Florida Family Law and Custody Guide

The deadlines that matter

Step by step

1. 1

   Check residency, then file

   To obtain a dissolution, one of the parties must have resided in Florida for 6 months before the petition is filed. The petition itself needs to plead a statutory ground, and in practice that ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Where minor children are involved, the petition should already be thinking about the parenting plan, because that document is what the judgment will attach.

2. 2

   Put the financial picture on the record

   Both sides exchange financial affidavits and supporting documents — income, tax returns, bank and retirement statements, debts, and the paperwork behind any asset that either party says is non-marital. Almost every later fight, over support and over distribution, is really a fight about the accuracy of this stage. Incomplete disclosure is the most expensive shortcut in family law.

3. 3

   Ask for temporary relief if you need it now

   A case takes months. Temporary orders exist to cover the gap: temporary time-sharing, temporary support, use of the home, and preservation of assets. What is set temporarily also has a way of becoming the status quo the court is later reluctant to disturb, which is a reason to take the temporary hearing seriously rather than treat it as a placeholder.

4. 4

   Build the parenting plan

   A parenting plan is a document, not a slogan. It allocates parental responsibility — who decides about school, medicine, religion — and sets out a time-sharing schedule with actual dates, holidays, school breaks, exchanges, transport and communication. The statutory presumption in favor of equal time-sharing is the starting point; the useful work is in the detail that stops the same argument recurring every school holiday.

5. 5

   Complete the parenting course

   All parties to a dissolution with minor children, and to a paternity action involving parental responsibility, must complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before the court enters final judgment. It runs a minimum of 4 hours and is approved by the Department of Children and Families. Where children have identified special needs or emotional concerns, the parties must select a course tailored to that. Courts can excuse attendance for good cause, but the default is that the judgment waits on it.

6. 6

   Run the child support guidelines honestly

   Child support in Florida is a formula applied to the parents' combined net incomes and the number of children, then adjusted. The adjustments are where cases are won: health insurance and childcare costs, the number of overnights, and the specific deviation factors in the statute. Once each child spends at least 20 percent of the year's overnights with each parent, the calculation changes shape, so the parenting schedule and the support number cannot be negotiated separately.

7. 7

   Mediate

   In any proceeding where parental responsibility, the child's residence, access, time-sharing or support are contested, the court may refer the parties to mediation. Where agreement is reached, the mediator prepares a consent order incorporating it for review by the parties and their attorneys. Mediation is also the cheapest place to test whether a position is realistic, because the mediator will say so before a judge has to.

8. 8

   Settle, or try the case

   Most family cases resolve by agreement, which is generally better for the children and always cheaper. Where they do not, the court decides — and on parenting it must treat the best interests of the child as the primary consideration, evaluate all of the statutory factors, and make specific written findings. On property it must begin from the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless a justification for an unequal one exists.

9. 9

   Enforcement and modification, afterwards

   A final judgment is not the end. Support can be enforced; time-sharing can be enforced; and either can be modified — but a parenting plan, a time-sharing schedule or an allocation of parental responsibility may not be modified without a showing of a substantial and material change in circumstances and a determination that the modification is in the child's best interests. A parent who wants a different schedule needs a changed circumstance, not a change of mind.

Florida does not award custody

The statute deals in three things, and keeping them separate is the most useful habit a parent can develop in one of these cases.

Parental responsibility is decision-making authority — schooling, health care, religious upbringing. Shared parental responsibility is the norm, and sole parental responsibility is the exception a court has to justify. A parenting plan is the written document that governs the relationship between each parent and the child, and between the parents in relation to the child. A time-sharing schedule is the calendar inside that plan.

It follows that a parent can have an equal say in decisions and an unequal share of overnights, or the reverse. Arguing about custody in the abstract wastes the hearing; arguing about which of the three you actually want changed does not.

• Parental responsibility — who decides
• Parenting plan — the governing document
• Time-sharing schedule — the calendar
• Best interests of the child — the primary consideration throughout

The equal time-sharing presumption

The statute declares it the public policy of Florida that each minor child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents after separation or dissolution, and that parents be encouraged to share the rights and responsibilities, and joys, of childrearing.

On top of that policy sits the presumption: unless otherwise provided in the section or agreed by the parties, there is a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing of a minor child is in the child's best interests. To rebut it, a party must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that equal time-sharing is not in the child's best interests.

