If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, How to enforce a child support order when the paying parent lives outside of Texas with the great process!
Divorce Attorneys in Houston: One of the most helpless feelings that a parent can experience is being in a position where you are not receiving the court ordered child support that you are entitled to. This can leave you vulnerable to the ups and downs of your own income leaving you little wiggle room to plan and budget for your family. On another level, it can and should anger you because your child’s other parent is placing other responsibilities ahead of providing for their child. Having someone essentially tell you that your child isn’t that important can be extremely hurtful- especially when that other person is your child’s parent. Make no mistake, you have options available to you if and when your child’s other parent does not fulfill their end of the bargain when it comes to paying child support. The most straightforward and practical option when it comes to bringing the violations of your child support order to the attention of a judge is called an Enforcement suit. An enforcement lawsuit seeks to do exactly what it sounds like- enforce something, namely a court order. You would file this lawsuit just like a Divorce or Original child custody suit. The only difference is that this the second case under the original case number that you were assigned in your child custody/divorce case. In this suit you would be notifying the judge of the other parent’s violations of the child support order and can then request “relief” from the court in the form of money and possible jail time for your child’s other parent. It takes effort and planning on your part to get to the point where you can successfully present your case to a judge. Before then you are just another parent who is not receiving the child support payments you are supposed to be. Sometimes taking that first step towards learning about child support enforcement cases is the most difficult step in the process. What happens, though, when your child’s other parent does not live close to your child or even within the State of Texas? Is the process the same for parents that do live in-State? Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC will detail this subject. People moving frequently is a reality in today’s world As economies change, the job market changes as well. Gone are the days where a person is well guaranteed to grow up and live in one geographic location. Many times, people will up and move not only across a city but across the country for a variety of reasons. Family courts cannot force you or your child’s other parent to reside in a certain place. However, a family court does have jurisdiction to limit where your child resides. Many parents choose to include what is known as a geographic restriction within their original court order. This geographic restriction often limits where your child can live to the county where your case was filed and any county that borders it. Family law language would term this as any county “contiguous” to the county where your case has been filed. I have seen families in the Houston area use Harris County and any county contiguous to Harris. I have seen parents state that their child can live in Harris or Montgomery counties. I have even seen some parents state that the child must remain in a school district due to the excellent reputation of the schools. Whatever option is chosen, you need to know whether a geographic restriction is in place for you child and if so where your child can reside. Getting back to the specific topic of this blog post, it happens that sometimes parents will cross state lines and begin to live in another state even if a geographic restriction is in place for their child. This parent is most frequently the non custodial parent- meaning that their child does not live with him or her primarily. There is nothing against the “rules” to do this. Again, a court cannot tell this parent where he or she can live. However, what it does do is open up the places where the child can reside. The reason being is that once the non custodial parent leaves the geographic region, so can the custodial parent and child. Out of sight, out of mind unfortunately Houston Divorce Attorneys: Once your child’s other parent moves out of state it becomes an unfortunate situation that because he or she does not see your child as frequently their motivation to pay child support can decrease a great deal. Maybe their move was predicated upon the promise of a job in the new location that did not actually come together as planned. Whatever the reason, if you are left waiting on child support from a parent that lives out of state here is what you need to know. There are procedures in place that all states follow that allow for parents to enforce child support orders when the parent who owes child support resides outside of the home state. The Uniform Interstate Child Support Act (UIFSA) is the federal statute that contains the specific laws that pertain to this subject. In Texas the Office of the Attorney General is the governmental body charged with overseeing the complex child support structure in Texas. You as the custodial parent would need to send the child support order to whatever body governs child support enforcement cases in the State where your child’s other parent resides. Then the order is reviewed and it will be sent on to the county judge where the other parent lives. It is in that court that child support enforcement cases are hard. You may be asking how an out of state court would so easily enforce the child support laws of Texas. To answer this question you would need to know that UIFSA operates based on the legal certainty that the out of state court would honor Texas state law and the court in the other state would apply our laws to the process in whatever state the other parent is residing in. What happens if the other parent does not pay Whatever collection methods are approved by Texas law will be enforced in the out of State court. Garnishing the parent’s wages is a possibility if the parent’s employer can be found out. Missed child support payments can be made known to credit bureaus and liens can be placed on the property of that parent. Finally licenses like hunting, fishing, driving, commercial driving, etc. can be suspended for the failure to pay court ordered child support. In extreme situations you can ask a Texas court to hold a non-paying parent in confinement for a period not to exceed 180 days or six months. Depending on the amount of child support that is actually owed this may be an option. Either way, an enforcement case is pretty straightforward in the sense that you must show the missed payments and the amount of money that is owed. There is not much the other parent can do to counteract your alleged proof of the violations. Experience is essential when managing a child support enforcement case Divorce Attorneys Houston: If you intend to pursue a child support enforcement case against your child’s other parent it is in your best interest to become as well versed in the child support laws of our state as possible. If at all possible you should hire an attorney who has handled these type of cases before so that you can be as prepared as possible heading into the case. After reading today’s blog post if you have any questions about the material that we covered please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. We offer free of charge consultations with our licensed family law attorneys six days a week. Whether you live in Baytown, Katy, Conroe or Tomball we work tirelessly on behalf of our clients and take pride in doing so. Before you rush into a case without much knowledge of the process or the law it is best to meet with an attorney who has been there and done that. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC are those attorneys and we thank you for your consideration ... Continue Reading
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If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Handling issues related to the Right of First Refusal in Texas family law cases with the great process!
