Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody

When a parent is deprived of contact with a child, a Florida family court may use this as a basis to award full custody to the parent who is deprived of time-sharing. According to the Florida Statutes: “It is the public policy of this state that each minor child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents separate or the marriage of the parties is dissolved and to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities, and joys, of childrearing.” Fla. Stat. 61.13(2)(c)(1). This was an issue in the case Reynolds v. Reynolds, 1D21-0951 (Fla. 1st DCA November 17, 2021).

The parties were married and lived together with their child for 8 years before the wife abruptly moved from Florida to Washington with the parties’ child and hid the child’s whereabouts for about a year. By the time a hearing was held in a divorce case filed by the husband, he had not seen his child in two years, and had been denied contact with her for that period of time. After determining the wife’s conduct in taking the child, hiding her and then denying contact for so long was egregious, the trial court made an initial child custody determination without allowing the wife to present any evidence. The wife appealed.

The appellate court agreed that the wife’s conduct was egregious. However, the court held “The trial court quite reasonably required the child’s immediate return to Florida, but it must conduct a hearing and make the requisite findings before making the temporary custody determination. While ‘a hearing on temporary custody may be more abbreviated than a hearing on permanent custody,’ the trial court ‘must receive evidence sufficient to assure the best interests of the child on a temporary basis.’ Williams v. Williams, 845 So. 2d 249 n.1 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003).” The court noted “The trial court could have granted Appellee emergency custody without taking evidence or argument. [. . .] However, an emergency order must be followed by an opportunity to be heard as soon as possible. [. . .] But the trial court’s judgment purports to determine the custody arrangement indefinitely and did not contemplate a follow-up hearing. Instead of an emergency order followed by a prompt hearing, the trial court conducted a partial hearing, did not accept evidence or argument on the required time-sharing factors, and entered a temporary time-sharing order.”

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