Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Are 50-50 timesharing schedules standard in Florida? Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes does not contain a presumption that equal timesharing is in the best interest of a child. Timesharing is determined based on many factors such as the child’s routine, the parents’ work schedules, whether or not third party caretakers will be involved in the care of the child, and many more factors. When the parties agree to a 50-50 timesharing schedule, is the court required to find it is in the best interest of a child before ratifying the agreement by court order?
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When two parents live in different states, a Florida parenting plan must take into account how the parties will handle travel in order to effectuate timesharing. Additionally, the parenting plan will specify how parties are able to travel within the United States and to foreign countries. In a recent appellate case R.B. v. B.T., 2D17-2587 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018), the father appealed an order that restricted his timesharing to only two locations, effectively denying him the right to travel outside of the country or to non-specified states with the parties’ child.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When drug abuse is an issue in a Florida child custody case, the court may take certain measures to protect a child’s best interest. These measures include drug testing and restrictions on time-sharing, among others. In the recent appellate case Ryan v. Ryan, 3D18-1420 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018), the court considered a mother’s appeal of an order placing such restrictions on her timesharing.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Do you need a guardian ad litem in your Florida child custody case? Guardians are appointed in many high conflict family law cases, including those where there are allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment of a child.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
One appellate case decided earlier this year shows how the waters of Florida relocation cases can get “muddied” and are not always straight-forward. In Gimonge v. Gimonge, 5D17-2747 (Fla. 5th DCA 2018), the disagreement as to relocation resulted from the parties temporary agreement entered after a petition for dissolution of marriage was filed.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When a parent fails to follow a parenting plan, is found in contempt and still fails to follow the plan, what is a court to do? One appellate case talks about what a court is not allowed to do when sanctioning the non-compliant parent.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Third parties who serve as parental figures in Florida usually provide love, support and comfort for children who are in their care. This is why it is difficult when a biological parent objects to a third party’s custody of a child - what do you do when a child has grown up with a third party but a biological parent wants custody of the child? Such was the case in Morris v. Morris, 1D16-4695 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) decided in the spring of this year.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When a child is seeing a therapist and a Florida child custody case is pending, a question arises as to whether or not the therapist can be compelled to testify regarding the child’s statements to the therapist. In the case Garcia v. Guiles, 1D17-5125 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018), an order allowing the a child’s treating psychotherapist was appealed, and the appellate court discussed the standard for reviewing whether or not the order was appropriate.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When a final judgment is incomplete, it is not error for a court to supplement it to include omitted provisions. This was the holding in the recent case Swearingen v. Swearingen, 1D17-5011 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) in which the mother appealed the trial court’s decision to supplement the final judgment with a complete parenting plan.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
In Ness v. Martinez, 1D17-2742 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018), a myriad of issues were appealed arising from a denied petition for relocation. Among those issues was the mother's objection to the trial court adopting the father's counsel's proposed final judgment. It is common practice for a judge to request that attorneys submit proposed final judgments after presentation of the evidence.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Out-of-state orders concerning child custody are usually fully honored in Florida's family law courts. Florida courts are required to give full faith and credit to orders entered in other states unless those orders go against the public policy of Florida or are otherwise illegal. In the case Smith v. Daniel, 1D17-4240 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018), the appellate court reviewed a trial court's decision to not honor a Kentucky order preventing the father from having any contact with his child.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Supervised visitation is awarded in Florida child custody cases if it is in the best interest of the children to shield them from certain harm which might come from unsupervised timesharing. The most common example is situations involving domestic violence. If a child has witnessed a parent committing domestic violence, or the child has herself been the victim of abuse at the hands of a parent, supervised visits may be appropriate. However, supervised visits usually cannot be permanent as explored in the case Solomon v. Solomon, 3D17-1553 (Fla 3d DCA 2018).
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
An often employed rule in Florida child custody cases is that a court cannot engage in guessing when it comes to the future best interest of a child. That is, a court generally cannot rule on a major change that will take place in a child's life before that change happens. This rule has been applied in different ways with different results in some Florida appellate cases. One recent case examines how this rule is applied to orders concerning where a child will live once the child starts kindergarten.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Divorcing parents may face a dilemma when one parent is due to be deported after a marriage is dissolved. The court is faced with the question of whether or not to permit relocation of the child with the deported parent. In one recently decided case, we review an appellate court's consideration of a trial court's decision to grant a prospective relocation that turned on whether or not the mother's application for US citizenship was granted.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
What is a Florida family court to do when parents do not agree on private versus public school education for their children? As with most decisions involving minor children, the court must use the "best interest" standard to make a ruling. The best interest of the children is paramount to what is fair to either parent. We see how an appellate court handled this issue in the case Lane v. Lane, 3D17-2538 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018).
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When a party appeals a Florida family law ruling, in most cases, findings of fact made by a trial judge will not be disturbed unless there is a clear error. This is because the appellate court has a policy of not wanting to substitute its judgment for that of a trial court judge who saw witnesses testify and was able to weigh the credibility of those witnesses. A recent appellate case illustrates an extreme case in which the appellate court did feel it had to overturn the trial court's ruling because it was not supported by competent, substantial evidence.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
A Florida child custody case is supposed to result in a parenting plan that is either agreed-to by the parties or ordered by the court when the parties are unable to agree. The parenting plan must be found to be in the best interest of the child, and since none of us can predict the future, the court looks at the present circumstances in determining this best interest. In the case Preudhomme v. Preudhomme, 1D17-1615 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018), the trial court's determination of a future event was reversed for this reason.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
This year, the Florida Legislature overhauled laws that applied to active duty servicemembers whose timesharing with their children would be affected by deployments. Previously, Florida law allowed an active duty military member to designate a family member to exercise timesharing in the member's place while deployed. Starting July 1, 2018, Florida law expanded the rules on who is allowed to have timesharing in place of the deployed parent.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce
In what could be viewed as a turning point in Florida law on fathers' child custody rights, the Florida Supreme Court recently issued a decision which grants standing to unmarried fathers to establish paternity despite the objection of the mother of the child and her husband. The case Simmonds v. Perkins, SC17–1963 (Fla. 2018) may give hope to fathers who show a vested interest in being a part of their children's lives.
Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Of note in recent Florida family law appellate decisions is grandparent visitation rights. While Florida recognizes a legal parent's constitutional right to privacy and therefore does not give standing to grandparents to petition for visitation rights, a Florida court must uphold and enforce a grandparent visitation order entered in another state. An interesting issue related to this came up in the case Downs v. Nottingham, 219 So.3d 244 (Fla. 5th DCA 2017).
