Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

Re: Grandparent obtaining child custody

File for it! You could go the Dependency route, if you think your daughter has abandoned the child. Short of that, if you can get the consents from the parents (your daughter and the bio dad) is probably the best route. You didn't mention Dad, but he must be sonewhere in the picture?

Re: Grandparent obtaining child custody

You'll probably need a lawyer to help you with this, becuase getting even temporary cusody of someone else's child can be very tricky.

There are three methods:

1) With both parents' consent, you can adopt.

2) With both parents' consent, you can take guardianship of your granddaughter pursuant to chapter 751. Sometimes this statute is used to take custody without the parents' consent, but this isn't technically proper. The statute is really only supposed to be used for temporary guardianship.

3) Without the parents' consent, you can take custody of your granddaughter using the same statutes that DCF would, Chapter 39, alleging abandonment or abuse, just like DCF would take a child for abandonment or abuse.