Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure

A parent’s passport can be held by the court to compel compliance with, for example, child support obligations. However, certain procedural requirements must be met in order to divest a parent of his or her passport. This was an issue in the case Sosa v. Portilla, 3D20-475 (Fla. 3d DCA July 22, 2020).

The former husband failed to appear at multiple hearings, and as a result a writ was issued by the court which required him to surrender his passports. The former husband did surrender his passports and also filed a motion to quash the writ on the basis that he was not properly served with the same. The trial court agreed he was not properly served and entered an order quashing the writ. The trial court nonetheless ordered that the former husband’s passports continue to be held by the court until further order. The former husband filed a motion to release the passports on the basis that the order did not contain a purge provision. That motion was denied and the former husband appealed.

The appellate court agreed with the former husband and reversed the trial court’s order. The appellate court held “The purpose of civil contempt is to obtain compliance with a court order. For this reason, civil contempt requires a purge provision, whereby the sanction stops as soon as the party purges itself of contempt by complying with the order. [internal citations omitted]. The absence of such a purge provision in the trial court’s civil contempt order was error.”

Schedule a consultation with a Miami family law attorney to understand how the law may be applied to your case.