Family Lawyer Houston: The right of first refusal is an issue that comes up in family law cases that can cause even the most creative and experienced family law attorney to scratch their heads on how to proceed. Essentially, the right of first refusal allows a parent who is not entitled to possession for a specified period of possession to be able to take possession of the child if the other parent is not able to do so. Allow me to provide you with an example of how this situation could arise in real life. Suppose that your ex-husband is scheduled for a visitation period with your son beginning at 6:00 p.m. on this Friday and ending at 6:00 p.m. on the following Sunday. In the morning on Thursday, he receives a phone call that alerts him to the fact that he will need to work this weekend. Since your divorce decree contains a right of first refusal, he must contact you as soon as he becomes aware of this scheduling conflict and provide you with your right to refuse visitation that is offered to you. You have the option to take possession of your son this weekend even though the divorce decree states this is your ex-husband's weekend for possession of him. We also see issues that arise when parents like yourself begin dating again after a divorce has concluded. If you are not able to take possession of your child for a weekend visit, you may want your girlfriend to be able to pick your child up from his mothers’ home and then drop him off the following Sunday. Since you are able to designate an adult to pick your child up in the event that you are unable to, what’s the harm in having that same adult care for your child during a weekend that you’re not able to see him? Your girlfriend may really want to see your child, and after all- it’s your weekend so it should be your call, right? How is the right of the first refusal defined in your custody orders? This is the first question that we need to ask ourselves in relation to your particular circumstances. If you are considering whether or not to include a right of first refusal in your child custody orders, you and your attorney need to first think about how that term is going to be defined and applied as it pertains to your family. What is the specific period of time that a parent cannot be with the child that will cause the right of first refusal to be triggered? You may be able to negotiate that if you or your new spouse is unable to be present with your child during a period of possession (sometimes lasting between four and eight hours), then you must contact your ex-spouse and allow him or her to come and pick up your child for that certain period of time. Whenever the predetermined/agreed to amount of time is over, your ex-spouse would then return your child to your home and allow you to complete your period of possession as scheduled. Even when you get specifics as this handled, you need to consider the effects of including that kind of language in your order. If your ex-spouse gets home from work at 12:00 a.m. do you have to get your son dressed and over to the other parent's house within the hour? That would seem impractical and not necessarily in your child’s best interests, but strict language regarding the right of first refusal could theoretically make this a necessity. A compromise could be that if the parent were to become available to possess the child at a time after 9:00 p.m., the parent in possession of the child on a temporary basis could wait until 9:00 a.m. the following day to drop the child back off at the other parent’s home. The other issue that we need to discuss is what your child would be comfortable with as far as a substitute adult to possess him or her when you or the other parent is not available. It sounds ok enough for you to have your mother, father, aunt or girlfriend available to watch your child for half a day when you have to work unexpectedly. However, if your son doesn’t get along with any of those people then it would not seem like it would be in his best interests to leave him with any of those folks. Unless you and your child’s other parent have a group of people that are able to care for your child in these situations then a right of first refusal may not be a wise thing to include in your orders. How will extracurricular activities be handled? Divorce Lawyers Houston: In this day and age, there are camps, classes, training sessions, and other activities for any sport or extra-curricular event under the sun. Odds are decent that you and your ex-spouse may not see eye to eye on your child's potential or the role of these activities in the life of your child. For instance, you may believe that your child should only be involved in extracurricular activities to the extent that they can make friends and build their self-confidence. However, your ex-spouse may believe that these additional activities are essential for the development of your child and that he or she has the potential to become a professional ball-player, musician or dancer. How can this fundamental disagreement be solved? I have seen some families achieve success when each parent is allowed to select one activity for their child to participate in each semester of school. The costs for activities would then need to be divided up in some manner between parents. Additional activities (camps, classes, etc.) would be paid for by the parent who selected that activity. Transportation to and from activities would also need to be determined. If you and your ex-spouse earn similar incomes the costs could be split evenly. Otherwise, a proportionate split may be more appropriate. Another issue that may be relevant to discuss for your family is whether or not both parents may attend practices or rehearsals. If you and the other parent can be around one another without issue then this is not a problem. However, if you all have shown an inability to be in close proximity to one another you may have to limit attendance to the parent who paid for the camp or activity. Both parents in most cases can attend performances and games, no matter what parent is in possession of the child on that particular day. How will you be reimbursed for uninsured medical costs? As a part of any child custody order, you or your child’s other parent will be made to be responsible for providing health insurance for your child. Whether it is insurance provided for by one of your employers, insurance through the private marketplace, Obamacare or Medicaid, your child will need to be covered. One of you will pay for that insurance or will reimburse the one who pays for medical coverage. However, not every cost that your child will incur for medical treatment will be covered by insurance. These are called uninsured medical costs. Suppose that you take your child to a pediatrician appointment and he orders a test for your child that is not covered by insurance. Once you receive a bill for that test you would need to submit the bill to your child’s other parent so that he can pay you back for the test you paid for (in the event that it is his responsibility to pay uninsured medical expenses). What I will advise clients to do is to negotiate to include a deadline by which medical bills have to be submitted for reimbursement purposes. For instance, a provision in the order that specifies how much each parent has to pay towards uninsured medical costs, as well as a deadline to submit the relevant bill to the other parent, is a good idea. I would tell you that it is common to have parents agree to split 50/50 uninsured medical costs. Since it is usually the primary conservator who takes the child to the doctor or for unscheduled visits to hospitals and such, it will be that parent who has to pay the bill upfront. What I tell parents in this position to do is to set up a reminder on their phone to submit bills by the end of the month to the other parent to be reimbursed, However, a good practice is to simply scan and email the bill to the other parent as quickly as you can. That way you have a record that the bill was submitted and you can be paid back as quickly as possible. Issues related to military parents Family Attorney Houston: If you are the primary conservator of your child and have been deployed overseas as a member of our military, you have the ability to designate an adult to exercise your possession and conservatorship rights while you are overseas. The law in Texas is there is an order of preference as far as assigning that right. For example, you should first give preference to the other parent. That other parent would not normally have the right to determine the primary residence of your child, but you could allow him or her to act in that capacity for as long as you are overseas and unable to do so yourself. However, if selecting the other parent to take these rights on a temporary basis were not in the best interests of your child, then a nonparent may be chosen instead ... Continue Reading If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Creative solutions to problems regarding parental rights in Texas with the great process!
