Making Up for Lost Time With Co-Parenting
The purpose of court-ordered parenting plans is to protect minor children’s right to a stable relationship with both parents and the role of parents, regardless of their relationship with their co-parent, to be involved in their children’s lives. Most parenting plans arise when the parents of a minor child get divorced; the court will not finalize the couple’s divorce without also issuing a parenting plan. Divorced parents are not the only ones entitled to a parenting plan. Parents who have a child together but were never legally married to each other also have the right to a court-ordered parenting plan; parenting plans are a prerequisite to child support orders, because each parent’s share of parenting plan is one of the numbers that the court must enter to calculate child support according to the statewide guidelines. Most unmarried couples do not petition the court for a parenting plan as soon as they separate; they only do it when they realize that, without one, there is no guarantee that they can have regular contact with their child or that their ex will contribute financially to the child’s upbringing. If you and your ex-partner have a child together, and you want to establish a parenting plan now, several years after your breakup, contact a Boca Raton child custody lawyer.
Father Petitions for Parenting Plan, So He Can Establish a Relationship With His Three-Year-Old Son
In 2024, Andre petitioned the court to establish paternity of his three-year-old son. He and his ex-girlfriend Diana had broken up when Diana was pregnant, and Andre had never met the child. Soon after, Diana and Andre signed a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity form, establishing Andre as the child’s legal father. They then proceeded to mediation to draft a parenting plan. Diana proposed a parenting plan where Andre would have supervised parenting time for several hours every week; supervised parenting time orders automatically expire after six months, so Diana’s plan carried the possibility that, after six months, Andre would have unsupervised parenting time. Her plan also required family counseling; she believed that this was in the child’s best interest, since he had not known his father for the first three years of his life, and unsupervised parenting time would feel like spending entire weekends with a stranger.
Andre’s proposed plan included an unsupervised parenting plan, and the parties could not reach an agreement in mediation, so the case went to trial. The judge ordered the parties to divide their parenting time 50/50, with both parents exercising unsupervised parenting time. Diana appealed the parenting plan ordered by the trial court, since it included provisions that neither parent had requested, such as 50/50 parenting time. The appeals court ordered the trial court to issue a new parenting plan.
Contact Schwartz | White About Parenting Plans for Unmarried Couples
A South Florida family law attorney can help you establish paternity and get court-ordered parenting time if you were never legally married to your child’s mother. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5194357420769975837&q=family+anniversary&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2016&as_yhi=2026
