(1)(i), a court dividing property must consider the intentional dissipation, waste, depletion, or destruction of marital assets after the filing of the petition or within the two years preceding it. The classic categories:
- Spending on an affair — trips, gifts, rent, and dinners for a paramour are the textbook case, and the one context where infidelity directly affects Florida property division
- Gambling losses beyond any established, mutually tolerated pattern
- Transfers to relatives or friends — sudden loans to a sibling or gifts to family made as the marriage failed
- Drained or hidden accounts — large cash withdrawals with no credible accounting
- Deliberate destruction or forced loss of value — letting a property go to foreclosure out of spite, selling assets at sham prices, or intentionally tanking a business
The unifying elements are timing (during the breakdown period) and purpose (unrelated to the marriage). Intent matters — dissipation requires misconduct, not mere bad judgment.
What Is Not Dissipation
Not every disappointing expenditure qualifies. Florida courts routinely reject dissipation claims aimed at ordinary living expenses paid from marital funds during separation — rent on a new apartment, groceries, reasonable attorney’s fees; losses from ordinary, even unwise, investments made in good faith; spending consistent with the marriage’s established lifestyle; and depletion that happened years before the breakdown, outside the statutory look-back window. The line is misconduct versus life. A spouse who pays the mortgage and buys groceries from the joint account after separation has not dissipated anything; a spouse who moves the same sums to a new girlfriend has.
Proving Dissipation: Building the Paper Case
Dissipation cases are document cases. The proof typically assembles bank and credit card statements isolating the suspect transactions; a timeline tying the spending to the marital breakdown; evidence of purpose — hotel charges, transfers to a specific person, casino records; and a damages summary the judge can adopt. The initial burden falls on the spouse claiming dissipation to identify the depletion; the spending spouse must then account for where the money went and show a marital purpose. Vague answers fail. The raw material comes from mandatory disclosure and targeted discovery — subpoenas to banks, card issuers, and casinos — and in larger cases a forensic accountant who can present years of transactions as one clear exhibit. Where funds went to acquire something that still exists, the hidden assets toolkit applies alongside.
The Remedy: The Money Comes Off Their Side of the Ledger
When dissipation is proven, Florida judges include the dissipated amount in the marital estate as if it still existed and assign it to the spouse who spent it. Waste $60,000 on an affair, and equitable distribution proceeds as though you still hold $60,000 of marital property — your innocent spouse’s share of everything else grows accordingly. Courts can also enter unequal distribution under § 61.075(1), award attorney’s fees generated by the misconduct, and, where assets were transferred to third parties to defeat the claim, unwind the transfers. Prevention is available too: at filing, standing administrative orders in Brevard County restrain extraordinary transactions, and a targeted injunction can freeze specific accounts when the spending is ongoing.
Defending Against a Dissipation Claim
Dissipation allegations are also a settlement weapon, and inflated claims are common — every ATM withdrawal recast as waste. Defenses that work: a transaction-by-transaction accounting showing marital purposes; proof the spending matched the established marital lifestyle (the couple always gambled, always gifted family); timing outside the breakdown window; and consent or ratification — spending the other spouse knew of and accepted. With over 89 years of combined experience, our team has both prosecuted and dismantled dissipation claims in Brevard County courtrooms, and that dual perspective is exactly what pricing these disputes correctly requires.
My spouse spent thousands on an affair. Can I get it back?
You can have it counted. Money proven spent on an affair during the marital breakdown is treated as part of the marital estate and charged to your spouse’s share, effectively reimbursing you through the property division. Card statements and travel records usually tell the story.
How far back can the court look?
The statute directs courts to consider intentional dissipation occurring after the petition was filed or in the two years before filing. Older depletion generally cannot be charged as dissipation, though it may matter to other issues in the case.
Is gambling always dissipation?
No. Losses consistent with a long-established pattern both spouses lived with are hard to charge as waste. Gambling that escalates as the marriage collapses — or that a spouse concealed — is the version courts penalize.
I have been paying my own rent from our joint account since we separated. Am I dissipating?
Reasonable living expenses paid from marital funds during separation are generally not dissipation. Keep records of what you spend and avoid extraordinary purchases until the case resolves — documentation is what separates living from waste.
Act Before the Money Is Gone
Dissipation remedies work best when the spending is caught early and the records are preserved. The Law Office of John Vernon Moore, P.A. moves quickly — disclosure, subpoenas, injunctions where needed — for clients throughout Melbourne, Viera, Palm Bay, and Titusville. Call (321) 529-7777 or schedule a consultation today.