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[floridadad630]

Dear Socrateaser,
I just got my final order this week over custody of my 2 year old daughter.  I wanted 2 weeknights, she wanted me to have only every other weekend.  The evaluator told the judge I should get one weeknight and every other weekend from Friday to Monday morning.

The judge(John M Alexander, 7th cicuit florida) gave me 1 weeknight on the week preceding my weekend.  On my weekend Friday to Sunday afternoon.  One week in the summer to increase to four in four years.  The only holidays I get are Father's day, Thanksgiving in alternate years --unless its on my weekend (which is the case this year, so I don't get it even though its my year), Christmas Eve (6pm) to Christmas (12pm) on alternate years, and New Years Eve-New Years Day on alternate years.

I was a stay at home father for 7 months after she was born, picked her up from daycare every day, arranged her daycare, I filed in court first, and needless to say I'm still in shock.

He also computed my child support wrong making it $170 higher than what its supposed to be, and then that errror was applied to my retroactive amount.

Should I appeal?  Since I'm out of money for an attorney, how would I file an appeal myself?  It would be for the 5th district court of appeals.  My attorney told me the child support would defintely be reversed, but is there any chance the judge would have to re-rule on the visitation.  Evaluator recommended 5 of every 14 overnights, but judge only gave me 3 of 14.  Help, please.

[socrateaser]

Appeals are extremely difficult, and vary greatly by jurisdiction. I don't practise FL law, so I would need to do a lot of research on the process for an appeal.

Too much to ask of me for free.

Go to your county court library and ask the librarian to show you some books on appellate procedure.

As far as your support calculation goes, if you can prove that the state guidelines were misapplied by the court, then you should file a motion for reconsideration with the same judge that you currently have, on that single issue. You are entitled to a finding of facts and conclusions of law whenever the amount differs substantially from the guideline.

Frankly, if the amount is substantial, then you will quickly recoup the cost of having your attorney file for reconsideration on the issue.