Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
When a parent in a Florida child custody case misbehaves, does this affect the trial court’s ability to order shared parental responsibility? This was an issue in the case Bowman v. Kardash, 2D2024-2823 (Fla. 2d DCA February 25, 2026).
In what is described as a contentious paternity case in which the mother was alleged to have directed negative behaviors toward the father, the father’s attorney and her child’s providers, the trial court ultimately awarded shared parental responsibility and equal time-sharing. The father appealed.
The appellate court held “After careful consideration, albeit with some reluctance, we conclude that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion by ordering equal, unsupervised timesharing.” The court noted “Importantly, the circuit court's fear for the child's safety was allayed by the opinion of a psychologist who had evaluated and tested [the mother] and found that she scored low on the child abuse potential inventory. [. . .] Because the psychologist's recommendation of equal, unsupervised timesharing was expressly conditioned on counseling and psychiatric care, the omission of those conditions from the final parenting order was an abuse of discretion. This necessitates a reversal and remand for the imposition of reasonable and necessary protective measures consistent with the psychologist's recommendation.”
Turning to shared parental responsibility, the court noted “[W]e have difficulty sussing why the circuit court ordered fully shared parental responsibility under the facts of this case.” The court continued “[S]ection 61.13(2)(c)5 requires the court to order sole parental responsibility to one parent if it is in the child's best interests. The circumstances of this case begged for the exercise of the circuit court's authority to tailor the parties' parenting authority. In its final order, the court wrote that ‘[n]early every institution related to the minor child had difficulty working with the Mother.’ Indeed, ‘[t]he Mother launches into ad homin[em] attacks on nearly everyone. Most of the people she attacks are dedicated to helping the minor child. She attacks them when things are not done exactly her way. This is harmful to the minor child.’ Certainly, it was not in the child's best interest to permit this behavior to continue.”
The court concluded “On the record before it at that time, the court should have imposed appropriate limitations on [the mother’s] parental responsibility or at least included in its judgment an explanation for failing to do so. That said, substantial time has now passed since the circuit court received the evidence in our record. We are unaware of how the parties have fared since or what the current circumstances are related to the child's well-being. Therefore, on remand the court must revisit its shared responsibility determination in light of this opinion and the current situation. It may either reaffirm its award of full shared parental responsibility if the current circumstances permit, or it may alter the award as appropriate. The court may take additional evidence on this issue as it deems necessary.”
Nothing in this article is legal advice. Schedule a consultation with a Miami family law attorney to determine the next best steps in your case.