When parents are overwhelmed by personal struggles and legal complexities, it can be challenging to prioritize their children’s needs. Similarly, children in these situations often need a safe space to express their feelings and understand what’s happening. This is where Family Court Services steps in to provide crucial support.
What are Family Court Services?
For over two decades, Miami-Dade County, Florida, has benefited from the principles of therapeutic justice through Family Court Services. As a vital component of Florida’s largest judicial circuit, Family Court Services offers unique and essential support to countless children and families. This dedicated unit works closely with judges and general magistrates, providing solution-focused and brief therapeutic interventions in some of the most sensitive family court cases.
Staffed by a team of committed professionals, Family Court Services is dedicated to assisting families in de-escalating conflict and offering supportive services that consider the entire family dynamic, with a particular emphasis on the well-being of children.
Services Offered by Family Court Services
Family Court Services provides a range of services at no cost to families involved in the court system. These services are designed to address various challenges families may face:
In-House Services:
- Alienation: Addressing and providing strategies to manage parental alienation issues.
- Child/Family Assistance: Intervening in situations where immediate child welfare concerns arise, conducting interviews with family members and children as needed to assess and address the situation.
- Co-parenting Support: Evaluating and enhancing co-parenting skills, focusing on improved communication, effective time-sharing arrangements, and collaborative parenting strategies.
- Crisis Assistance: Providing immediate and rapid intervention in urgent situations identified by the judiciary, such as potential danger to a parent or child.
- Marital Reconciliation Exploration: For parties considering separation or divorce, this service helps explore motivations and factors involved in the decision-making process.
- Parenting Coordination: Guiding parents in developing or refining parenting plans and offering strategies to minimize the child’s exposure to parental conflict.
- Reunification Services: Addressing estrangement between a child and a parent, working to establish or rebuild a healthy relationship.
- Time-Sharing Resolution: Facilitating discussions and agreements regarding child time-sharing, clarifying existing schedules, or developing more effective arrangements.
- Supervised Visitation and Monitored Exchanges: Providing a safe and neutral environment for parent-child interaction when concerns about a child’s physical or emotional well-being exist. Observation ensures the child’s safety during visits and exchanges.
Community Resource Services:
- Community Referrals: Connecting families with appropriate community agencies and private providers for court-ordered services or additional support. This includes referrals for counseling, extended co-parenting programs, parenting classes, parenting coordination, psychological and psychiatric evaluations, substance abuse services, social investigations, therapeutic supervised visits, and DNA testing when required.
Hours of Operation and Contact Information
General Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Supervised Visitation Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Contact Family Court Services:
Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center
Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center
175 N.W. 1st Avenue Suite 1503
Miami, Florida 33128
Telephone: (305) 349-5508
Fax: (305) 349-5634
