Custody / Visitation Frequently Asked Questions - Video Answers

If you'd like to see your child, and the other individual is not allowing you to see the child, you're gonna file an action for paternity. The action for paternity will determine parentage, as well as establish time share and parental responsibility.

If a parent refuses to return a child, you can take it up with the court on an emergency basis. It would be called Motion for Emergency Pick-Up Order. That would be filed with the court. If you have a court order providing you time, typically within 24 to 72 hours, you'll have an order that indicates that the sheriff will assist you in returning your child to you.

Rights for visitation in Florida, when frustrated, can be taken up with the court. If there's an existing court order, you can go to court and seek contempt and enforcement for a frustration of time share.

When child support isn't paid, it's an issue for contempt and enforcement. When visitation isn't taken, it's also an issue for contempt and enforcement. It's not an issue where you pay, you stay, you get your time regardless of child support being paid.

The desires of a child can be taken into consideration if the child is of a certain age or maturity level. However, there's only one of approximately 20 factors that the court will take into consideration. Their desires are not going to be determinative, and you do have to remember that if you're asking a child what they want, you're asking that child to choose one parent over the other and you're involving them in the litigation. It's typically not a good idea to do that and, therefore, yes, you can ask their desires and they may be heard in court but it's probably not going to be in their best interest to do so.

Each parent in Florida has a right to time with their kids. The legislature has decided that each parent has a fundamental right to parent their child, and therefore neither parent may keep the other parent from the children. If a parent is considered a danger to the child, your number one obligation as a parent is always to keep your children safe. However, for any other reason other than their safety, a parent cannot be kept from a child. (silence.)

Visitation and custody can be established for any parent, including fathers and mothers. It's through an Action for Paternity. The Action for Paternity will determine parentage, as well as time share and parental responsibility. It's not connected to a marriage, it's separate from it.

In Florida, custody and timesharing is always modifiable. Any kind of modification you are going to have to establish a substantial change in circumstance since the entry of the last final judgment, which is considered an extraordinary burden, so it cannot be easily done and it always has to be in the best interests of the child. But they are modifiable.

In Florida, there's no issues or concerns that take into consideration your sexual orientation. The court is going to look to the best interest of the child, and they're not going to be concerned with your relationship if that individual is not a danger to the child. So, it's not indicative one way or another. (silence.)

In Florida, it's not more likely for one parent or the other to get a majority of the time and actually they're leaning more and more towards equal time with both parents in most cases. So a mother is not going to be provided additional time simply because she is the mother.

In Florida, the gender is not taken into account, and the legislature has decided that both parents have a fundamental right to parent their child and that neither parent has a superior right to the other. So unbeknownst to most, it doesn't matter what your plumbing is. The women don't do it better. They have equal access to time with their children.