Houston Family Lawyers: If you are going through a difficult child custody or divorce case and are in need of practical solutions to the problems that you are facing, you have come to the right place. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan achieves successful results for our clients in part because we are able to arrive at practical solutions for our clients using negotiation and our experience in Texas family law. In every family case, there is an issue that seems like it will be nearly impossible to solve. While it may be unavoidable that you will have tough circumstances in your case, it does not have to be true that those tough circumstances will invariably lead to a trial. Parenting decisions related to the education, physical health and mental well-being of your child are among the most important rights that you will have in relation to your child. How those rights are allocated between you and your child's other parent can determine a great deal of how happy, productive and healthy your child will be in the future. Given the importance of this subject, I wanted to devote today's blog post to discuss how you can arrive at a desirable outcome and not have to see the inside of a courtroom in order to do so. Educational Decisions We touched on this briefly in yesterday’s blog post but I think that it bears repeating today. Parents in Texas family law cases no longer have to assign the right to designate the primary residence of their child to one parent in particular. It is possible for you and the other parent to agree that your child’s residence should be restricted to a specific geographic region, instead. This can go a long ways towards making you and your child’s other parent satisfied that neither of you will be a primary conservator of your child, it still opens up some questions about where your child will attend school. Children in Texas are allowed to attend a school in the school district in which either of their parents resides. If this is the case and either you or the other parent are within your rights to have your child attend the schools zoned to your residence, what we need to figure out is how are the educational rights going to be divided between you and your child's other parent as far as decision making is concerned. What school will your child be attending? How will it be possible for you and your child’s other parent, when you are not in agreement with one another, make educational decisions together on behalf of that child? In many cases, the two parents will eventually agree that one of them should be able to make decisions regarding education exclusively. The parent who holds this right would have to seek out the counsel and opinion of the other parent but would not be bound in any way by those opinions. If this option is not chosen, what can you all do to avoid stalemates when there is a disagreement on a particular issue? In the search for a tie-breaker, a therapist, counselor or other trusted individual is oftentimes sought to fill this role. The counselor could select the appropriate school for your child at the beginning of each school year. If not a therapist, a pediatrician or school administrator/official can fill these shoes if necessary. Medical decisions that involve surgery The term "invasive medical procedure" is the language that you will see used most often in reference to medical procedures that closely mirror surgeries. However, you and your child's other parent will need to figure out for yourselves what an invasive medical procedure is. Do dental procedures count as an invasive medical treatment? What about a tattoo? Look to the terms of your settlement agreement and ultimately the order in your case to see what you all define an invasive medical procedure as. On a more practical level, you and your child's other parent will need to figure out how you are going to manage the scheduling of doctor's appointments. Can this be done without consulting with the other parent? Can both parents be present in the doctor's office during an appointment? Hopefully, surgeries and other invasive procedures are not that commonplace for your child, but a doctor's appointment probably will be. Another major issue that you will need to get squared away is which doctor is going to be your child’s primary care physician. Once you figure this out you will need to decide how specialists are going to be considered and selected if the need to do so arises. What some families will do is agree to maintain primary care with a particular doctor for as long as practical. If that physician moves, retires or a parent wishes to change to another physician, that primary care doctor should be consulted and their choice for a replacement should be used. A good rule of thumb for your attorney to use with you in this sort of setting is to try and have you think about this decision in the way that you would have you and your child's other parent never separated in the first place. How would you all have arrived at a solution in this setting if there were a disagreement between the two of you? If you are like most families, you would sit down at the dinner table and discuss the issues once enough information has been collected to have an intelligent discussion. From there you would decide what arrangement, as far as parental decision making is concerned, would be the best for your child. Psychological or psychiatric treatment- who calls the shots? Houston Family Law Attorney: The same type of analysis can be done for psychiatric and psychological decisions that we just wrapped up in our previous section on invasive medical procedures. These are also very important rights that will need to be divided between yourself and the other parent to your child. Consider just how often medications are prescribed for children or the role that specific diagnoses (like ADD or ADHD) can have on your child in school and other places. You need to arrive at a parenting structure that benefits your child. Consider why you and your child’s other parent are no longer in a relationship. Could it be that issues like this helped to drive you both apart from one another? It is probably not the case that one of these disagreements was the driving factor that led to the breakup of your relationship, but it could very well be that the disagreements on these sort of subject contributed heavily to the decision to end the relationship. Drug use among children is a problem in our country. There are all sorts of facts and figures that I could cite here, but I think we would all agree that any amount of drug use by a child is too much. As such, if you find yourself in a position where your child is abusing drugs or alcohol it is extremely important that you be able to see to it that the child receives treatment. However, not every family can agree on how best to handle it. Consider a situation where your child was caught smoking marijuana. Your ex-spouse may just think that it is a phase that he or she is going through. Nothing to be all that concerned with, certainly no need to send your child to a doctor or other medical professional for consultations. However, you may take the exact opposite point of view. You could see the situation as a cry for help from your child and a long-lasting problem that you have to nip in the bud while you still can. When you all hold such divergent views how can you possibly arrive at a solution that is acceptable to both of you? What your attorney should be working to help you avoid is a situation where you seek expensive medical care for your child over the objection of your child’s other parent. Your child’s other parent could then reverse course a week later without consulting you. What you are then left with is a child who is not really receiving any consistent care for their problem(s), a bill for medical care that provided no benefit to anyone, and two upset parents. Sounds like a perfect storm for a family law case. Your attorney should be working with you to answer a few, important questions. First of all, which parent should be making the decision on whether or not to have your child formally evaluated for a medical/psychological problem? Once that decision is made you need to decide which parent is going to be the one to make a decision on what course of action to take on behalf of your child? What happens if it becomes obvious that it may be necessary to consider inpatient care for your child? If nothing else, a tie-breaker would be good to have inserted into the court order in the event that no conclusion can be reached on these subjects. What about other rights not included in the Texas Family Code as necessary? Divorce Lawyers in Houston: The three rights that we just finished discussing are the big-ticket items that you and your attorney will focus heavily on when it comes to negotiating final orders in your family law case. However, there are other rights that can be important as well that are not always discussed in family cases ... Continue Reading What will your child’s school do if you and your ex-spouse disagree about an educational decision?12/8/2019 If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, What will your child’s school do if you and your ex-spouse disagree about an educational decision? with the great process!
