Child Custody & Support

Naples, Florida, Child Custody and Support Attorney

Florida family courts frown upon split and rotating child-custody arrangements. If child custody is contested, courts will usually pick one parent to have primary custodial custody, based on about 10 different factors. The parent without primary custody will have visitation, which typically translates into alternating weekends, a weekday, split holidays, summers and split winter and spring breaks. If you are involved in child custody or child support dispute, I offer a free initial consultation to explain how the child custody and support process works.

Most of the time, both parents have a strong motivation to negotiate a reasonable child custody and visitation arrangement. As your lawyer, I will help you do this. Judges tend to look at the past to determine the future. So, during your initial consultation, I will ask you who the child has been living with, what visitation as been, and what the voluntary child support has been given.

Child support is governed by Florida statute, and is based on the net income of both parents and the number of children. Health care and day care expenses will be added to child support payments. If you are the non-custodial parent, the court will order you to child support retroactive to the date of separation anyway, so I would encourage you to pay voluntary child support. Under Florida law, you can seek a modification of the agreement or family court order for child support and child custody if there is a significant change in circumstances after your initial order.

I have been a trial lawyer in Lee County and Collier County for more than a decade. While I have extensive experience in both the criminal and family courts, I would not put you through a child custody trial unless you really felt it was necessary. Child custody battles are damaging to children and expensive for parents. A typical Florida child custody trial can cost more than $10,000 in expert witness fees alone, not even counting attorney fees. Contested child custody cases can drag on for years and be emotionally draining for all parties involved.

Free attorney consultation: If you are facing child support or child custody issues, contact me, Collier County family law attorney David T. Agoston. I have an office in Naples and a satellite office in Immokalee. Se habla español.