Practice Areas : Child Custody
One of the most common issues that arises in a divorce action is child custody. This area of law often involves volatile situations due to the extremely emotional nature of the issues involved. In any decision affecting minor children in a divorce action, the Florida Courts are guided by the "Best Interests of the Child" doctrine. In simple terms, this means that the court will make decisions that favor the ultimate welfare of the child or children in a divorce action. In some counties in Florida, the Court will order the parties to attend a class at a local community college regarding the impact of divorce on the children as a prerequisite to granting a divorce.
In Florida absent exceptional circumstances, both parties are awarded shared parental responsibility of any minor children born or adopted during the marriage. Shared parental responsibility is a court ordered relationship in which both parents retain full parental rights and responsibilities with respect to their child or children, and in which both parents confer with each other so that major decisions affecting the welfare of the child will be determined jointly. The Courts in Florida have determined that this relationship is in the best interests of the children.
The Courts have also determined that, in most cases, it is in the best interests of the child to have a primary residence where the child lives on a day-to-day basis rather than rotating between the two parents households. The parent with whom the child will live on a day to day basis is designated the "primary residentially responsible parent". The parent with whom the child does not maintain his primary residence is considered the "non- residential" or "secondary residentially responsible parent". In determining where the child will live the court will weigh certain factors in order to decide what is in the best interest of the minor child. Many of these factors are set out in the Florida Statutes and include concerns such as which parent is more likely to allow the child frequent and continuing contact with the other parent; the love, affection, and other emotional ties existing between the parents and the child; the moral fitness of the parents; and a number of related factors which the court may consider to be relevant. The non- residential parent in most cases will be awarded reasonable and liberal visitation rights with the child in an amount sufficient for the court to feel the best interest of the child are being met. The frequency of the visitation must be determined on a case-by-case basis giving special consideration to the circumstances of each case. Ordinarily, the Court will encourage the parties to allow frequent contact with one another for the child’s sake.
Child custody determinations involve many different considerations and it is not possible to address all of them here. Hopefully, this has answered a few of your general questions. We at Staack, Simms & Hernandez thank you for visiting our website. Please phone, write or e-mail if we can be of any further service to you.
|- Back To Practice Areas -|