Houston Family Lawyer: After your divorce, you and your ex-spouse will likely share (to one extent or another) the decision-making responsibilities associated with your child going to school. Sometimes that could mean a decision regarding whether or not to have your child skip a grade or be held back. It could mean the decision revolves around whether or not to allow your child to enter into a special education course in a subject where he is struggling. Regardless, these are usually emotionally volatile situations that can lead to disagreements between parents. Odds are you and your ex-spouse will not agree on every single contested issue that comes before you that relates to your child. If you disagree with one another regarding an educational decision, the next question you need to ask yourselves is what will happen to your child? Will the school be able to move forward with what it says best? Will you and your ex-spouse need to see the judge? In today's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, we will discuss this subject in greater detail. A school will look to a court order whenever you and your ex-spouse disagree If you have been to court and have been issued a court order signed by a judge, that order will be consulted in order to determine what role each parent can play in the educational decision making in reference to a child. It may be that you are the only parent who has to be consulted when it comes to making decisions regarding education for your child. If that is the case then this becomes a much easier question and the school can move forward with whatever decision you make. Your ex-spouse may disagree with your decision, but that means he or she will need to take it up the judge in an attempted modification of that order. It gets trickier if there is no court order in place or if the current order requires you and your child’s other parent to agree on educational decisions for one to be made. While you and your ex-spouse work to arrive at a conclusion regarding what to do, the school will have to wait. They cannot do anything without your permission and that of your spouse. The best thing that your child’s school can do is provide both of you with information with which a better decision can be reached. In the end, if a mutually agreeable decision cannot be reached, many families will just head back to the courthouse and attempt to modify the order in a way that is favorable to their side. Most schools will not weigh in on what parent is doing the better job of parenting your child. Before you negotiate parental rights and duties in your divorce, you need to consider the long term consequences in areas like education. What to do about picking your child up from school Suppose that you pick your child up from school every day. However, in your divorce, you and your spouse agreed to a Standard Possession Order. Given these circumstances how can you proceed? In many cases, parents like you will mutually agree to not abide by all the terms of your Standard Possession Order. You are completely able to create your own customized parenting plan that better suits your circumstances. The Standard Possession Order will act as a fall back plan for those times that you and your ex-spouse cannot agree on a plan. An issue can arise in situations like this, however, when your child’s school does not know who will be picking him up from school. They can always refer to your orders in a pinch, but since you do not have to follow those orders to the letter there can be problems that potentially arise. The school may take it upon themselves to remind you and your ex-spouse that for the safety of your child that teachers and administrators would like to know ahead of time when the routine will be changed. Providing written notice to the school of any anticipated changes in the transportation schedule would be appreciated. A quick phone call or short email can make a huge difference to eliminate confusion among those people at your child's school who is in charge of making sure the kids go with the correct parent on a certain day. I have seen situations where both parents go to the school to pick up a child and there can be difficulties when the child can only go home with one of the parents. At the very least you will be asked by the school to provide written notice of about any anticipated changes to the Standard Possession Order. What happens if a parent wants to eat lunch with their child every day at school? Divorce Lawyer Houston: There is nothing abnormal about you or your child’s other parenting wanting to eat lunch with him or her at school once a month. What can become burdensome (and this is something that I have seen happen) is when one parent wants to eat lunch at school every single day. A divorce decree will usually state that both you and your child’s other parent will be able to attend school activities. It doesn’t matter which parent is in possession of your child. Additionally, many school districts in Texas will allow you and your ex-spouse to visit your child at school during lunchtime. I can remember fondly when my mom would come to school when I was a kiddo. She would sometimes come with some lunch from a restaurant for a friend and me, which was always a special activity. However, in other families, that type of situation could get out of hand. Imagine a scenario playing out where you and your child's other parent both come to school during lunch to see your child. While you may do this every once in a while, it can become distracting if your ex-spouse were to do this every day. In the situation I was alluding to a moment ago, I have seen an opposing party come to school literally every day with Subway sandwiches for his kids. Our client, who had made box lunches, would get extremely frustrated with this because it was an unnecessary distraction for her children since he was beginning to come to school every day. Basically, the school will keep an eye on the situation and will need to make a determination if your spouse going to lunch at school every day has become a distraction or not. I doubt that each school or school district has a set in stone policy, either. So, your child’s school will likely be making a judgment called based on its own experiences and the recommendations of its administrators. The emotional well-being of your child is surely attached to their educational well-being. Do not be surprised if your child’s school asks your ex-spouse to limit their visits to the school if they believe that the visits are having an adverse effect on your child or any other student. Parent-Teacher Conference: A potential site for disagreement between parents I don’t think that anyone would attempt to argue that a parent-teacher conference wasn’t a school activity. As such, it is likely that both you and your child’s other parent have the ability to both attend this event. However, unlike a basketball game played in front of a hundred people in a large gymnasium, this event will be held in a small classroom with only you, your child’s teacher and your ex-spouse. Your child’s school will invite you and your ex-spouse to both attend the event. Given that teachers, depending on the school are often very busy on the night of parent-teacher conferences, you may not be able to have separate time slots scheduled for you and your ex-spouse. Also, it does not matter that the event is scheduled during the school week when you are in possession of your child. Your ex-spouse may attend this activity regardless of whether or not he or she is in possession of your child on the evening the