Determining Child Custody in Florida
Transcript
Determining custody in Florida is probably not done the way you think it is. Today, I’m here to share with you how it is actually done in a Florida divorce or paternity case.
Hi everyone, I’m A.J. Grossman, CEO and Managing Attorney with LeapFrog Divorce. My entire legal career has been dedicated to helping people with divorce and paternity cases, including custody disputes. At LeapFrog Divorce, we do divorce better. Okay, let’s get started.
While most people are familiar with the term custody, Florida uses a different term to describe who gets the children. Florida uses the word parenting instead of custody. Today, I’m going to use custody because it’s more familiar.
Some people think that mothers are the preferred parent or that our courts default to giving a mother custody. This is completely false. In Florida, there is no presumption or favoritism given to either parent.
Our judges follow the law. The law is that each and every minor child should have frequent and continuing contact with both parents. The law is also that both parents should share their rights, responsibilities, and joys of raising children.
Our judges will focus on one primary guiding principle when determining custody. That guiding principle is called the best interests of the child.
When our courts are trying to determine what is in the best interest of a child, they’re required to evaluate all of the factors affecting the welfare and interests of a particular child and the circumstances of that specific family.
So, you might be wondering, what are the factors affecting the welfare and interests of a child? Well, there are 20 factors listed in our custody law, including a catch-all factor.
I don’t have time in this video to list all of the factors, so I will talk about two, and I’ll start with the catch-all factor.
The catch-all factor is simply any other factor that’s relevant to determining a specific custody plan and visitation schedule. So essentially, this can be anything as long as it’s relevant.
Relevant means directly related, closely connected, or appropriate to what is being considered.
Another factor is the demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship, to honor the visitation schedule, and to be reasonable when changes are required.
Okay, what does that mean?
In sum, a judge will be examining each parent’s behavior and character. Specifically, which parent has more consistently behaved in a way that shows they have proactively done things to help the other parent continue to have a close relationship with their child?
You know, sometimes trying to explain what things mean is difficult and is best done by talking about what something is not.
So here’s an example of a parent doing something that might cause the judge to give custody to the other parent.
If a mother believes that the father is a terrible dad and should not be involved in the child’s life, she might refuse to allow the dad to talk with her child, see their child, or communicate at all with their child.
She might agree to allow the dad to spend a limited amount of time with her child and then, at the end or at the last minute, cancel the scheduled meeting between the father and their child.
She might also contact the child’s school and remove the dad’s name from any lists, preventing him from getting information about their child or maybe even preventing him from being able to pick up the child from school.
At the end of the day, our courts are required to consider all of the 20 factors in determining who should get custody. Some factors may weigh in the mother’s favor, while others may weigh in the father’s favor.
It will be up to the judge to decide who, quote-unquote, is the better parent.
That’s all for now. I hope this information is helpful for you. If you have any other questions or need help, please give me a call or send me an email. Have a wonderful day.
