Child Custody Law in Florida
Child custody laws are clearly defined in the state of Florida. There are many reasons that these kinds of laws need to be on the books, but the most common reason for custodial laws to be exercised is when parents divorce. There are other reasons that a child’s custodial needs might need to be addressed legally, but by far, the most common reason that child custody is discussed is when a divorce takes place.
The St. Petersburg family law lawyers at Lopez Law has the years of experience necessary to advocate on your behalf. Whether you are a mother seeking sole custody of your child or a father seeking to modify a parenting plan to alter custody of your kids, we can help. We will help you navigate the child custody process and work hard to secure a favorable outcome for your case.
Uncontested Custody Cases in the State of Florida
While not common, there are instances where child custody is not contested by the parents involved in a divorce or a change of custodial rights related to minor children that they share. When the parents agree on the terms of the custodial arrangements, it is much easier to speed up the court process of securing a legal custodial agreement for the child or children in question.
Parents who have established a parenting plan that they agree upon and that meets the basic requirements of Florida Law will often find that the judge will sign off on their agreement without further questions.
The goal of Florida law is to ensure that children will continue to have contact with both of their parents. This has been proven to be beneficial to the children, and continued contact with both parents is almost always the goal of the court involved in these cases. There are instances, however, where a parent is not fit for one reason or another to see their minor child. In these cases, child custody, along with the associated parenting plan, will often be modified to reflect this risk to the child’s well-being.
The most common arrangement for child custody agreements is for the mother to have primary custody of the child, with visitation rights being granted to the father. However, there is an increasingly significant portion of the population that cannot comply with this kind of arrangement for one reason or another. When a parent does not work in the state of Florida, for example, or is not able to take care of the children due to a health issue, custodial arrangements might be made in favor of the father or even another member of the family.
Can Specific Aspects of a Child’s Care be Awarded to One Parent and Not the Other?
It is not uncommon for portions of a child’s care to be placed in the hands of one parent. In the traditional arrangement, the primary custodial parent will make determinations about a child’s schooling, religion, and healthcare. However, there are many instances where this is not practical. Judges are willing to award specific decision-making to one parent or the other if there is a need to divide up these aspects of the parenting needs of a child.
Consistency of experience and the well-being of the child need to be considered by the judge at all times when adjudicating these kinds of cases. No two situations are alike, and judges work hard to think about the specific needs of each child when determining custodial rights and specific parenting duties.
What is Rebuttable Presumption?
This will require the skill of an experienced legal team. You will need to work with the experts at Lopez Law if you want to rebut the parenting plan that has been offered to you related to your divorce or suggested by a former partner that you share the custody of children with. Since each case of this kind is very unique there are many details that will need to be considered in order to help the judge to understand your needs and the reasons that you are requesting not to allow the child to see their other parent.
There are certain situations where the health of the child will not be secure in a traditional time sharing arrangement, or there might be safety concerns related to activities that the other parent engages in. These considerations need to be carefully presented to the judge so that a correct and well-established parenting plan can be arranged that protects the safety and health of the child.
The Comprehensive Parenting Plan
The goal of every judge involved in a parenting plan determination is to make sure that all of the various responsibilities and rights of each parent are reflected correctly in the parenting plan that is created. A comprehensive parenting plan will make sure that parents can share responsibility for their child or children’s well-being and that the child or children will get the care that they need to thrive. Everything from medical care to extracurricular activities is taken into consideration when building these plans.
There are various kinds of time sharing options that might be suggested by the court. These options have been proven to work the best for parents attempting to co-parent, and they offer the greatest amount of stability for the children involved in them.
Weekly Plan
Each parent has the child every other week. This is a very simple schedule and allows the children to enjoy consistency from week to week.
Two-Week Plan
The two-week plan allows the parents to each keep the children for two consecutive weeks between each exchange. This can help parents who work out of town be able to spend more time with their kids and it can help make things easier for parents who do not live close together to share time.
The 4-3-3-4 Schedule
This is a two-week schedule as well, but one parent has the child for the first four days, and the other has them for the next three days. The next week, the first parent gets three days, and the second parent gets four and so on.
The 2-3-2 Schedule
This is a weekly schedule where one parent, usually the mother, has the child for 2 days, and then the other parent has them for 3 days. After that, the mother’s 2 days begin again. Then the schedule switches for the week after this, and so on.
The 2-2-5-5 Schedule
In this schedule, parents get two-day blocks with the child, followed by a 5-day block for each. This can be customized to help parents who work nights or have other limitations to their regular schedule that might prevent traditional arrangements like one week on, one week off.
In the state of Florida, children are allowed to influence which form of parenting plan is decided upon. Many people do ask their children what they would prefer, and they can testify in court about their needs, but it can be hard to accommodate the requests of minors who must be cared for by adults with busy lives and jobs. Judges work hard to create an effective and ideal parenting plan to help the children be raised in a shared parenting situation, but it can be tough to come up with a perfect solution.
