Civil Remedy for Parental Abduction:
HB 1385 creates a new civil cause of action, titled the “Parental Abduction Act,” for a parent whose child is unlawfully abducted by the other parent for more than 30 consecutive days after the last lawful time-sharing period. The bill defines key terms such as “child,” “parent,” and “unlawful abduction,” and allows the aggrieved parent to seek treble actual damages, a minimum award of $1,000, and reasonable attorney fees and costs in both trial and appellate courts. The 30-day period begins when the abduction starts and continues until the child is returned, even if the abducting parent later has scheduled time-sharing.
The bill would add a new section to Florida Statutes, s. 772.111, creating a private civil remedy in family-related abduction disputes and expanding potential liability for a parent who unlawfully withholds a child. It also establishes procedural rules, including assignment to the family law division handling the underlying case, a two-year statute of limitations with tolling during the abduction, and an affirmative defense for parents who reasonably believed the child was in imminent danger of domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, abandonment, or neglect. The measure would affect parents involved in custody and time-sharing disputes, as well as family courts and civil litigants seeking damages for parental abduction.
The bill appears to have been framed as a protective measure for parents whose custody or time-sharing rights are violated through unlawful child concealment or removal. However, there is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided material, so there is no direct evidence of debate, support, or opposition from the legislative record included here. Its eventual death in the Senate Rules Committee suggests it did not advance to final passage.
The main policy tension in the bill is between providing a strong civil remedy for parents harmed by parental abduction and preserving a defense for parents who act out of concern for a child’s safety. Potential points of contention include the treble-damages remedy, the minimum damages award, and attorney-fee shifting, which could be viewed as either necessary deterrence or as escalating family-law disputes into high-stakes civil litigation. Another likely issue is the scope of the affirmative defense for alleged danger from domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, abandonment, or neglect, which could be disputed in cases where one parent claims protective motives and the other alleges wrongful concealment.