To get an emergency custody order in Florida, you file a verified motion in the circuit court where your child is physically located, showing that the child faces immediate, serious danger that can’t wait for a normal hearing. A judge reviews the motion without the other parent present, decides whether to grant temporary custody on the spot, and then schedules a return hearing where both sides appear. The right form and the right legal path depend on whether you already have a custody order, whether domestic violence is involved, and where the child has been living.
What Counts as an Emergency
Florida Statute 61.13(3) makes the child’s best interests the “primary consideration” in all parenting and time-sharing decisions.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing; Powers of Court An emergency order asks for more than that. The petitioner has to show the child faces immediate risk of serious physical harm, abandonment, or abuse, and that waiting for a regular hearing would leave the child in real danger. A judge won’t grant emergency relief because one parent keeps a messier house or disagrees about parenting style.
Under Florida Statute 61.517, a Florida court can take temporary emergency jurisdiction when the child is physically present in the state and one of these is true: the child has been abandoned, the child or a sibling or parent is being mistreated or threatened with abuse, or the child is being subjected to or threatened with certain prohibited medical procedures.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 61.517 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction
Judges want concrete evidence. Police reports from a domestic disturbance, hospital records of the child’s injuries, photographs, and sworn statements from witnesses carry weight. Vague concerns about a parent’s lifestyle do not. The court needs to see that something specific and dangerous happened or is about to happen.
Which Motion to File
Florida law does not use one single emergency custody motion. The path depends on your situation.
Emergency Pick-Up Order When You Already Have Custody Rights
If a court order already grants you custody or time-sharing and the other parent is withholding the child in violation of that order, you file an Emergency Verified Motion for Child Pick-Up Order using Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.941(d).3Florida Courts. Emergency Verified Motion for Child Pick-Up Order The form is also available to the birth mother of a child born outside marriage when no court has addressed anyone else’s parental rights. You must attach a certified copy of the existing custody order, or if unmarried, the child’s birth certificate.
Emergency Motion in a New Custody Case
When no custody order exists and the child needs immediate protection, you file an emergency motion inside a new petition for custody or paternity. The motion asks for temporary emergency relief while the underlying case moves forward. Without an existing order to enforce, everything rides on the specific facts you present about the danger.
Domestic Violence Injunction With Temporary Time-Sharing
If domestic violence is part of the situation, a petition for an injunction under Florida Statute 741.30 can include a request for a temporary parenting plan. The court can award the petitioner up to 100 percent of time-sharing and require any exchanges to happen at a safe, neutral location.4The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 741.30 – Domestic Violence; Injunction; Powers and Duties of Court and Clerk The temporary parenting plan stays in effect until the injunction expires or another court enters a custody order. This path often moves faster than a standalone custody action because domestic violence injunctions follow their own expedited timeline.
One boundary worth knowing: if the Department of Children and Families has already removed your child, you are in dependency court under Chapter 39, not family court, and the process follows a different statute and timeline than the private motions described here.
What You Need to File
Everything gets filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the child is physically located. For a private emergency custody motion, prepare:
- The verified emergency motion itself, with detailed facts: dates, locations, and descriptions of what put the child at risk. On Form 12.941(d), paragraph 7 is where you explain why the court should act without giving the other parent advance notice.
- A UCCJEA Affidavit (Form 12.902(d)), required in any case involving custody or time-sharing. It calls for a five-year residency history for the child, listing every address and every person the child lived with. Mistakes here can create jurisdictional problems that stall the case.5Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.902(d) – Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) Affidavit
- Supporting documentation: a certified copy of any existing custody order, paternity judgment, or birth certificate; plus police reports, medical records, photographs, or sworn declarations from witnesses who saw the danger.
Everything has to be signed under oath before a notary public or deputy clerk. A verified motion carries the same legal weight as sworn testimony, and false statements are perjury.
What Happens After You File
The clerk sends the motion to a circuit judge for ex parte review. Ex parte means the judge reads your sworn motion and evidence without the other parent present or even notified. Courts don’t take that step lightly, so the motion has to make its case on paper alone.
