Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

Thank you for your question. If there is no court order and one party obtain a "gentlemens" agreement to travel, that would be easier.

However, in your matter -- without court order on custody, it is indeed reasonable to obtain permission from the other spouse.

If this an ongoing problem, then it may be necessary to file Petition to Determine Custody and set forth the travel issues.

Please feel free to follow-up

I'm going to have to disagree a bit with the previous answer, a 'petition to determine custody' is a thing of the past in Florida and a 'gentlemen's' agreement is a poor substitute for an order of paternity.

As for the legality of the underlying question, in general, if the father has not established paternity and if the father was not married to the mother at the time of the child's birth (or after) then he has no legal rights to the child. To establish his rights, including the right to travel with the child, he would need to file a petiton to determine paternity.

Under the above scenario, it is 100% legal for him to travel with the child if you, the mother, are okay with it. If you are not okay with it, tell him, and if he takes the child out of state anyway then the legality of his actions would come into question.