conferences are held. Unless your court order bars your ex-spouses from attending events like this, or their parental rights have been terminated outright, you can expect that the school will welcome both you and your child's other parent to the conference. Hopefully, you and your ex-spouse are in a place where you can attend this event together without an issue. However, if you are reading this blog post something tells me that this is, unfortunately, not the case. If your child’s school has a reason to believe that there could be some conflict when you and your ex-spouse attend the conference then separate conferences may be scheduled. Or, you may need to work out a separate day for you or your ex-spouse to attend separately. What happens if your ex-spouse wants another person to pick up your child from school? Houston Divorce: Now you are about six months removed from your divorce and your ex-spouse's boyfriend/girlfriend, mother or new husband/wife wants to be able to pick your child up from school. It is essential that your child has a support system that he or she is able to rely upon after the divorce. That support system will oftentimes include people that fall into these categories. Imagine how much important it will be to have your child be able to have loving persons available to care for him or her after your marriage has ended ... Continue Reading If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, What does your child’s school need to do once you have been to family court? with the great process!
Houston Divorce Lawyers: One of the most frequently asked questions of me in relation to people’s family law cases is what their child’s school needs to do in relation to their newly produced family court orders. Many of those orders will tangentially affect your child and their school. Picking up a child from school, dropping off a child at school, allowing for early release of the child for a doctor’s appointment and what parent can access information are just a few of the instances where your child’s school is relevant when discussing your family law situation. The administration and teachers of your child’s school come face to face with issues related to family law cases on a daily basis. They have a need to balance your parental rights and that of your child’s other parent, all the while keeping a focus on the well-being and learning of your child. It is not an easy position for these folks to be In, but they don’t get to choose the situations that their children find themselves in. They, like you, just have to make the best of whatever circumstances are in play. To what extent does school administration have to review final orders from your divorce or child custody case? In any family law case that affects the relationship that a parent has with one of their students, the school will need to be aware of any of your parental rights have been restricted or terminated outright. The rights that you have are likely to be assigned specifically in the order. If the order doesn’t state that you have a particular right, then it is difficult to argue that you actually do. For instance, most parents after a family law case will retain the right to attend school events for their child, speak to their child’s teacher(s) and access their educational records like progress reports and report cards. A big thing for many families is making sure that both parents are listed as emergency contacts for their child. Imagine your child breaking a bone at school and not being telephoned at work to let you know what has happened. This can be a major factor in why schools need to know the particular circumstances of each of their students. This can be especially important if your child is being considered for alternative learning environments, special education coursework or accelerated learning opportunities. In some families, only one parent has the ability to make decisions whether or not to enroll their child in these type of courses. However, your family may not be in the same boat and school officials need to be aware of your particular circumstances so they don’t contribute to the violations of a court order. What if there is no court order in place at all? An even trickier situation for your child’s school could involve you and your spouse- even if you have never gotten a divorce or been to family court. For instance, if you and your spouse are still legally married but are not living together and have been separated for some time, that may give your child’s school the impression that you are divorced. This sort of informal divorce/separation can be very confusing for your child’s school officials. On the other hand, you and your child’s other parent may never have gotten married and the school is not aware of this. It doesn’t matter ultimately what your relationship status is if you have never been to court. As long as your child’s father has been legally declared as your child’s parent then he has the same parental rights associated with your child as you. However, if he has not been legally declared your child’s father than he has no legal rights to her and therefore would not be able to take part in decision making, pick up/drop off or access to school records unless you speak to the administration about those circumstances specifically. What happens in a situation where you are the only parent to interact with your child’s school? Family Law Attorney Houston: In many situations, you may find yourself as the only parent who has a role in interacting with your child's school when it comes to their grades, classes or picks up/drop off issues. Your child's other parent may play a role in their life but if it does not involve school-related matters the school may be completely unaware that there is another parent involved. If you are the only parent who is working with your child's school, then it is likely that they will be seeking only your approval on any of the issues that we have been discussing today. Could your child be enrolled in school by someone other than you or their other parent? It is possible that your child could have originally be enrolled in their school by a non-parent. Maybe you were going through problems with your spouse that required that you leave the home and attend counseling, therapy or something similar where you could not be present for your child for a period of time. Public school policy in Texas is that if a parent is not available to enroll a child in school, a non-parent can be allowed to do so. That nonparent would need to show proof that he or she has the legal capacity to do so. This can occur even if you do not have a court order to show the school. That non-parent can not only enroll your child in school but can also be asked for input on decision making responsibilities for your child. While this is not an ideal situation, the school is in a position where they need to get input from someone close to your child. This is the policy of the schools but is not always the most “comfortable” thing to do from a legal perspective if there is nothing from a court to justify allowing the non-parent to act in this capacity. The best-case scenario for you and your child's other parent is to sign over power of attorney to the non-parent as soon as possible. The non-parent can provide that form to your child's school to keep in their records for future reference. What is a power of attorney? You may sign a legal document that allows another person to be able to step into your shoes and act in your capacity as a parent on behalf of your child when you are unable to do so. That power of attorney