Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure
When a party seeks to challenge a recommended order of a general magistrate in a Florida family law case, the party must seek a hearing at the same time the party files a motion to vacate the order. This was an issue in the case Dunac v. Dunac, 4D2025-0551 (Fla. 4th DCA March 18, 2026).
The trial court in this family court case apparently denied the former husband’s motion to vacate a recommended order of the general magistrate on the basis that he failed to timely seek a hearing date. The former husband argued that his motion contained language requesting a hearing date. He appealed.
The appellate court rejected the former husband’s argument, noting “Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary’s definition of the verb ‘seek’ includes “to ask for: ‘request’ and ‘to try to acquire or gain[.]’ Seek, [internal citation omitted]. Here, the husband did ‘ask for’ or ‘request’ a hearing in his motion to vacate, but he did not take further steps like contacting the court or opposing counsel. Without such steps, the former husband did not try to ‘acquire’ or ‘schedule’ a hearing date within the meaning of the rule.”
The court concluded “We agree with the former wife that if a party could satisfy rule 12.490(e)(5)’s procedural obligation to ‘seek to schedule a hearing date’ by a sentence asking for a hearing in the motion to vacate, then the ‘seeking’ to schedule requirement of rule 12.490(e)(5) would be reduced to a hollow formality.”
Nothing in this article is legal advice. For advice specific to your case, schedule a meeting with a Miami family law attorney.