To file an emergency custody order in Florida, you submit a verified emergency motion to the family law division of the circuit court under Section 61.517, attach specific evidence that the child faces immediate harm, and explain why the other parent cannot be notified in advance. A judge reviews the papers ex parte, usually within hours or by the next business day, and either grants a temporary order or denies it and routes the matter to a noticed hearing. The process is fast, but the standard is high: Florida courts reserve this remedy for genuine emergencies, not routine custody disputes.
One quick clarification before the steps. Some guides cite Section 61.13 as the emergency custody statute. Section 61.13 governs parenting plans, time-sharing, and child support generally; it does not independently authorize emergency relief.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing; Powers of Court The authority for emergency jurisdiction is Section 61.517, part of Florida’s Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.517 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction Filing under the wrong statute can slow your case at the worst possible moment.
When a Judge Will Actually Grant Emergency Custody
Section 61.517 lets a Florida court exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction when the child is physically present in Florida and either has been abandoned or the child, a sibling, or a parent faces mistreatment or abuse that makes court intervention necessary.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.517 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction In practice, judges look for a present, serious threat: recent physical abuse confirmed by medical records, a parent who has disappeared with the child, active substance abuse creating unsafe conditions, or a credible plan to flee the state with the child. Past incidents on their own usually aren’t enough. The danger needs to be happening now or about to happen.
Routine parenting disagreements, scheduling fights, and general dislike of the other parent’s lifestyle will not clear this bar. If your situation is serious but not hours-from-harm urgent, an expedited noticed hearing is often more effective than an ex parte motion.
Note on jurisdiction: even if another state is technically the child’s home state under the UCCJEA, a Florida court can still enter a temporary emergency order while the child is physically present here. That order lasts only long enough to let the home state act, unless no custody case exists elsewhere and Florida becomes the home state.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.517 – Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction
Where to File and in What Case
Emergency motions are filed in the family law division of the circuit court for the county where the child is located. If you already have an open case — a divorce, paternity action, or pending modification — the motion goes into that case. If no case is open, you file a new petition (for dissolution, paternity, or time-sharing) and attach the emergency motion to it.
Every custody-related filing in Florida must include a UCCJEA affidavit, Form 12.902(d). The form asks for each child’s name, date of birth, place of birth, every address where the child has lived in the past five years, and the name and relationship of every person the child lived with during that time.3Florida State Courts. Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act Affidavit Form 12.902(d) Skipping it will stall your motion. The clerk will not process a custody case without it.
What the Emergency Motion Must Contain
The motion must be verified. That means you sign it under oath, swearing the facts are true. A vague filing will be denied on sight. The judge is reading your papers alone, without live testimony, and deciding whether to act without the other parent in the room. Specifics are everything.
Lay out the facts in chronological order with dates, locations, names, and sources. Compare the two framings:
- Denied: “I’m worried about my child’s safety with the father.”
- Taken seriously: “On March 3, the child arrived at school with bruises on both arms. The teacher called DCF and filed a report, case number X. On March 5, the father texted that he would ‘disappear with her before any court takes her.'”
The motion also needs to explain why you cannot give the other parent advance notice without putting the child at greater risk. This is the whole reason ex parte relief exists. The court needs to see that advance warning would let the other parent flee with the child, destroy evidence, or escalate the behavior.
Finally, be clear about what you want the court to order: temporary sole time-sharing, suspension or supervision of the other parent’s contact, a directive to law enforcement to assist in transferring the child, or any combination that fits the facts.
Evidence That Carries Weight
Because the judge decides based entirely on your written submission, the exhibits attached to the motion do the heavy lifting. Gather and attach:
- Police reports documenting domestic violence, arrests, or welfare checks involving the child.
- Medical records showing injuries, signs of neglect, or treatment the child has received.
- Photographs of injuries, unsafe living conditions, or anything that visually confirms the allegations.
- Names and contact details for teachers, doctors, therapists, or neighbors who can confirm what you’ve described.
