The short answer: no, not to start
We get this question a lot.
It's a process like any process, with a beginning, a middle and an end. If you had to agree on every last detail before you began, nobody would ever get started. This is true online and in the old school, hourly fee way of involving lawyers and judges.
You can open your case on our platform, complete your Florida forms, and keep working through the pieces that aren't settled yet. Divorce is not a single decision. The point of a good online platform is to give you the room and the tools to reach agreement, not to demand you show up with everything already solved.
What you actually need to agree on to start
You both must have the intention of resolving your outstanding issues together, by working through them. You have to be able to put aside your hurt feelings and use logic to narrow the issues and knock them out one by one.
You have to agree that your peace is worth it. You have to agree that your children deserve to have two parents who do not have to like each other very much but will always respect the role the other plays in their lives. You have to agree that the judicial system is broken and that staying in control of your destiny is worth an amicable divorce.
What you actually need to agree on before the judge signs
You actually have to reach a global settlement before a court can enter a Final Judgment. On the traditional path, you either reach a global settlement or you spend many, many thousands of dollars to have a judge decide your future.
So, yes, before you finish your divorce online you will need to decide on a timesharing schedule with your kids, what your marital property is and how it's divided. Your debts and who takes what. Alimony (time and amount), or that neither of you is paying it. And if you have children you have a few more issues to resolve within a parenting plan and, of course, child support that follows Florida's formula.
You can leave those open while you start. You cannot leave them open when you finish. A judge will not sign off on a Final Judgment with loose ends.
Why "we don't agree on everything" is completely normal
If you agreed on everything, you probably wouldn't be getting divorced. So let's drop the idea that you need to be perfectly aligned to do this the smart way.
Most couples agree on the big picture and get stuck on one or two things. A car. A credit card. A holiday schedule, extra-curriculars. No one ever wants to pay alimony, and child support is a formula, but most people don't really want to pay that either. It is what it is. That is normal, and it does not push you into an expensive courtroom fight. It just means you have a little work left to do, a little reading to do, and there are calm, cheap ways to do it.
Get informed before you fight for something you may or may not be entitled to, or before you refuse to do something a judge is likely to force you to do. Knowledge is power.
The law already decides more than you think
Here's what most people don't realize until they're deep into a fight they didn't need and $30,000 into a fight they can't really afford: Florida law already tells you how most of this will turn out.
In July 2023, the Florida Legislature set out how timesharing and alimony get resolved (see Florida Statutes §61.13 and §61.08). Division of assets and debts follows equitable distribution (§61.075). Child support is a math formula (§61.30). If you take these issues to court, the judge has to apply these same laws to you.
Before you spend money fighting, ask the real question: what are you fighting over, when the law already tells you how it's going to come out? Most of the time, the answer is not much.
How our platform helps you get to agreement
This is where an online divorce platform earns its keep. You're not left to figure it out alone.
You and your spouse each get access to work through the terms, put your positions side by side, and use our agreement and negotiation tools to close the gaps. Everything stays in one place so nothing gets lost between you. When you hit a rough patch, reach out to a Florida certified mediator. A single mediation session is not necessarily cheap, but it is a fraction of the cost of litigation, and it usually gets stubborn couples across the finish line.
You control the pace.
You keep the money that would have gone to lawyers.
You finish on your terms.
When you truly can't agree
Sometimes agreement isn't in the cards, and it's better to know that now. Talk to a Florida family law attorney instead if:
- Your spouse won't participate or you can't find them
- There's domestic violence
- You believe assets are being hidden or the financial picture isn't honest
- You cannot agree on the children and cannot get there
- The case is genuinely a fight