Florida Abandoned Traditional Custody Terms in Favor of Parental Responsibility and Timeshare. Florida custody laws favor both parents to remain active in their children's lives. Therefore, courts prefer to see parenting plans and timeshare plans that provide equal access for the child with each parent. Florida law expresses a preference for parents to share as equitably as possible custody of a child in a divorce case.
The court determines the child custody issues of the parties on the basis of the best interests principle and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. There are two different types of parental responsibility in Florida, which are shared and unique. Under state law, the court will assume that it is in the best interest of your children if you and your spouse share parental responsibilities. However, if one of you has behavioral problems, it may be appropriate to grant sole parental responsibility to the other parent.
A parent who has not legally established the paternity of a child has no legal rights. Custody laws for unmarried couples in Florida state that the mother is the natural guardian. You have legal custody at the time the child is born. A father can request visitation, but it will be the mother who decides if she wants the child to see the father.
If the mother is concerned that the father will refuse to return the child after a visit, she should proceed with caution. It is always recommended that visits take place inside the mother's home, with supervision, or in a safe public place. This is especially true if this is the first time a parent meets the child. In a divorce, child custody, known as timeshare, includes your right as a parent to make legal, religious, educational, or medical decisions for your child.
In Florida, this capacity is called parental responsibility. In family law cases involving children, the court must grant sole parental responsibility to one parent or shared parental responsibility. Florida Courts Rarely Grant Exclusive Parental Responsibility. In all states, both legal parents are required by law to support their children financially, regardless of whether or not the parents were married when the child was born, or whether or not they married at a later time.
However, this same law also prevents single mothers from seeking parental support without proof of paternity. If both parents of a child are legally established, single parents will go through the same procedures for obtaining custody, visitation rights, and child support as if they were married. Before you ask a judge to appoint a GAL, you should talk to a Tampa child custody lawyer for advice on your specific case. If you need help with a child custody case, contact Florida Law Advisers to speak with a child custody lawyer in Tampa.
If children are involved, it is important for parents to try to reach an agreement on child custody, visitation rights, and child support. In a divorce or child custody case in Florida, the judge will consider the best interests of the children when deciding how the timeshare will be distributed between parents. If you are the biological parent of a child in Florida and you have been denied visitation or joint custody, you have the right to take legal action. In ordering shared parental responsibility, the court may consider the expressed wishes of the parents and may grant one of the parties ultimate responsibility for specific aspects of the child's welfare or may divide those responsibilities between the parties based on the best interests of the child.
The time you can spend raising your child is called timeshare in Florida family law terminology. Legal custody is the right of a parent or guardian to make decisions about how the child is raised, such as the type of education they receive, the religion they have, and the medical care they receive. Within 45 days of opening a custody case, Florida custody law requires parents to attend a “Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course”. In addition, the law will require the consent of any other person who has legal custody of the child.
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