Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 409.2551 (2025)
Legislative intent.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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409.2551 Legislative intent.—Common-law and statutory procedures governing the remedies for enforcement of support for financially dependent children by persons responsible for their support have not proven sufficiently effective or efficient to cope with the increasing incidence of financial dependency. The increasing workload of courts, prosecuting attorneys, and the Attorney General has resulted in a growing burden on the financial resources of the state, which is constrained to provide public assistance for basic maintenance requirements when parents fail to meet their primary obligations. The state, therefore, exercising its police and sovereign powers, declares that the common-law and statutory remedies pertaining to family desertion and nonsupport of dependent children shall be augmented by additional remedies directed to the resources of the responsible parents. In order to render resources more immediately available to meet the needs of dependent children, it is the legislative intent that the remedies provided herein are in addition to, and not in lieu of, existing remedies. It is declared to be the public policy of this state that this act be construed and administered to the end that children shall be maintained from the resources of their parents, thereby relieving, at least in part, the burden presently borne by the general citizenry through public assistance programs. It is also the public policy of this state to encourage frequent contact between a child and each parent to optimize the development of a close and continuing relationship between each parent and the child.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 31
cases, 1979–2019 · leading case: Kendrick v. Everheart, 390 So. 2d 53 (Fla. 1980).
Kendrick v. Everheart, 390 So. 2d 53 (Fla. 1980). “" See § 409.2551, Fla. Stat. (1977). This express statement of legislative intent militates against any finding that chapter 742, in providing the judicial means by which a mother may enforce her child's support rights against the natural father, was also intended by the…”
State Dept. of Health, Etc. v. West, 378 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1979). “Chapter 76-220, codified as section 409.2551, Florida Statutes (1977).”
Thaysen v. Thaysen, 583 So. 2d 663 (Fla. 1991). “On appeal the district court looked at section 409.2551, Florida Statutes (1987), [4] *665 and held that "enforcement of support" did not include increasing existing child support.”
Lamm v. Chapman, 413 So. 2d 749 (Fla. 1982). “" § 409.2551, Fla. Stat. (1979). Section 409.”
Robbins v. Robbins, 429 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). “Section 409.2551, Florida Statutes (1979) describes the legislative intent behind social and economic assistance laws: 409.”
Rogers v. Cooper, 575 So. 2d 266 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991). “Section 409.2551, Florida Statutes. The department contends that this legislative purpose will be largely frustrated if the department is required to pay the costs and attorneys' fees of defendants in legal proceedings brought by the department to compel payment of support.”
Spano v. Bruce, 62 So. 3d 2 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011). “See § 409.2551, Fla. Stat. (2009). That intent supports the conclusion that the state legislature meant for the Department of Revenue to use its Title IV-D power to enforce child support collection against those parents who have not fulfilled their financial obligations.”
DHRS v. Crossdale, 585 So. 2d 481 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991). “" Section 409.2551, Florida Statutes (1989).”
Dept. of Health & Rehab. Serv. v. Heffler, 382 So. 2d 301 (Fla. 1980). “2567 supports this purpose by allowing the identification of responsible parents and the award of support from them prior to, and in place of, receiving public assistance. The legislature passed sections 409.”
Davis v. Swatts, 556 So. 2d 467 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). “" § 409.2551, Fla. Stat. (Supp. 1988). Moreover, this position is based upon an overly restrictive reading of the statutes.”
Dep't of Revenue v. Reyes, 181 So. 3d 1270 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015). “This result is inconsistent with the Legislature’s expression of the public policy of the State that “children shall be maintained from the resources of their parents, thereby relieving, at least in part, the burden presently-borne by the general citizenry through public…”
Wilkinson v. Coggin, 552 So. 2d 348 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989). “[3] The intent of the child support enforcement program is set out in Section 409.2551, Florida Statutes (1987): Common-law and statutory procedures governing the remedies for enforcement of support for financially dependent children by persons responsible for their support have…”
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