Three things can happen. The judge may sign the emergency order right away if the evidence shows genuine, imminent danger. The judge may find the matter serious but not urgent enough for an ex parte order and set an expedited hearing where both parents appear. Or the judge may deny the motion, leaving you to pursue relief through the normal process.
A signed order is not enforceable until the other parent gets formal legal notice. Personal service is required. A deputy sheriff or certified private process server delivers a copy of the signed order and the underlying motion directly to the respondent, or to someone over 15 years old who lives with the respondent. Form instructions tell the petitioner to take a certified copy of the order to the sheriff’s office for help executing it. Sheriffs can serve and enforce the order at any time, day or night, any day of the week, and must not delay in a way that lets the child be removed from the court’s jurisdiction.
The Return Hearing
An emergency order is temporary. The court schedules a return hearing, sometimes called an order to show cause hearing, where the respondent gets to appear, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and argue against the emergency arrangement. This hearing is adversarial, with both sides making their case.
The judge then decides whether the emergency conditions still justify the temporary arrangement. The court may extend the order, dissolve it, or modify it, for example by allowing the responding parent supervised visitation instead of no contact. The judge may also order a social investigation or psychological evaluations before making longer-term decisions.
Many emergency cases are won or lost at this hearing. If you obtained the initial order, come ready to back up every allegation with evidence. If you’re the respondent, this is your first real chance to challenge the other side’s version of events.
When Another State Is Involved
If the child has ties to more than one state, jurisdiction gets complicated. When no other state has issued a custody determination, a Florida emergency order stays in effect until a court in a state with proper jurisdiction, usually the child’s “home state” where the child lived for at least six consecutive months before the case, enters its own order. If no other state steps in and Florida becomes the child’s home state, the emergency determination can become permanent.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 61.517 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction
When another state already has a custody order or an open case, the Florida court must give the petitioner a specific window to get an order from that other state. The Florida emergency order lasts only until the other state acts or the time period expires. The two courts are required to communicate directly to coordinate the response and protect the child during the transition.
What It Costs
Filing an initial family law case in a Florida circuit court under Chapter 61 costs up to $295.6The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 28.241 – Filing Fees for Trial and Appellate Proceedings If you’re filing an emergency motion inside an existing case, the reopening fee is up to $50. On top of that, you pay for service of process; sheriff’s departments and private process servers each set their own fees. If you can’t afford the costs, Florida has an Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status, and qualifying applicants get their filing and summons fees waived.
Attorney fees are the larger expense. Emergency motions usually need a lawyer to draft the verified motion, assemble exhibits, and argue the return hearing. Under Florida Statute 61.16, the court can order one party to pay the other’s attorney fees and costs after considering both sides’ financial resources, so a financially weaker parent can ask the other side to contribute.7Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 61.16 – Attorney’s Fees, Suit Money, and Costs
The Risk of Exaggerating or Fabricating
Filing a false emergency motion carries real consequences. Perjury in an official proceeding, which includes signing a verified motion with statements you know are false, is a third-degree felony under Florida Statute 837.02, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.8The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 837.02 – Perjury in Official Proceedings
Separately, anyone who knowingly and willfully makes a false report of child abuse, abandonment, or neglect, or advises someone else to make one, commits a third-degree felony under Florida Statute 39.205. A person who reports in good faith is immune from liability, but fabricating allegations to gain leverage in a custody fight is not good faith.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 39.205 – Penalties Relating to Reporting of Child Abuse, Abandonment, or Neglect
Judges also remember who lied to them. A parent caught making false emergency allegations risks losing credibility on every future issue in the case, having the emergency order dissolved immediately, and facing sanctions or an adverse custody outcome. Courts draw a clear line between a parent who raises good-faith concerns that turn out to be unfounded and a parent who fabricates a crisis. The first carries no penalty. The second can permanently reshape the custody result.