At Lopez Law, we will work hard to create a parenting plan request that will take care of your children’s needs, as well as your own. We make sure that all of your needs and wants are included in our original request. While the judge might limit, change, or modify parts of the request, starting out with a clear demand can have a big impact on the outcome of your custodial case.
Factors That Are Considered by Judges During Custodial Cases
Minor children cannot attend court hearings without prior court approval, however. The team at Lopez Law will ensure that your child gets to have a scheduled hearing to make their requests if you and your child want to include their testimony in the custody case.
Other factors that influence judge’s decisions related to custodial cases are:
- Parent willingness to meet the needs of the child: Parents who seem like they are not willing to take children to after-school activities to support things like time in school or contact with the primary parent might not be allowed as much parenting time per the judge’s decision.
- Parent moral fitness: This consideration might be linked with a parent’s activities, preferences, and beliefs that could harm children that they spend a lot of time with.
- Parent capacity to be involved in school and extracurricular activities: Parents who are not willing to support activities like sports and school will be less likely to secure any measurable parenting time than a parent who does support these essential things. Children should be allowed to engage in activities they enjoy and should be encouraged to go to school. Judges will limit contact with someone who does not support these goals.
- Child home, school, and community record
- Parent willingness and ability to grow and maintain a close relationship with their child: Parents will need to be willing to honor the time-sharing schedule as well as unexpected changes to the schedule and other daily life challenges. Taking out anger or frustration with the parenting plan on children is not ideal at all, and parents who demonstrate that they will lash out at their children due to the parenting plan will enjoy limited parenting contact with said children.
- Parent ability to act on the needs of the child instead of their own needs
Because the judge takes these items into consideration when creating a parenting plan, all conversations and interactions between the parents involved in the custodial battle are recorded by the court or by the legal teams involved in the case. The nature of these interactions can help the judge to determine who should be the primary parent and they can also help the judge to be aware that a specific parent’s time with the child or children should be limited. Sounds, images, writing, and other information will also become part of the court record during the period that the custodial case is active.
Documents that are stored electronically are not admissible in court. This helps to prevent parents from recording information about one another illegally and using it to influence the judge’s decision in the case in question. In-person conversations that are completed between the parents with the other party’s consent are also not admissible.
Modifying Parenting Plans
Sometimes, parenting plans have to be changed. Life circumstances change, or the behavior or well-being of one of the parents can change over time. This can necessitate the parenting plan being altered to protect the safety of the child or children.
Substantial and material changes in circumstances that are not in the child’s best interests are required to have occurred before the parenting plan can be brought before a judge for modification. Some examples of this kind of change are:
- Parent death
- Child abuse
- Repeated arrests for things like DUI or drug charges
- Repeated DUI arrests with child present in the car
- Crime convictions
- Long-term imprisonment
Recent changes to parenting laws in the state of Florida no longer give the mother sole paternity rights over a child. Parents who acknowledge their child are entitled to the rights and responsibilities of a parent. However, if the circumstances surrounding the way they are exercising this right change, then the court can modify the parenting plan.
This will require that your case is brought before a judge again and that the original parenting plan is considered to be closed and no longer valid. Fathers who have not acknowledged paternity but now wish to be recognized as a parent will need to submit to a DNA test that proves paternity before the parenting plan that is currently in place can be modified. If no parenting plan has been placed to date, the paternity test will be used as a justification for creating one.
Establishing Paternity in Florida
- An affidavit which declares that there is newly discovered evidence related to the child’s paternity
- Scientific testing, which was performed within 90 days of the petition that shows that the person making the petition is the father
- Person petitioning has complied with all child support obligations to date
The judge will have the option to ignore your request to either establish or disestablish parenting rights. There is no guarantee that the court will allow fathers to secure parenting rights or terminate them simply due to a desire to take these actions. The welfare of the child is always paramount when it comes to these determinations.
Enforcing Parenting Plans
Parenting plans are required to be adhered to by both parents involved in the agreement. Parents cannot utilize self-help to try and enforce a parenting plan. When the parenting plan is not being followed by one of the parties involved in the agreement, a motion will need to be filed to enforce the parenting plan in a court of law.
The team at Lopez Law can help you file a motion to compel the other person involved in a parenting plan to obey the agreement in place. Noncompliance can lead to harm to the child as well as emotional distress, which the parenting plan is intended to avoid. Enforcing the parenting plan’s terms is something that a skilled legal team can handle with ease on your behalf.
Working With an Experienced Lawyer Matters
No matter what kind of assistance you need with regard to child custody law, the team at Lopez Law can help! We have years of experience assisting parents to secure fair and complete parenting plans and custodial arrangements that keep the welfare of the child in mind. You can count on us to help you protect your child from distress and to help you create a parenting plan that is sustainable as your child grows up.
Contact us today and get scheduled for a case evaluation. We will go over the details of your case and help you to start planning the custodial arrangements that you need in place to help your child thrive.