Text messages, emails, and social media posts can be powerful if they relate directly to the danger: threats of violence, admissions of drug use around the child, or stated plans to leave the state. Keep the originals on your device and submit clear screenshots. Courts will reject messages obtained by hacking into someone’s phone or coercing access. Unflattering but irrelevant texts make a motion look like a fishing expedition and hurt more than they help.
What Happens After You File
Once the clerk accepts the motion, it is routed to a judge for ex parte review. Only you are heard at this stage. Judges typically review these within hours or by the next business day.
If the judge grants the motion, you receive a temporary emergency order. Depending on the facts, it can give you temporary custody, restrict or suspend the other parent’s contact, require supervised visitation, or direct law enforcement to assist in physically transferring the child. The order is intentionally short-lived because the other parent had no chance to respond.
If the judge denies the motion, you have not lost on the merits. The denial means the written submission did not clear the ex parte threshold. You can still pursue the issue through a noticed hearing where both sides present evidence.
Either way, the court will set a return hearing where the other parent appears and responds. Florida law requires this to happen promptly; no single statute sets an exact number of days for family law emergency orders, and in practice most courts schedule the return hearing within roughly two to three weeks. At that hearing the judge can continue the temporary order, modify it (for example, allowing supervised visitation instead of no contact), or dissolve it and restore the prior arrangement. Whatever happens then feeds into the standard custody process for a permanent parenting plan under Section 61.13, which weighs each parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs, the child’s established routine, and any history of domestic violence or substance abuse.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing; Powers of Court
A Faster Path When Domestic Violence Is Involved
If domestic violence is driving the need for emergency custody, a petition for an injunction for protection under Section 741.30 runs on a parallel track and often moves faster. The court can include a temporary parenting plan and time-sharing schedule in the protective order and can award the petitioner up to 100 percent of time-sharing. For an ex parte temporary injunction, the court must find an immediate and present danger of domestic violence. If any time-sharing is given to the respondent, exchanges must happen at a neutral safe exchange location or through a supervised visitation program.4Florida Senate. Florida Code 741.30 – Injunction for Protection Against Domestic Violence
The practical advantage is real: these petitions have no filing fee and the process is built for speed. The temporary parenting plan in the injunction remains in effect until the order expires or a court enters an order in a separate family law case.
Filing Fees and Indigency Waiver
Family law filing fees vary by county and case type, but initial petitions generally run around $300 to $400. A motion to modify an existing parenting plan is typically cheaper than opening a new case. Budget separately for process server fees to serve the other parent after the emergency order is granted.
If you cannot afford the fees, apply to the clerk of court for a civil indigency determination. If your household income is at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, you qualify as indigent and the filing fees are waived. Your case cannot be delayed because of nonpayment by someone determined to be indigent.5Online Sunshine. Florida Code 57.082 – Determination of Civil Indigent Status The clerk’s office can help you complete the application.
Risks of a Weak Filing
Judges see emergency custody motions constantly and can tell the difference between a parent protecting a child and a parent angling for leverage in a custody fight. If the court finds your motion was filed in bad faith or was frivolous, you can be ordered to pay the other parent’s attorney’s fees. The longer-term cost is credibility. A failed emergency motion built on exaggerated or fabricated claims damages your standing with the judge for the rest of the case, and credibility is the currency of family court. Save the emergency process for genuine emergencies.
A Note for Relatives and Cases Involving DCF
If you are a grandparent or other extended family member rather than a parent, your path runs through Chapter 751 for temporary custody by extended family, which has its own requirements and a higher burden if a parent objects.6Online Sunshine. Florida Code Chapter 751 – Temporary Custody of Minor Children by Extended Family If DCF has already removed a child or is investigating, that matter proceeds under Chapter 39 in dependency court on a separate timeline, with a shelter hearing required within 24 hours of removal.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 39.401 – Taking a Child Alleged to Be Dependent Into Custody Those are different procedures from the family law emergency motion described above.