Establishing Visitation & Serving the Respondent

by KF from Florida

Establishing Visitation & Serving the Respondent:
After a hard time trying to establish a visitation schedule in the early years and then later not knowing where she is in Florida, I went to pursue establishing visitation rights through the courts.

I talked to a lawyer about not being able to locate her and was convinced that she can help me.

So I hired the lawyer and everything was going as planned with the paperworks being filed and a court date set. But one thing happened. We were never able to properly notify the respondent (the mother) with the petition and the judge would not let the case go on without her being notified.

The case almost became a missing child case because there was no way to find her. With lawyer fees piling up I had to let the lawyer go and continue the case as a Self-Represented Litigant. At my last court hearing the judge said that she can not continue the case without the respondent being notified and that I should hire a lawyer, and the case was dismissed.

Well a couple months later I found out where the mother of my child was located and even talked to her and my child. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to finish this case but also do not want to hire a lawyer again.

I wanted to know if I can open the case back up and if so what do I have to do to re-summon her with the petition, or do I have to start over with a new petition.

Answer to Florida Court Forms Child Visitation Question

Dear KF,

It sounds like your needs fell through the cracks of the legal system. If you're paying child support, and I'm assuming you must be, then your ex should not be so hard to find.

If you're paying child support through the Registry of the Court; and most Florida Child Support Orders are written exactly that way, then the Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) has an address for her.

Contact the Florida Department of Revenue, and ask them to help locate your ex so that you can have visitation with your child.

The DOR routinely tracks and locates non-custodial parents for child support enforcement, and they certainly have the resources to track a custodial parent for visitation purposes.

If your ex is refusing to reveal her whereabouts, and there is a visitation order in place, she is in contempt of court for failing or refusing to abide by it.

For more information about DOR's parent locater services, go to their parent locating page. It states, in part:

In order to establish or enforce a child support order, we must know where to find the parent responsible for support.

We will use a variety of local, state and federal resources to search.

If requested by law enforcement agencies, we will use these resources to assist in locating parents who have kidnapped their children.

Our statewide computer system uses other governmental and private databases to obtain and verify information on noncustodial or custodial parents.

But since, you have already located your ex yourself, keep track of her. You can continue on your own.

The primary form that you need to file is Florida Supreme Court approved Form 12.905a Supplemental Petition to Modify Parenting Plan/ Time Sharing Schedule and Other Relief.

Florida family law courts make the presumption that it is in the best interests of the child to have both parents involved in his life. Read the instructions carefully, there are other forms to file along with that primary form, if you have not already filed them.

You will need to serve your ex with all of the documents that you file with the clerk of the court. Proper service of process is service of the documents to her by a sheriff or a private process server -- you may not serve her yourself or send them through the mail.

Notice: We provide these answers to the general public and our website visitors as a means to further their online legal research. These answers are merely suggestions and should not be regarded as legal advice.

If you need legal advice, we recommend LagalMatch's free Lawyer Referral Service. Many lawyers offer free initial consultations. Get the legal advice you deserve.
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Our Self Help Guide, Modifying Custody & Visitation in Florida, helps you navigate the court process and procedures once you file your documents with easy to follow checklists, links to websites, important addresses & phone numbers, and much more. Modifying Custody & Visitation In Florida

See These Related Florida Child Custody Pages

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