Your parenting plan says pickup is at 6:00 p.m., but it’s 7:15, and you’re still waiting.
Maybe this isn’t the first time, either. Your ex constantly brings your child home late, changes weekends without asking, ignores the holiday schedule, or decides the parenting plan doesn't apply when it is inconvenient.
You already went through the work of creating a parenting plan. You may have negotiated back and forth, spent time with attorneys, and ultimately received an order from the court telling both of you exactly how parenting and time-sharing are supposed to work.
So, what happens when your ex refuses to follow it?
The good news is that you do not necessarily have to keep fighting the same battle every weekend. A Florida parenting plan is more than a suggestion, and when the other parent repeatedly refuses to follow it, there may be legal options available.
More importantly, you do not have to figure out those options alone.
First, What Does It Mean to “Break” a Parenting Plan?
Parenting plans can cover much more than which parent gets which weekend.
A Florida parenting plan generally establishes how parents will share responsibility for raising their child, includes a time-sharing schedule, addresses certain decision-making responsibilities, explains how parents will communicate with the child, and designates exchange locations unless the parents agree otherwise in writing.
That means problems can take many different forms. Maybe your ex refuses to return your child at the scheduled time. Maybe you repeatedly show up for an exchange only to find out that your child is not coming. Maybe holidays suddenly become a negotiation every year despite the schedule already spelling out where your child is supposed to be.
Not every disagreement necessarily requires going back to court. Parents are human, people run late, schedules change, and misunderstandings happen. But there is a difference between an occasional problem and a parent repeatedly refusing to follow the plan.
Figuring out where your situation falls is one of the first things an attorney can help you do.
Good Life Legal Can Help You Figure Out What Is Actually Happening
When you have been dealing with the same problem over and over, it can be difficult to look at the situation objectively. That is where we can step in.
At Good Life Legal, we can review your existing parenting plan with you and look at what has actually been happening. What does the order require? What has the other parent been doing differently? How often has it happened? Is this an isolated disagreement, or has it become a pattern? Those details matter.
We Can Help You Document the Problem
When your ex breaks the parenting plan for the fifth time, your first instinct may be to send a very long text explaining exactly how you feel about it.
That may feel good for five minutes, but it may not be the most helpful thing for your case.
Instead, it can be important to keep track of what is actually happening. That might include text messages or emails, dates and times of missed exchanges, records of schedule changes, messages through a co-parenting app, or other information showing how the parenting plan has been handled.
Sometimes, the most helpful thing you can do is stop arguing about the problem and start documenting it.
We Can Help You Enforce Your Time-Sharing Rights
If the problem continues, simply asking your ex to “please follow the parenting plan” may not be enough.
Florida law provides remedies when a parent refuses to honor a time-sharing schedule without proper cause.
For example, when time-sharing has been improperly denied, Florida law requires the court to award sufficient extra time-sharing to compensate the parent for the time that was missed. The law also allows a court, depending on the circumstances, to order the noncompliant parent to pay reasonable court costs and attorney’s fees incurred in enforcing the schedule, require a parenting course, order community service, modify the parenting plan when the legal requirements are satisfied, or impose other reasonable sanctions. A violation may also be addressed through contempt or other appropriate remedies.
That does not mean every parenting-plan disagreement will result in those consequences. What happens depends on the circumstances of the individual case.
This is where having an attorney on your side can make a major difference. Good Life Legal can evaluate what has been happening, explain the remedies that may be available, and help you determine whether taking legal action to enforce the existing order makes sense.
What If the Parenting Plan Itself Is No Longer Working?
Sometimes, the issue is not just that one parent is breaking the plan. The plan itself may no longer fit your family's circumstances.
Enforcing and modifying a parenting plan are two different legal processes. If circumstances have changed, Good Life Legal can help you determine whether enforcement, modification, or another approach makes the most sense for your situation.
What Should You NOT Do When Your Ex Breaks the Parenting Plan?
When someone refuses to follow the rules, it is tempting to stop following them yourself.
Your ex kept your child an extra day last weekend, so maybe you will keep them an extra day this weekend. Your ex will not give you your time-sharing, so maybe you will stop paying child support until they do. Problem solved, right?
Not exactly.
Florida law specifically provides that a parent whose time-sharing rights are being violated must continue paying court-ordered child support or alimony. The reverse is also true: a parent generally cannot refuse to honor the time-sharing schedule simply because the other parent has failed to pay support.
In other words, one parent's alleged violation does not automatically give the other parent permission to ignore the court's order too.
Before retaliating or taking matters into your own hands, talk to an attorney about the appropriate way to address the problem.
You Have a Parenting Plan. You Shouldn't Have to Fight Over It Every Week.
A parenting plan is supposed to provide structure and predictability for your family.
You should not have to wonder every Friday whether your child will actually be there for your scheduled weekend or prepare yourself for another argument every time a holiday approaches.
If you are thinking about divorce in Florida, we can help you find out whether we are the right fit. Call us at 850-362-7228, or complete the form on our website and we will call you.
Written by Sophia Thephasdin. Reviewed for legal accuracy by Matthew Ausley, Attorney.