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When is Sole Custody with Supervised Visitation Appropriate In an Orlando, Florida Custody Case?

Florida Statutes Section 61.13(2)(c)2, provides that the court shall order that the parental responsibility for a minor child be shared by both parents unless the court finds that shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the child.

Detriment to the child can be shown by abuse, abandonment,  or neglect. Detriment can also be shown when a parent is a drug addict or an alcoholic, and the parent does not properly care for the child due to their addiction. Another way to show detriment is to show domestic violence in the presence of the child and its effect on the child. It is preferable to have the testimony of a therapist to testify to the detriment to the child and how the child is affected mentally. With abuse and neglect, there may be physical evidence such as a doctor’s report and testimony of the physical abuse.  

If there is an order of sole custody with supervised visitation on one parent, then the court must provide the parent who is denied time sharing with specific steps to obtain unsupervised timesharing. A trial court’s failure to set forth any specific requirements or standards with which the parent must comply in order to reduce the time sharing restrictions-whether those restrictions constitute total prevention of time sharing altogether or are only a limitation of timesharing-is error. While the trial court need not set out every minute detail of the steps to reestablish unsupervised timesharing, the parent must leave the courtroom knowing that if they satisfactorily accomplish relatively specific tasks they will be able to reestablish unsupervised timesharing.

Further, a trial court cannot direct that one parent’s timesharing with the child will be at the sole discretion of the other parent. A court cannot delegate its responsibility to determine timesharing to a third party.

A trial court cannot delegate its duty to establish contact and visitation between one parent and the child to a counselor. It is the trial court’s responsibility to ensure that an appropriate relationship is maintained between a parent and his or her children and that responsibility cannot be abdicated to any parent or expert. To prevent the court from this abdication, reasonable timesharing based on the parent’s individual circumstances must be created based on the exercise of the court’s discretion, not the other parent’s.

If you have more questions regarding a Marital and Family Law matter, you may call Ann Marie Giordano Gilden at Ann Marie Giordano Gilden, P.A. at 407-732-7620 and set an initial consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only, and it does not form an attorney-client privilege.