Best Lawyers Near You in Miami, Florida for Family Law Arbitration
Florida is home to more than 23 million people, hundreds of industries and a wide range of legal needs. From individuals navigating personal matters like divorce or estate planning to businesses managing complex contracts or regulatory hurdles, legal guidance plays a critical role in daily life across the state.
Florida’s unique economic drivers—tourism, real estate, agriculture and healthcare—create specific legal demands that often require attorneys with focused regional experience. Whether you're in the Keys, the Panhandle, or Central Florida, understanding the local context can be just as important as understanding the law.
When it’s time to find the right attorney in Florida for your needs, language matters too. In Florida—as in most states—lawyer and attorney are often used interchangeably. But technically, only an attorney is licensed to practice law.
That distinction matters here. Best Lawyers only includes professionals who are fully licensed and actively practicing—legal advocates recognized by their peers for excellence in skill, ethics and service.
Whether you're facing a personal challenge, planning for the future, or trying to protect your business, Best Lawyers connects you with attorneys across Florida who are qualified, trusted and ready to help.
How to Use This Page
Our directory makes it easy to find a Florida attorney who fits your needs. You can search by practice area, city, or name. Whether you’re based in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tallahassee, or anywhere in between, the search tools are designed for speed and clarity.
Each attorney profile provides:
- Areas of practice
- Years of experience
- Peer-review distinctions
- Contact information and firm affiliations
This transparency helps you evaluate your options and choose someone with the right background for your specific legal issue. You’re accessing a curated list of professionals with proven reputations in their field.
This is more than a directory—it’s a research tool for making smarter legal decisions. Whether you’re hiring an attorney for the first time or seeking secondary advice on an ongoing matter, the information here helps you avoid guesswork. It’s especially useful for individuals managing high-stakes or emotionally charged issues, like a contested divorce or a business dispute with large financial consequences.
Legal Coverage Throughout Florida
No matter where you live or what kind of legal help you need, chances are we’ve got it covered. Best Lawyers recognizes attorneys in both high-demand and niche areas of practice across all corners of the state. This directory includes lawyers from large metro areas like Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, as well as smaller communities like Gainesville, Pensacola and Sarasota, ensuring you can find representation no matter where you're located.
Some of the most commonly searched legal services in Florida include:
- Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice: With Florida’s population growth and busy roadways, personal injury and accident attorneys play a major role in helping people recover and rebuild.
- Family Law and Divorce: Family-related matters—from custody disputes to prenuptial agreements—require attorneys with both skill and sensitivity.
- Real Estate and Land Use: Florida’s hot real estate markets make it essential to have a qualified attorney for closings, zoning, development and litigation.
- Business and Corporate Law: From startups in Miami to legacy businesses in the Panhandle, attorneys guide everything from contracts to mergers.
- Criminal Defense: Experienced defense attorneys help clients navigate Florida’s criminal justice system with insight and integrity.
- Immigration Law: As a diverse and international state, Florida sees high demand for legal representation in immigration and naturalization matters.
- Estate Planning and Elder Law: With many retirees and aging residents, Florida has a strong need for attorneys who specialize in wills, trusts, Medicaid planning and probate.
We also include lawyers practicing in emerging or specialized fields, such as cybersecurity law, cannabis regulation, aviation law and education law. With so many attorneys practicing across Florida, it can be difficult to know who truly stands out. That’s where Best Lawyers adds genuine value by showing you not just every practitioner who’s licensed, but qualified attorneys who have earned the respect of their peers through years of dedicated service and proven results.
A Peer-Review Process You Can Trust
Every attorney listed in our Florida page has earned recognition through Best Lawyers’ rigorous annual peer-review process. This is a comprehensive methodology grounded in the insights of the legal community itself.
Here’s how it works:
- Nomination: Lawyers are nominated by peers or clients who have observed their work firsthand.
- Peer Review: Attorneys in the same practice area assess the nominee’s skill, integrity and results. This is confidential and weighted.
- Eligibility and Verification: Nominees must be in good standing with the bar and actively practicing law. We verify their status through state bar associations and other professional channels.
