Generally, Florida’s family law courts see that children need both of their parents involved in their lives.
Although there are always exceptions, most of the parenting plans Florida courts order will involve both parents making decisions for their children and both parents seeing the children frequently.
Courts expect parents to follow these plans.
A parent who decides to take matters into their own hands and emotionally or even physically keep a child from the other parent against court orders, even if the parent thinks they have a good reason to do so, is being unfair to the other parent.
Also, the harm to children facing these circumstances is serious and well-documented.
A parent who has been the victim of this sort of behavior, which people often refer to as parental alienation, has legal options available to them.
However, although it might be tempting to call the police or other authorities, in most cases, a Delray Beach parent will have to return to court to have their parenting plan enforced.
A Florida court has the power to punish a disobedient parent and change the plan
As is the case with other orders, a court can punish a parent for contempt if they refuse to follow a court-approved payment plan. Punishments for contempt can include fines and even jail time.
Separately, a court may also make changes to a parenting plan if a parent has violated the existing one.
As part of those changes, the court might require the offending parent to not travel outside the state or even Palm Beach County without notarized, written permission from the other parent.
The court may also require the parent to post a bond in order to exercise visitation rights or may even restrict the parent’s visitation to supervised visits only.
A South Florida’s parent whose children have been subject to parental alienation can fight back legally.