A.C. v. State of Florida
A mother was found guilty of indirect criminal contempt for visiting her children, sending books to their school, and filing a petition in a California court to enforce timesharing, all during Florida termination-of-parental-rights/stepparent-adoption litigation. The Fifth DCA vacated, holding that no clear and precise Florida order prohibited the first two acts (the only no-contact order was a Connecticut order never domesticated in Florida), and that the later Florida no-contact order did not, by its letter, prohibit filing a petition in another state's court.
Key facts
- A mother was found guilty of indirect criminal contempt in Florida for visiting her children, sending books to their school, and filing a petition in California court during pendency of Florida termination-of-parental-rights and stepparent-adoption proceedings.
- The trial court relied on a Connecticut no-contact order that was never domesticated in Florida, and on a later Florida no-contact order, to support the contempt conviction.
- +1 more key fact with a free trial
Why it matters
The opinion is a clean statement of two enforcement limits family practitioners can deploy: a foreign no-contact or timesharing order must be domesticated before a Florida court may enforce it by contempt, and contempt… — full analysis with a trial
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