- Annual Re-evaluation: Because legal landscapes evolve, our recognitions are not static. Each year, the process begins again to ensure continued excellence.
This process helps ensure the integrity of our listings. If you’re selecting an attorney from our directory, you’re choosing someone who didn’t just claim to be the best—they were recognized by other attorneys as among the best in their field.
Start Your Search for an Attorney in Florida by Practice Area or City
Whether you’re dealing with a landlord dispute, a complicated contract, or a life-changing injury, finding the right attorney can make all the difference. Best Lawyers makes that search faster, clearer and more trustworthy.
Explore our Florida pages to find top-rated attorneys by:
- Practice Area: Choose the legal focus that best matches your needs.
- City: Get local insights and representation in your region.
Your legal matter deserves careful consideration—and the right advocate. With Best Lawyers, you’re not just searching. You’re starting from a foundation of credibility, clarity and peer-backed trust. Browse by practice area or location to get started today and feel confident knowing that every name you see here has been vetted by fellow attorneys who know what it takes to provide outstanding legal service in Florida.
Practice Area Overview
Family law arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Parties can mutually agree to utilize a private arbiter to make binding, enforceable decisions related to outstanding disputes. In general, arbitration is governed by the Uniform Arbitration Act, C.R.S. 13-22-201 through C.R.S. 13-22-230. Colorado has a separate statute for arbitration related to child custody issues, found at C.R.S. 14-10-128.5. Arbitration cannot be forced upon the parties; it requires the parties' consent.
Unlike mediation, the process of arbitration puts the ultimate resolution of a dispute in the control of a neutral third party. The structure of arbitration may vary depending on the arbiter. Generally, arbitration is more relaxed and flexible than a hearing or trial before the court. Typically, the arbiter conducts a proceeding with the presentation of evidence, witnesses, and arguments. The arbiter is then charged with issuing a written ruling. In some instances, if the parties and arbiter agree it is appropriate, an issue can be resolved without an actual hearing, and simply through submission of written argument and evidence to the arbiter.
Private arbiters can provide parties to family law disputes prompt resolution, which is a major benefit with the crowded family law dockets in Colorado courts. Overall, arbiters are more readily available than judicial officers for telephone conferences during the course of a case. Other benefits to private arbitration include: more personalized case management, deadlines tailored to the specific needs of the case/issue, a more confidential environment than a public courthouse, and a modified implementation of rules to allow for the efficient presentation of information. While arbiters are privately paid, many parties find the procedure of arbitration to be cost-effective, as opposed to the lengthy and formal process of judicial proceedings.
After an arbiter issues an arbitration award, either party can ask the arbiter to modify or clarify the award, or object to the award. C.R.S. 13-22-220. A party may also ask the court to vacate an arbitration award if that party believes the award is improper. C.R.S. 13-22-223-224. Similarly, either party may ask the Court to affirm an arbitration award. C.R.S. 13-22-222. Arbitration has specific procedural deadlines for post-arbitration awards, so it is important to refer to the appropriate statute.
Family Law Legal Guide 2025
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Dolly Hernandez, Partner at Boyd Richards Parker & Colonnelli, P.L., focuses her practice on complex marital and family law cases. Ms. Hernandez represents high-net-worth individuals in matters that include dissolution of marriage, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, parenting and time-share issues, child abduction actions, defense of third parties joined in dissolution of marriage proceedings, paternity, prenuptial agreements, and postnuptial agreements. Prior to joining the ...
Abbey Kaplan is a seasoned trial lawyer known for taking on complex cases and crafting creative strategies for tackling the most complicated legal issues in commercial litigation and business tort cases. A Founding Member of Kluger Kaplan, Abbey has extensive experience handling partnership and corporate breakups, real estate development disputes including banking and broker controversies, professional liability disputes, corporate finance issues, contract disputes and intellectual property. ...
Alison C. Weinger is the President of Conflict Management Solutions Inc. and has successfully mediated over five thousand (5,000) civil and family cases. Alison has had a full-time mediation practice for over 30 years, focusing primarily on family matters as well as family business disputes. She is Florida Supreme Court Certified in Circuit Court and Family law mediation. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA 1977) and the University of Miami Law School (JD 1980). She t...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.