Amanda Lee Lawler v. Brian Patrick Lawler

Summary

The Florida Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a temporary order permitting the father to relocate the parties’ minor children to South Carolina pending a final hearing. The court held that competent substantial evidence supported the temporary placement with the father and his blended family, and that the father’s relocation petition sufficiently referenced the existing parenting plan to substantially comply with statutory requirements.

Holdings

1. The father's relocation petition was not legally insufficient under section 61.13001(3)(a)(6) because, unlike the petition in Vanderhoof, it referenced and proposed maintaining the previously ordered parenting and timesharing plan.
2. The trial court did not commit reversible error by temporarily permitting the relocation without first conducting an evidentiary hearing.
3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in temporarily permitting the father to relocate the children to South Carolina pending a final hearing because the order was supported by competent, substantial evidence and detailed best-interest findings.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the father's supplemental petition to relocate was legally insufficient because it did not include a revised postrelocation schedule and transportation proposal under section 61.13001(3)(a)(6), Florida Statutes.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by temporarily permitting relocation without first conducting an evidentiary hearing.
3. Whether competent, substantial evidence supported the temporary relocation based on the children's best interests.

Disposition

affirmed