Florida Parenting Time Contempt

Statutes

• Fla. Stat. § 61.13(4) — Failure to Honor the Time-Sharing Schedule

  A parent who is owed child support or alimony may not refuse to honor the time-sharing schedule because the other parent has not paid, and a parent whose time-sharing was denied must keep paying any ordered support. When a parent refuses to honor the time-sharing schedule without proper cause, the court shall calculate the time improperly denied and award the other parent a sufficient amount of extra time-sharing to compensate, ordered as expeditiously as possible, consistent with the child's best interests, convenient for the nonoffending parent, and at the noncompliant parent's expense. The court may also order the noncompliant parent to pay the other parent's reasonable court costs and attorney's fees to enforce the schedule, attend an approved parenting course, perform community service, bear the financial burden of promoting contact when the parent and child live more than 60 miles from the other parent, modify the parenting plan at the nonviolating parent's request if that is in the child's best interests, or impose any other reasonable sanction. A person who violates subsection (4) may be punished by contempt of court or other remedies as the court deems appropriate. Sanctions 2 through 5 apply to a parent who either did not provide time-sharing or did not properly exercise their own time-sharing.

• Fla. Stat. § 61.45 - Court-Ordered Parenting Plan; Risk of Violation; Bond

  When a court enters or modifies a parenting plan and there is competent substantial evidence of a risk that a party may violate it by removing the child from Florida or the country or by concealing the child's whereabouts (or the parties stipulate, or the court finds a credible risk of removal), the court may bar removal without both parents' notarized written permission or a court order, require surrender of the child's passport, impose travel restrictions or supervised visitation, and require a party to post a bond or other security large enough to deter abduction. The court must consider the party's financial resources and may not set an unreasonable bond, and on a material violation by removing or concealing the child the court may order the bond forfeited, with the proceeds used to reimburse the other parent's costs and damages, locate and return the child, and pay reasonable fees and costs. This section, including the bond requirement, does not apply to a parent the court determines is a victim of domestic violence or has reasonable cause to believe is about to become one, and a domestic violence injunction in that parent's favor in effect at the time is one way to show it. This section targets removal and concealment; the general remedies for a missed or refused time-sharing schedule (make-up time, fees, contempt) are in § 61.13(4).