Since July 2023, Florida law starts from the presumption that equal time-sharing is in a child’s best interest. That single change flipped the burden in most Florida custody disputes. If you want anything other than a fifty-fifty schedule, you are now the one who has to prove why, with evidence, on the record. If you want to go deeper, read How Child Custody Decisions Change as Children Get Older.
Most parents lose ground in the first month, before a judge has seen anything. They withhold the child to make a point, they record a phone call that turns out to be a felony to record, or they send a text at midnight that ends up as the other side’s first exhibit. Talking with an Orlando family law attorney before you act is less about strategy than about not handing the other parent an easy win in a hearing you have not been told about yet.
What follows is the actual Florida framework, the mistakes that cost people time-sharing, and the sequence a contested case moves through in a circuit like the Ninth, covering Orange and Osceola counties.
Florida does not have custody, and the vocabulary matters
Florida removed the words custody and visitation from its statutes in 2008. What exists now under Florida Statutes section 61.13 are two separate things that people constantly conflate.
- Parental responsibility. The decision-making authority over schooling, non-emergency healthcare, religion, and similar major issues. Florida presumes shared parental responsibility unless a court finds it would be detrimental to the child. A court can also grant ultimate decision-making authority on specific subjects to one parent while keeping responsibility shared overall.
- Time-sharing. The actual schedule of when the child is with each parent, set out in a written parenting plan that every case involving minor children must have.
You can have equal decision-making and unequal overnights, or the reverse. Asking for sole custody in Florida usually means asking for sole parental responsibility, which requires proof of detriment, not merely proof that the other parent is difficult to deal with.
The 2023 equal time-sharing presumption
The 2023 amendment to section 61.13 created a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in the best interests of the child. It can be rebutted by a preponderance of the evidence, but the starting point is now symmetrical. In practice this has moved the argument away from who is the better parent in the abstract and toward concrete logistics: distance between homes, school zoning, work schedules, and whether a parent has actually been exercising the time they had.
The first two weeks: what to do, and what to stop doing
Judges see behavior before they see evidence. These are the actions that most often change outcomes in Florida cases.
- Do not withhold the child. Unless there is an immediate safety risk documented at the time, unilaterally stopping the other parent’s time is the fastest way to lose credibility and to face a contempt motion with makeup time-sharing ordered against you.
- Do not record phone calls. Florida requires the consent of all parties to record a private conversation under Chapter 934. Secretly recording the other parent, or your child’s calls with them, can be a felony, and the recording is generally inadmissible anyway. This is one of the most common and most damaging mistakes Florida parents make.
- Move all communication to writing. Use a co-parenting app or plain text messages. Write every message as though a judge will read it aloud, because one may. Courts in many Florida circuits will order a communication app if messaging becomes hostile.
- Start a contemporaneous log. Date, time, what was scheduled, what happened, who was present. Notes made the same day carry far more weight than a summary reconstructed months later for litigation.
- Preserve, do not manufacture. Screenshot messages, save school and medical portal records, keep pickup and drop-off receipts. Do not bait the other parent into saying something useful. Judges recognize it.
- Complete the parenting course early. Florida requires both parents to finish an approved four-hour parent education and family stabilization course under section 61.21, generally within 45 days of the initial pleading. Doing it in week one costs about the price of a dinner and signals seriousness.
The best-interest factors that actually move a Florida judge
Section 61.13(3) lists twenty statutory factors. Judges must consider all of them, but in a typical contested Orlando case a handful carry most of the weight.
- Willingness to facilitate a close relationship with the other parent. This is the factor most often cited when a judge reduces a parent’s time. Gatekeeping, badmouthing, and blocking phone contact are read as evidence about you, not about the other parent.
- Demonstrated capacity and disposition to participate in daily tasks. Who takes the child to the pediatrician, who knows the teacher’s name, who signs the forms. This is provable from records and is where most cases are actually won.
- The geographic viability of the parenting plan, especially school-year travel time between homes.
- Evidence of domestic violence, abuse, abandonment, or neglect, which can defeat the shared responsibility presumption outright.
- Moral fitness and mental and physical health, which are narrower in practice than parents expect and rarely turn on lifestyle disagreements.
- The reasonable preference of the child, if the court finds the child sufficiently mature. Florida does not set a magic age, and judges are generally reluctant to place a child in the position of choosing.
Know precisely what you are asking for
Vague requests get vague orders that generate future litigation. A Florida parenting plan should specify all of the following.
| Element | What a weak plan says | What a workable plan says |
|---|---|---|
| Regular schedule | Reasonable time-sharing as agreed | Alternating weeks Thursday to Thursday, exchanges at 6 p.m. at the school |
| Holidays | Parents will alternate holidays | Named holidays with specific start and end times, odd and even years assigned |
| Summer | Extended summer time-sharing | Two non-consecutive weeks each, selected by written notice by April 1, first choice alternating annually |
| Decision-making | Shared parental responsibility | Shared, with ultimate authority over non-emergency medical decisions to one parent if mediation fails |
| Communication | Parents will communicate | Written communication through a named co-parenting app, response expected within 24 hours |
| Travel and relocation | Neither parent will move | Written notice and consent requirements consistent with section 61.13001 for a move of 50 miles or more |
When there is real and immediate danger
If a child is in immediate danger, the process changes entirely and speed matters more than strategy. Call law enforcement first and document the call. A parent may petition for an injunction for protection under Chapter 741, and a court can enter an ex parte temporary injunction that lasts until a full hearing, typically set within about 15 days. Separately, a verified emergency motion for temporary time-sharing may be filed in the family case, sometimes heard without notice where the danger is genuinely imminent.
