Florida court upholds divorce sanction but questions $50,000 in legal fees

After 12 years of marriage and a 13-day divorce trial, a Florida man was ordered to pay his former wife $50,000 in attorney’s fees after a judge found that he had withheld important financial records about rental properties. A state appeals court upheld the decision that he should pay fees as a sanction for his conduct, but ruled that the trial judge had not explained how the $50,000 figure was calculated.In a ruling issued on October 23, 2026, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decisions on the division of marital property and the former wife’s entitlement to attorney’s fees. However, it reversed the amount of the award and sent the case back to the lower court to provide findings that justify the sum.The case involved Luis Garcia and Ruth Garcia, who were married for 12 years before Ruth petitioned for divorce.