may be limited to certain areas (like educational issues) or can be more broadly applied. This is done on a voluntary basis and would not be the result of a court order. Let’s say that you are going to be away from your child for a certain period of time. You may decide to leave your child with your mother and then sign a Power of Attorney that allows your mother to act as a parent to your child when it comes to decision making related to school or medical issues. While you are away from your child, your mother would have temporary rights. Keep in mind that if you have been to family court previously and have had your parental rights restricted in any way, you are now only able to assign rights to your mother that you have retained. What does your child’s school need to do when an absentee parent comes to withdraw your child? Houston Divorce Attorney: Suppose that your child’s father has never been involved in her life in any way. With this background in mind, your child’s school would only have been interacting with you on the day to day matters related to your child attending school there. Your child’s father would not be known to the school administration. What happens when her father comes to school one day, announces that he is your child’s father and wants to withdraw her from school? It is likely that your child’s school would not readily accept that this person has the right to make this request. Each public school in Texas has different protocols in place for responding to requests like this ... Continue Reading If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, How to negotiate and not litigate child support issues in Texas with the great process!
Houston Divorce Lawyer: In yesterday's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, we spent some time discussing issues related to negotiating child support in Texas family law cases. There are a few issues that are more polarizing and difficult to discuss than child support when it comes to divorce or child custody cases. I've found that just about nobody, moms or dads, are completely satisfied with how much they will either pay or be paid in child support at the end of a case. The exchange of money from parent to parent just makes this a particularly emotional subject. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't ways to approach child support that more readily can lead to a fair settlement. This isn't a fantasy world- take into account real-life circumstances One thing that we discussed yesterday was this idea that children should be able to lead very similar lives before and after a divorce. To that end, child support must help make up that difference if a parent can afford it. So, if you're soon to be ex-spouse is a high-income earner then he will be expected to pay more in child support. Millionaires are likely going to be made to pay child support according to a millionaire's capabilities, not according to the capabilities of a person that earns $120,000 per year. With that said, you should not negotiate according to reasonable expectations of what will happen in a trial. Ultimately, you and your opposing party are balancing your own preferences versus what is likely to be the result if you were to go to trial. If you are likely to win on an issue in trial you can afford to be a little more aggressive in negotiations. Likewise, if you are likely to lose on that particular issue in the trial it would be wise to not push the envelope too hard in negotiations. Since most people tend to live beyond their means, or at least very close to that point you need to negotiate for child support with this in mind. You and your ex-spouse may have to live a little more frugally after your divorce even if you are used to having a very strong household income. Budgeting is more important, minimizing transportation costs becomes essential and less time to work because of an increase in solo-parenting time should lead you towards minimizing costs and negotiating for a reasonable amount of child support. Financial decisions associated with post-divorce life are really difficult for most people. Even if you are able to negotiate for a sizeable amount of monthly child support, you may not be able to escape the reality that your child may not be able to do all of their activities as they have become accustomed to. You may want to talk to your child about this ahead of time in order to help her focus on the activities that are the most important to her. I have seen many parents walk into mediation for final orders like a child on a shopping spree. With a wishlist a mile long, these parents will act as if the mediation is a holiday of some sort. It is not. Do not think that just because you are going to be the parent who is paid child support that this means an unlimited amount of room to negotiate. Having a high-income spouse is a nice benefit in the situation you find yourself in, but a judge is not likely to respond favorably if he or she believes you are initiating a cash grab in their courtroom. How can we put a bow on this topic, then? Well, you can start by figuring out what activities your child has always been involved with. These are the costs that you should ask your spouse to take into account when determining child support. Do not use mediation to bring up the fact that little Johnny expressed an interest in going to a theater camp in upstate New York for the first time ever. Adding costs that do not already exist into divorce during a trial is not a winning game-plan. Finally, you should absolutely have a budget handy for reference. The mediator does not know your case that well. He or she will only know what your attorney has told him or her. It is wise to have a budget available to show how you are justifying your requests. Operating on a budget is a good idea, anyway, and something that I would recommend you doing for now and in the future. Use it during your family law case to negotiate child support that is both appropriate and well thought out. What do you want to accomplish in your case when it comes to negotiating child support? Divorce Lawyer in Houston: If your goal is to settle a child support case for an amount of money that is perfectly in line with the guidelines set forth in the Texas Family Code, you should not experience any issues in your child custody or divorce case. The reason is that it is more likely than not that a judge would order that anyways in your case barring extreme circumstances like your child suffering from a disability or needing to attend a special school. Otherwise, if you are trying to negotiate for an amount of child support that is higher than the guideline amounts, I think that it is easier to do so when you begin your analysis from the perspective of what your goals are for your kids rather than how much money do you need to get there. We can sometimes get sidetracked in our analysis if we are constantly thinking about things in terms of dollars, cents, and paychecks. However, if you approaching things with your children's needs coming first you are unlikely to lose track of why you are doing all this in the first place. Why is this the case? I think the main reason is that parents want what is best for their kids. Even if you disagree with how your spouse expresses this desire, you will likely admit that he or she does what they do because they love your kids. We are all willing to sacrifice to one extent or another for our children, as well. Parents on both sides of the child support equation will have to make sacrifices in some way once their case is over with. Providing a lifestyle for your kids