Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence
Is a Florida family court required to allow a party to appear by phone at a hearing? The decision to allow telephonic or other electronic appearance in a Florida family law case is within the trial court’s discretion. This was an issue in the case Sanzaro v. Crowe, 6D2023-1796 (Fla. 6th DCA March 21, 2025).
The appellant in this case appealed the lower court’s entry of a permanent stalking injunction against him. One issue he appealed was the trial court’s denial of his request to appear telephonically at the hearing. The appellate court affirmed on all issues raised in the appeal, but discussed the telephonic appearance issue.
The court noted “On this record, we cannot say that ‘no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court’ or that the trial court’s action was ‘arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable. See Johnson v. State, 397 So. 3d 626, 639 (Fla. 2024) (‘[D]iscretion ‘is abused when the judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only where no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court.’ (quoting Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So. 2d 1197, 1203 (Fla. 1980))). Accordingly, we affirm.”
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