Florida Involuntary Treatment for a Homeless Adult Child

You have probably spent years on treatment, interventions, and firm boundaries. Now your adult child has lost a place to live, and the use keeps going. Each crisis brings the same fear: an overdose, a death, a jail cell, or a child sleeping on the street.

Florida’s Marchman Act is a court process for involuntary assessment and treatment of substance use. It addresses the treatment need. It does not provide housing, so a homeless adult child needs a separate housing plan alongside any court case.

Your Adult Child Has Lost Housing and Is Still Using: Where to Start

The first step is a confidential conversation about your family’s facts, not a court filing. Robinson & Casey is a Florida law firm. It limits its practice to Marchman Act petitions and guardianship matters, and it serves families across South Florida, including Miami-Dade, and statewide. Richard J. Casey III, Esq. is the lawyer responsible for this page.

Your fears are reasonable. A child who uses while homeless faces risks you already know well. A petition is one legal tool. It does not replace the daily decisions your family makes.

Nobody can promise how a court will rule. What a lawyer can do is review the dates, the incidents, and the treatment already tried. Then the lawyer can tell you whether a petition fits your situation. You can reach the firm at (561) 849-4149.

What the Marchman Act Covers, and What It Does Not Provide

The Marchman Act covers court-ordered assessment and treatment for substance use.

The admission standard sits in Fla. Stat. § 397.675. A court looks for a good faith reason to believe the person is substance abuse impaired or has a substance use disorder and a co-occurring mental health disorder. The impairment must have caused a loss of self-control over substance use.

The person must also meet one of several further tests. Impaired judgment may leave them unable to see their need for services. Neglect or refusal of self-care, without care or treatment, must pose a real and present threat of substantial harm, and it must not be apparent that the harm can be avoided through the help of willing, able, and responsible family members or friends or other services. Or they may have hurt, or threatened to hurt, themselves or someone else.

Housing and treatment are separate tracks. A treatment order does not by itself give your child a place to stay. Plan both tracks before the court date, not after.

Who Can File, and What a Petition Must Show

For an adult, a petition can be filed by a spouse or legal guardian, any relative, a service provider, or an adult with direct personal knowledge of the impairment and prior treatment, under Fla. Stat. § 397.68112.

A petition may be filed by the adult’s spouse or legal guardian, any relative, a service provider, or an adult who has direct personal knowledge of the adult’s substance abuse impairment and his or her prior course of assessment and treatment. Under Fla. Stat. § 397.68141, the petition must also state the relationship between the respondent and the petitioner, and the name of the respondent’s attorney, if known. It must also lay out the facts, under Fla. Stat. § 397.68141.

Those facts include why you believe the adult is impaired. They include why you believe the adult has lost self-control, and why you believe the adult has inflicted or is likely to inflict physical harm on himself or herself or others, or that the adult’s refusal of care is based on judgment so impaired by reason of substance abuse that the adult is incapable of appreciating his or her need for care.

A petition may include a report from a qualified professional who examined the adult within 30 days before filing. If the adult was not assessed, or refused to be, the petition must say so.

Write a dated timeline. List each overdose, relapse, hospital visit, arrest, or disappearance. Add every program and intervention tried, and what happened. Vague stories weaken a petition. Clear dates give the court facts to weigh.

How the Petition, Hearing, and Treatment Order Work in Sequence

The court moves in a set order: filing, notice, assessment, hearing, and then an order only if the proof supports it.

1. Filing. The petition goes to the clerk of the court in the county where the adult is located. The clerk may not charge a filing fee under Fla. Stat. § 397.681. In Miami-Dade, the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts directs adult treatment petitions to the Clerk’s Office Probate Court.
2. Notice and hearing date. The court sets a hearing within 10 court working days unless a continuance is granted. Copies go to the adult, the petitioner, and the adult’s attorney, if known, along with the adult’s spouse or guardian if applicable and any other persons the court directs (Fla. Stat. § 397.68151).
3. Assessment. An adult generally cannot be ordered into treatment without a clinical assessment. The adult’s assessment by a qualified professional must occur within 72 hours after arrival at a licensed service provider, unless signs of withdrawal or a need for detoxification or medical treatment extend that time, but no later than the scheduled hearing date, absent a court-approved extension (Fla. Stat. § 397.6957).
4. Hearing. The court hears relevant evidence, including family members’ testimony about past history. Testimony is under oath, the proceedings are recorded, and the court may order drug tests.
5. Order. If the conditions are proven by clear and convincing evidence, the court may order treatment for up to 90 days (Fla. Stat. § 397.697).
6. Renewal or early release. A renewal petition must be filed before the period ends. It can add up to another 90 days (Fla. Stat. § 397.6975). Early release is possible at any time before the end of the 90-day involuntary treatment services period, or any extension granted under the statute, when one of the listed conditions applies, such as the person no longer meeting the criteria and consenting to voluntary treatment, the likelihood of harm no longer existing, or the person no longer needing treatment services (Fla. Stat. § 397.6971).

The petitioner carries the burden of proof. In J.C. v. State, the Fifth District reversed where the judge questioned the only witness while the petitioner was absent. That is Fifth District law, not a rule for every court in Florida.

Protecting Your Family’s Safety While the Case Moves Forward

Keep your family’s safety steps running while the case moves. A petition takes time, and daily risks do not wait.

• Keep emergency contacts and medical history current.
• Write down each incident with the date, time, and what happened.
• Keep copies of messages, and records of past treatment.
• Note which steps helped and which did not.

If your child is in immediate danger or an overdose is happening, call 911 first. Then bring the events to your lawyer so the petition reflects them accurately.

In an emergency, a court may enter an ex parte order for assessment and stabilization based on the petition alone (Fla. Stat. § 397.6818). A provider may hold the adult for no more than 72 hours of observation, unless a listed exception applies.

The petition’s facts matter from the first day. In D.H. v. K.J.R., the Second District held an ex parte order was error where the petition did not give a good faith reason to believe the statutory criteria were met.

What Our Attorneys Handle for Your Family

Our team handles the Marchman Act case from the first review of the facts through the hearing and any order that follows.

• Review of your family’s facts and a dated timeline
• Preparation and filing of the Marchman Act petition
• Representation of the petitioner at the hearing
• Work on any treatment order, including renewal and early release questions

Richard J. Casey III, Esq. is responsible for this page. Our attorneys and support staff handle case work together.

Your adult child also has the right to a lawyer at every stage of the case. If your child wants a lawyer but cannot afford private counsel, your child has the right to court-appointed counsel. The court must also appoint counsel if it believes your child needs or wants the assistance of counsel, without regard to your child’s wishes (Fla. Stat. § 397.681). If a matter may be referred to another lawyer or firm, we will tell you at the outset.

Why Families Work With a Firm That Limits Its Practice to This Area

Robinson & Casey limits its practice to Marchman Act petitions and guardianship matters, so its work centers on these two areas.

That focus shapes the details. Where your child is located when the petition is filed matters. In J.P. v. J.N., the Fifth District held that a petition filed in the wrong county did not divest the circuit court of jurisdiction. That question is one of venue, and it is handled differently from a lack of jurisdiction.

If your child has moved between counties, this detail can change where the petition belongs. The firm reviews it with you at the start.

When a family needs more than a treatment order, the firm also handles guardianship matters. These include emergency temporary, plenary, limited, and mental health guardianship.

Common Questions Parents Ask Before Filing

Most parents first ask whether a petition will house their child. It will not, so housing needs its own plan.