that is stable and loving can be accomplished, but you need to focus on this goal instead of only thinking about your child in terms of how much money can you get in child support. Long term goals for your children are crucial. What you want your child to be doing as far as their education, sports, extracurriculars, and other activities will drive how you negotiate for child support. Your own goals for your child and the goals that your child has for him or herself are crucial to being able to successfully negotiate child support. If you have an endpoint in mind that is half the battle. The next thing that you need to consider is what is your road map going to be for your child to arrive at their goals? Extra coaching, tutoring, equipment and the aforementioned summer camps are a part of many childhood routines. Once you have these two questions answered, it would be wise to put pen to paper and figure out how much all of this is going to cost not only in a year but for the duration of your child's pre-college years. If you and your spouse find that you are of the same mind when it comes to your goals for your child, then you will be in a strong position to negotiate child support. Shared goals and aspirations mean that your child will not only have your emotional support but will have your financial support as well. A family law case does not have to be a negative, fruitless endeavor. You can choose to make it a moment in time where you and your spouse put your heads together and helped create a plan for your child's life that you can both work on. Be as honest and transparent as possible Divorce Attorney Houston: You want to be in a situation where you can trust your opposing party and their attorney enough to engage in real negotiations with them on child support. If you mistrust one another then there is no way that you will be able to work with them on achieving whatever goals, you have in relation to child support. Here, you should make sure that your attorney is not fudging the numbers or doing something that is less than transparent, you should question him or her about it. Your goal is not to engage in shady dealings in mediation in hopes of squeezing a few dollars more out of your spouse. The point to negotiations is to allow everyone to operate with the same information to make good decisions for your child. The worst situation that you and your attorney can put yourselves in by not being fully honest with the other side is when you attempt to hide things from the other side, and those things eventually are discovered. You are not only acting unethically, but you are ruining any chance at engaging in good negotiations because the other side is never going to trust you all moving forward. Do not shoot yourselves in the foot in the long run just to accomplish a short term goal ... Continue Reading Resolving Child Support Disputes without going to court: A how-to guide for Texas parents11/27/2019 If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Resolving Child Support Disputes without going to court: A how-to guide for Texas parents with the great process!
Divorce Lawyer in Spring TX: Family law cases are typically not decided in a courtroom with a judge playing tiebreaker between two parents that cannot seem to agree on anything. I know that television and movies would have you think otherwise, but if you are facing a family law case do not start your case off with this mistaken assumption. I have known more than one person who was hesitant to file a family law case because they were so concerned that the case would take a lot of time, cost a lot of money and would be decided by a person that didn't even know you or your child. I think the subject that gets the most attention in family law has to be child support. Parties to family law cases will often times reach settlements on issues like property division, child custody, visitation, and other issues, but child support can be one that requires a little more effort to settle. Communication between parents is essential to settling a case and for some reason the ability to communicate breaks down when it comes to discussing child support. On some level, this may be confusing to many of you reading this blog post. Many family law cases are the sort where child support is very straightforward. For example, if you are responsible for the support of one child and earn $50,000 per year, you will likely pay child support according to the guidelines set forth in the Texas Family Code. However, if you earn more than $8,550 per month or if your child has a special need or disability then your situation may not be so simple. If you anticipate that settling your case will be difficult because of child support related issues, then today's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan is for you. I will share with you some tips that I have picked up in my time as a family law attorney that relates to settling child support issues before getting to a courtroom. Settling a case means that you have direct say over what the final orders of your case will be. If you are trying to avoid the expense and headaches associated with family law trials you should read this blog post. Discuss child support in terms of the specific needs of your child rather than in dollars and cents Spring TX Divorce Lawyer: For most children, you should have a very good idea of what he or she "costs" each year as far as their activities are concerned. Does he or she participate in extracurricular activities through school? Does he or she go to a private or public school? Does he or she play travel soccer which requires gear, uniforms and hotel costs? Or does he or she run cross country, which requires a couple of pairs of shoes and a Gatorade bottle? My point is that for most parents, you know pretty well what it takes to keep your kid moving as far as money is concerned. More importantly, you will know if your child has special medical or school-related needs that have to be attended to. If your reality is a child who goes to see a specialist once a month for treatment then those costs should already be worked into your family budget. Likewise, if your child has to receive tutoring in math every week in order to keep their grades up then this is likely a cost that has been in place for at least a few months prior to the start of your family law case. Again, you can predict these costs. They should not catch you by surprise once your family case gets moving. What you need to do is that once you have a firm idea of what those costs are on a monthly basis, you need to communicate them to your attorney. Many attorneys will fall into the trap of applying guidelines levels of child support for every case they have. This would for most cases, but your case isn’t one that the guideline levels of support would work for. If you know that your child needs a greater than average amount of monthly child support then you need to communicate that to your lawyer so that he can negotiate for that in mediation. Work with your attorney on coming up with outside the box solutions to your child support challenges The Texas Family Code is like any other group of laws contained within a codebook, especially in relation to child support. They are pretty inflexible. That works ok when you have a straightforward case. However, once you throw some curveballs into the mix of your case, then you may need some more creative, outside the box thinking in order to settle your case before a trial. You and your child’s other parent need to work with your attorneys to incorporate your child’s specific needs into a