Practice Areas

Florida Child Support & Custody Law

Child Custody

Child Custody is one of the most challenging and difficult aspects of a divorce case.  When two parents who both love their children more than anything else must work through or litigate who those children will live with most of the time, it can be a terrifying, frustrating and difficult process.

I have survived such a custody fight.  I understand what you are going through, what you are feeling and what you want for you and your children.

Child Custody is actually known as Primary Residential Care, that is the "parent the children will reside with most of the time."

Shared Parental Responsibility is the legal presumption in Florida, meaning that the Court will assume that both parents should be actively involved in their children's lives, education, religious upbringing, health and welfare.  Shared Parental Responsibility is always granted unless one parent is truly unfit.  Otherwise you will be working with the other parent for years to come, jointly raising your child, regardless of who has Primary Residential Care.

Primary Residential Care is evaluated by the Court on the bases of several factors. The most important is which parent is most likely to foster a healthy, ongoing relationship with the secondary residential parent.  The Court will also look at the moral fitness of the parents, the educational and medical records of the child and the propensity of each parent to provide the necessities of life to their children.  The Court can also look at any other factor it deems important, which means that the Judge has wide leeway in making a decision as to what is in the BEST INTEREST OF THE MINOR CHILD.

The Best Interest of the Minor Child is the bottom line standard that the Courts consider in making custody determinations.  Many parents get caught up in what "they want" and what "they need" and forget that the Court only is concerned with what is in the Best Interest of their child.

Having been through a custody fight, and having seen the way judges make these decisions, gives me the ability to structure the right facts, evidence and testimony to give you the best possible chance to prevail in such a legal battle.

Additionally, when it comes to Negotiated Settlements, I focus on creative and alternative methods of creating a Child Custody arrangement that is workable, fair and in the Best Interest of the Minor Children.

Child Support

It is important to know that Child Support belongs to the children, it cannot be waived by the Primary Residential Parent.  Child Support is also statutory in Florida, meaning that the statute itself determines the amount of child support based on the net monthly income of the parents.

The most critical aspect of the preparation of the Child Support Guideline Worksheets for presentation to the Court is determining the net monthly income of the parents.  My MBA and financial background gives you the advantage in making sure that those calculations include the right amount of income for both of the parents.

Another important aspect of child support is determining who gets the tax deductions for the minor children.  This is an important aspect of negotiating a settlement or taking a case to trial.   My finance background gives me a good foundation on which to build legal arguments to get you maximum advantage of the dependent's tax deduction.

Parents have an obligation to support their children financially.  If you are having trouble with unpaid child support, I can help you enforce your award, collect past due child support and make sure future child support is collected promptly.  Similarly, if you are still paying child support for a child who is an adult, then call me to discuss what we can do to correct the problem and get things back to where they should be.

For issues like alimony & child support enforcement, contact the Florida family law attorney Gary E. Williams.