The presumption does not remove the court's analysis. Except where the parties agree a schedule and the court approves it, the court must evaluate all of the factors in the statute and make specific written findings. In practice that means a parent seeking an unequal schedule needs evidence directed at those factors — not a general narrative about the other parent.

How child support really moves

The guideline figure comes from combined net income and the number of children, but the number that lands in the judgment is the adjusted one. Health insurance and childcare are added. The statute then lists deviation factors, including the arrangement where a child spends a significant amount of time with one parent but less than 20 percent of the year's overnights, which reduces that parent's expenditure and can justify an adjustment.

Above that line the mechanics change: where the parenting plan or schedule provides that each child spend a substantial amount of time with each parent, the court must adjust the award — and for that purpose a substantial amount of time means at least 20 percent of the overnights of the year.

There is also a consequence for schedules that exist only on paper. A parent's failure to regularly exercise the time-sharing set out in the plan, where that failure is not caused by the other parent, is addressed by the statute, and support can be recalculated to reflect what is actually happening.

• Combined net income and number of children set the guideline amount
• Health insurance and childcare costs are added in
• Fewer than 20% of overnights can support a deviation
• At least 20% of overnights requires the court to adjust the award
• Schedules not actually exercised can be revisited

Alimony after the rewrite: no permanent award

The forms of alimony a Florida court may now award are temporary, bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative and durational. Permanent alimony is not among them. The court must make written findings on the basis for the form or combination of forms awarded, including the type and the length.

Each form has a statutory ceiling. Bridge-the-gap alimony, intended for legitimate identifiable short-term needs in the transition out of marriage, may not exceed 2 years and is not modifiable in amount or duration. Rehabilitative alimony may not exceed 5 years. Durational alimony may not be awarded after a marriage lasting less than 3 years, and may not exceed 50 percent of the length of a short-term marriage, 60 percent of a moderate-term marriage, or 75 percent of a long-term marriage — extendable only on clear and convincing evidence of exceptional circumstances.

The marriage-length categories are themselves rebuttable presumptions: short-term is under 10 years, moderate-term is between 10 and 20, and long-term is 20 years or longer, measured from the date of marriage to the date the dissolution action is filed. The court may also consider adultery and any resulting economic impact in determining the amount.

Moving with a child: the 50-mile rule

Relocation is its own statute and its own trap. It is triggered by a change in the principal residence of at least 50 miles from the residence at the time of the last order establishing or modifying time-sharing, or at the time of filing the pending action, for at least 60 consecutive days — not counting temporary absences for vacation, education or health care.

If every person entitled to time-sharing or access agrees, the requirement can be satisfied by a written agreement that reflects consent, defines a time-sharing schedule for the non-relocating parent, and describes any necessary transportation arrangements. Without that agreement, a petition to relocate is required.

There is no thumb on the scale: a presumption in favor of or against relocation does not arise where the move will materially affect the current schedule. The court evaluates the statutory factors instead. Relocating first and asking later is the expensive route — non-compliance can be treated as a factor against relocation, a factor in modifying the plan, a basis for ordering the child's return, and cause to award the objecting party's reasonable expenses and attorney's fees.

Property: the premise is equal

After each spouse's non-marital assets and liabilities are set aside, the court must begin with the premise that the distribution of marital assets and liabilities should be equal, unless there is a justification for an unequal distribution based on all relevant factors.

Those factors include each spouse's contribution to the marriage, including care and education of the children and services as a homemaker; the parties' economic circumstances; the duration of the marriage; any interruption of careers or education; one spouse's contribution to the other's career or education; and the desirability of keeping an asset such as a business or professional practice intact.

The practical consequence is that most distribution disputes are really characterisation disputes — whether an asset is marital at all, and what it is worth — rather than arguments about the percentage.

Common mistakes

• Arguing about “custody” instead of identifying whether you want to change parental responsibility, the parenting plan, or the time-sharing schedule.
• Treating the equal time-sharing presumption as automatic — or as unrebuttable. Either assumption loses hearings.
• Negotiating the time-sharing schedule and the child support number separately, when 20 percent of overnights changes the calculation.
• Filing an incomplete or optimistic financial affidavit, which undermines everything argued later.
• Moving 50 miles or more with the child before obtaining written agreement or a court order.
• Assuming permanent alimony is still available, or that a long marriage guarantees indefinite support.
• Letting a temporary arrangement drift for a year and then arguing the status quo is wrong.
• Seeking modification without a substantial and material change in circumstances — dissatisfaction is not a change in circumstances.
• Leaving the parenting course until the end and delaying the final judgment.

Frequently asked questions