The first thing to know about Florida’s child custody laws is that the term “custody” isn’t used. Instead, courts refer to custody as “time-sharing.”
Thus, a parent who would have primary custody in another state has “majority time-sharing.” Similarly, if parents share joint custody of their children, Florida courts refer to this as “equal time-sharing.”
While a time-sharing agreement refers to the amount of time each parent spends with their children, it doesn’t cover a parent’s decision-making authority. In Florida, this is referred to as “parental responsibility,” which is a separate determination.
Often, if parents have an equal time-sharing agreement, the court will order shared parental responsibility.
However, if the court determines that it would be detrimental for the child for the parents to have shared parental responsibility, it may award one parent sole parental responsibility.