Florida Child CustodyFiling For Child Custody in Florida Florida Child Custody: Disputes involving children and custody can originate from a variety of situations. Most commonly, divorces and separations of unmarried parents require that those involved are educated about Florida child custody issues. Another very common situation is when family members like grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are involved in the lives of these children. Child Custody in Florida: You'll find free child custody forms, custody laws, and information about filing for child custody in Florida, including how to establish or modify Florida child custody. It is the public policy of Florida to ensure each minor child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents have separated or divorced. It is also public policy to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities of child rearing. The biological father is given the same consideration as the mother in determining custody regardless of their child’s age or sex. Judges are given great discretion as to the welfare of children, and it is no longer a given that the mother will automatically receive custody. Many factors are considered before Florida child custody is awarded. Florida Child Custody Facts & Considerations Search Legal Forms • Lawyer Referrals • Document Preparation • Ask A Lawyer Florida Parental Responsibility: In Florida, parental responsibility for children can be awarded as "shared" parental responsibility or "sole" parental responsibility. A shared parental responsibility means that both parents have full rights and responsibilities for their children including decision making authority. Any major decisions concerning their children should be agreed upon by both parents together. This can include any major decisions that affect the child's welfare, such as living conditions, activities, health, religion, contact with family, and others. Sole parental responsibility means that if both parents cannot mutually agree upon certain decisions, then the court can order that one parent have the ultimate responsibility over specific aspects of the child’s welfare, such as education, religion, or medical and dental needs. If the parents have a substantial conflict over any of these areas the court will decide on Florida child custody and parental responsibility for them. The court can order varying types of shared parenting arrangements, where sole decision making authority is allowed for certain types of situations, and including sole parental responsibility. These arrangements and time-sharing are usually made part of a parenting plan. Custody, Time-Sharing & Best Interests: The court may designate one parent’s home as the primary residence and allow the non-custodial parent frequent and continuing contact. The court can also order rotating custody where the time-sharing is split 50/50 between each parent. In considering issues between parents and their children, the "best interest" of the child is the top concern of the court. Several factors are considered when applying the best interest doctrine. The courts must consider the parent's ability and capacity to care for and nurture the child, which includes physical safety, mental and emotional well-being. Other considerations include the ability to provide the child with food, clothing, medical care, and other material needs.
Child Custody & Legal Advice: This website is dedicated to the Pro-Se Floridian. The information contained here is for informational purposes only. We are proud of the time and effort we make in verifying and providing the most current information and forms for you to use. This is FREE legal information and not FREE legal advice. There’s no substitute for good legal counsel. Legal situations and questions can pop up without notice and any one of these situations could become a serious problem.
Determining Who Gets Custody Establishing Child Custody for Unmarried Parents Establishing Child Custody: When unmarried parents are involved, paternity must be established before child custody and visitation can be ordered and enforced. There are several ways that paternity can be legally established. The voluntary signing of the child's birth certificate at the hospital is the most common way for the legal establishment of paternity in Florida. Another way to establish paternity is to have the court order scientific paternity testing. This procedure is handled through the Petition to Determine Paternity and for Related Relief (see below). Once Paternity is established (through scientific paternity testing if necessary) then custody, visitation, time-sharing and parental responsibility can be established.
Temporary Child Custody Temporary Child Custody: Under Florida Statutes 751 an extended family member may petition the court for temporary custody of a minor child. This law allows a child’s grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, adult siblings, or step-parents (if the step-parent is still happily married to the parents) and other family members to petition the court for a temporary order granting custody. The definition of "extended family member" is a relative within the third degree by blood or marriage to the parent. The Florida state courts have published a set of forms for use by pro se parties to petition the courts to grant temporary custody of minors by extended family members. You can find these forms on the Florida State Courts website under the title Temporary Concurrent Custody. Some of the circumstances that the temporary custody and concurrent custody law addresses are the ability for extended family custodians to enroll the children in school, request medical records, consent to medical care for the children, request copies of official documents and records such as birth certificates, medical and dental records, and educational records.
Modifying Child Custody & Visitation in Florida
How Can Florida Court Forms Help? Florida DIY Child Custody Resource: Along with all the Florida court approved child custody forms, you will learn more about Florida child custody cases and filing procedures. You have access to free and low cost legal services, and you'll get acquainted with the legal terms and legal process when filing for child custody in Florida. We also provide web enhanced forms instructions that include links to supporting forms and specific Florida child custody statutes to assist you with your legal research. Child Custody Forms & Services: We provide professionally prepared fill-able Interactive Forms for those forms that are either not available at the Florida Courts website, are not currently fillable online, or are poorly formatted. These are the exact same professionally prepared forms we use for our paying document preparation clients. Our Petition Preparer Service can have all your documents professionally prepared and court-ready at an affordable price, and our site partners offer other valuable services for the Pro Se child custody litigant. Just ask us for a Free Quote. You Can Help Us Improve Our Website: First, bookmark our website to find us easily and then give us a vote of confidence by liking us on Facebook; just click on the Facebook Like Button at the top of this page. You can also Recommend and send this page to a friend. Most of all, please leave us your comments with our new Facebook Comments feature below. We'd love to hear about how you are using our site and how we can improve it to make it more useful for you and other Pro Se litigants in the future. Related Florida Child Custody Pages: Go to Modifying Child Custody & Visitation in Florida Back to Florida Court Forms from Florida Child Custody Sponsored Advertisements: New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below. |
For a more in depth discussion of Florida's Best Interest doctrine as it pertains to Child Custody issues, have a look at our Florida Best Interests Law page. 
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The Self Help Guides' Modifying Child 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. 
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Interactive Fillable Forms  Most Requested Forms Form 12.905(a) Supplemental Petition to Modify Parental Responsibility, Visitation or Parenting Plan/Time-Sharing Schedule and Other Relief. DEC 2010 ($2.95) Buy Now Form 12.905(b) Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Support. DEC 2010 ($2.95) Buy Now Form 12.983(a) Petition to Determine Paternity and for Related Relief. OCT 2011 ($4.95) Buy Now Form 12.995(a) Parenting Plan. OCT 2011 ($4.95) Buy Now Form 12.995(b) Supervised/Safety-Focused Parenting Plan. OCT 2011 ($4.95) Buy Now |
Self Help Guides Modifying Child Custody, Visitation & Child Support
This 70+ page guide has complete step by step instructions for completing the Florida court approved forms. The guide helps you navigate the court process and court procedures once you file with easy to follow checklists, links to websites, important addresses & phone numbers, and much more. Available as an e-book download. |
Child Custody Resources Free Lawyer Referral Service LegalMatch's website operates 24 hours a day, and you will never be charged to use the LegalMatch service. Legal Forms Publisher Florida State Courts Child Custody Legal Plan Florida Statutes 61.13 Florida Statutes 61.13001 Florida Statutes 61.21 Florida Statutes 751.01 |