Two cautions. First, an emergency filing that a judge concludes was tactical rather than genuine causes serious damage to credibility for the rest of the case. Second, Florida abuse reporting is mandatory for many professionals, so a call to the statewide hotline may trigger an investigation that runs on its own timeline and will produce records both sides can use.
Mediation is where most Florida cases are decided
Nearly every Florida circuit requires mediation before a contested final hearing, and the majority of parenting disputes resolve there rather than at trial. Prepared parents do dramatically better in the room. Come with your proposed parenting plan already drafted, a school calendar, a realistic account of your work schedule, and a written list ranked from what you must have to what you can trade.
Partial agreement counts. Even a partial settlement rate on the schedule while decision-making stays open narrows what a judge has to decide and shortens the hearing considerably. Resolving holidays and exchange logistics at mediation leaves the court free to focus on the one genuine dispute, which usually produces a better order than asking a judge to build a whole plan from scratch.
Getting real value from your lawyer
Bring the bad facts first. The DUI from four years ago, the text you regret, the month you missed exchanges during a job change. Your lawyer can almost always manage a problem they know about and almost never one they hear about for the first time from opposing counsel at a hearing.
Bring documents in a form that is usable: a chronology, the current order, financial records for the mandatory disclosure required under the family law rules, school and medical records, and your communication log. Every hour a paralegal spends assembling what you could have organized is an hour billed to you and not spent on the case.
Ask candidly about scope. Some matters need full representation, some need limited-scope help with a single motion, and some need a mediator rather than two lawyers. A lawyer who tells you your case does not need a trial is usually giving you the most valuable advice you will get.
Changing an order later
A Florida parenting plan is not permanent, but it is sticky. To modify time-sharing you must show a substantial and material change in circumstances that was not contemplated by the existing order, and that modification serves the child’s best interests. Recent amendments relaxed the older requirement that the change be unanticipated, but the threshold remains high, and dissatisfaction with the schedule is not a change in circumstances.
Relocation has its own statute. Section 61.13001 governs any move of 50 miles or more from the current residence for at least 60 consecutive days. It requires either a signed written agreement or a petition containing specific statutory content, including the proposed new address and a proposed revised time-sharing schedule. Moving first and asking later is treated very poorly by Florida courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Florida courts favour mothers in custody cases?
No. Section 61.13 expressly prohibits any presumption for or against either parent based on gender, and since 2023 the statutory starting point is equal time-sharing. Outcomes that look gendered usually reflect which parent handled day-to-day caregiving, school logistics, and medical appointments before the separation, because that is what the best-interest factors actually measure.
Can I record the other parent to prove what they said?
Generally no, and doing so can expose you to criminal liability. Florida requires consent from all parties to record a private conversation under Chapter 934. Illegally obtained recordings are usually inadmissible and often damage the recording parent’s credibility more than the content helps. Written communication through a co-parenting app achieves the same evidentiary goal lawfully.
At what age can a child choose which parent to live with?
There is no set age in Florida. A court may consider the reasonable preference of a child the judge finds to be of sufficient intelligence, understanding, and experience, and it is one of twenty factors rather than a deciding vote. Judges are generally reluctant to have children testify and often prefer a guardian ad litem to convey the child’s views.
What happens if the other parent will not follow the parenting plan?
File a motion for contempt and enforcement rather than self-help. Florida courts can order makeup time-sharing, impose court costs and attorney fees, require a bond, order the offending parent into a parenting course or community service, and in persistent cases treat the violations as grounds for modification. Withholding the child in retaliation exposes you to the same sanctions.
How long does a contested custody case take in Florida?
Uncontested parenting plans can be finalized within a few months. Contested cases commonly run from several months to well over a year, depending on the circuit’s docket, whether a social investigation or guardian ad litem is appointed, and how much discovery is involved. Temporary time-sharing orders usually govern the interim period, which is why the first hearing matters more than it appears to.
Do I need a lawyer if we mostly agree?
Not necessarily for representation, but have a lawyer review the parenting plan before signing. The costly problems are almost always drafting problems: undefined exchange locations, holidays that overlap, no mechanism for resolving a school decision, no relocation language. Fixing those before entry costs far less than modifying an order afterwards.
What to Do Next
Today, do one thing: write down the last twelve months of your child’s actual routine. Who did school drop-off on which days, who attended which appointments, who handled homework, who took time off when the child was sick. Pull the records that corroborate it from the school portal and the pediatrician.
That document is the single most persuasive thing you can bring to a Florida time-sharing dispute, because it answers the factors judges weigh most heavily with facts rather than adjectives. Build it before you file anything, and bring it to your first consultation.
This article is general information about Florida family law and is not legal advice; consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific circumstances.
