Family Law Attorney Gives Advice For Getting Child Custody Modified In Pasco County

As children get older, a lot of things change. Their personalities, likes, interests and abilities all change, sometimes in significant ways. If you have a child and were involved in a divorce in Florida, or if you never married, the custody of your child was probably determined using the circumstances involved at that time.

However, things change over time, and sometimes what was the best custody arrangement at the time of the divorce is no longer a good situation.

Typically, child custody orders in Florida are not permanent. If you want to modify your parenting plan or custody order, the best situation is if you can work out a modification with your child’s other parent, and then file it with the court, and get it ratified and approved by the court.

If you two cannot agree, you will need to petition the court in order to make changes. However, to change a custody order in Florida, generally you will need to prove that there has been a “substantial change in circumstances” since the original custody determination, and that the change could not have been foreseen at the time of the original custody order. You will also have to show that the change in the parenting plan is in the child’s best interests.

That petition will be filed in the circuit court in either the county in which either parent and the child reside, or the circuit court in which the original order was issued. It’s is not easy to change a custody order, especially if the other parent fights the change.

Simply a change of heart by one parent, or even a parent’s remarriage, is not enough to change custody. Some circumstances that might result in a change in custody include one parent’s sudden abuse or neglect, a mental health issue of one parent that was not present at the time of the original decision, a substance abuse problem, or something similar.