In my Florida divorce case, will I have to pay for my spouses attorney?

In Florida, you may have to pay for your spouse’s attorney. There are a few different reasons why. The first and most common is the court’s determination of need and ability to pay. If one spouse has a greater ability to pay than the other spouse, who does not have the ability to retain an attorney, the court does not want the parties to be on unequal footing because we’re in the court of equity or fairness. Out of fairness, the court will sometimes order the party with more money to pay for all or a portion of the other party’s attorney. The other way to do it is, regardless of need and ability to pay, if one party is a bad actor or acting fraudulently or underhandedly, the court can penalize that party by making them pay attorney’s fees for the other.