plan for achieving a just amount of child support to be paid. Remember that the amount of child support that is set may be the law for years to come. Fortunately what you and your soon to be ex-spouse agree to pay in child support can be much more flexible than what a judge is likely to order be paid. Suppose that you and your spouse want the ever-popular “50/50” possession schedule, where you split your child’s time with your spouse 50/50. If this is what you want as far as possession is concerned, you can calculate what each of your child support would be based on your income and then subtract the smaller amount from the larger amount. The parent who earns more income would then pay the difference in child support to the parent who earns less income. Uninsured medical costs can also be handled in a similar fashion. If you look at your own income and compare that to the other parent. Whatever your percentage of the household income is, you can pay that percentage of the uninsured medical costs that your child incurs. This way neither parent can argue that the other one doesn't have "skin in the game" when it comes to paying for these costs which can be difficult to predict on a year to year basis. If you want to feel like you have ownership over the costs of your child then this is a great way to do so. What about travel costs? Spring Divorce Lawyer: Many parents in today's world do not live in neighboring areas or even neighboring towns. In a metropolitan area like Houston, even suburbs like Kingwood and Katy can feel like they are light-years apart. What happens if, during the middle of your divorce case, your ex-spouse moves to Galveston for work? He would not necessarily be in violation of your court order's geographic restriction but there would be increased costs associated with transporting your child back and forth across a great distance. You should certainly take into consideration these costs when setting an amount of child support. If your spouse must bear the burden of paying most of the travel costs then you may offer a reduction in child support in an effort to settle your case rather than push it to a trial. This is a fair thing to do even after your child support case has ended. Suppose that you as the custodial parent choose to move to Galveston two months after the divorce was finalized. You are not in violation of your court order but that move has put a huge burden on your ex-spouse who now has to do a great deal more in the way of driving to see your child. In order to make this right, you can decrease the amount of child support that he is expected to pay. Having a handshake agreement to decrease the amount of child support is one way to go about accomplishing this goal, but you can also seek a modified order through mediation if you would like to get something in writing. In addition, you could always offer to do the driving once a month (for example) or offer to meet your ex-spouse halfway in between your homes in order to cut the driving distance he has to cover down by 50%. In order to give yourself a good shot at being able to negotiate successfully in this area, make sure that you come ready with receipts, estimates for cost, estimates for time and anything else that would be helpful in meditation. If you can come with an Excel spreadsheet of figures for your spouse to pour over that will go over much better than throwing around a lot of numbers with very little in the way of back up ... Continue Reading Want to resolve your Texas family law case outside of court? Remember these rules of engagement11/24/2019 If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Want to resolve your Texas family law case outside of court? Remember these rules of engagement with the great process!
Kingwood Divorce Attorney: Going to court to resolve a family law case is not a fun experience for anyone involved. You probably didn't need me to tell you that, but it is the absolute truth. There is nothing glamorous about it. You will not have the moment in time where you get to call out your ex-spouse for the bad behavior he engaged into the delight of your family watching in the audience and the shock of the judge. If you are after truth, justice, and the American Way, then a family court is not the place to go. What you are more likely to experience is a judge who is engaged but not sympathetic and an opposing party who is slinging mud at you based on issues that may or may not have ever occurred. Do not expect your ex-spouse to be contrite in response to any of the accusations that you hurl at him. I’ve seen enough men and women who have done bad things go on the offensive against a “victim” ex-spouse enough times to know that family court doesn’t deliver results in the way that you may anticipate. With all of that said, it would make some sense to attempt to appeal to your spouse's reasonable side and attempt to settle any family case outside of the courtroom. Mediation is a great resource for parties and attorneys alike when it comes to attempting to reach a middle ground on the important issues of your case. The nice part is that the judge in your case will likely require that you mediate your case at least once before you get anywhere near a courtroom. Odds are good that your case will settle and a potential courtroom drama can be averted. What happens from the beginning part of your case until you get into mediation can have a lasting impact on the chances of your case settling. When it comes to co-parenting with a person who you may not see eye to eye with, getting along may not be an option. In these high conflict family court cases can you do anything to avoid disagreement and disaster? Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan will seek to answer that question. We actually took up the issue at the conclusion of yesterday’s blog post and we will continue to run with it in today’s blog. This is an important subject that you need to know about sooner rather than later. Learn what will work when it comes to co-parenting and avoid problems before they occur. Be accountable to your co-parent Whether you were married to your child’s other parent or not, you now have a sizeable amount of history with that person. You should feel some degree of responsibility to be held to your word. Basically, you should do the things that you say that you’re going to do. Just as importantly, you should avoid doing the things that you have said that you will not do. That shows that you take seriously the responsibility you have in raising a child with this person. Even if you couldn’t care less how your child’s other parent views you, remember that everything you do in this case should be done to benefit the life of your child. Do not put your child in a bad position because you cannot be trusted or because you think it’s unimportant to be held to account for your actions. Taking the easy way out may seem better at the time (especially if doing so could harm your ex-spouse) but remember that in a co-parenting relationship you will often find yourself facing similar circumstances down the road. Although you cannot control what your child's other parent will do in response to your actions in the future, you have complete control over how you act at the moment. If you say that you are going to do something- do it. It's as simple as that. Even if it means going out of your way or doing something that doesn't seem like much fun if you said something your actions need to back those words up. Keep a journal of interactions with your ex-spouse If you are not a big fan of organization you may want to pay particular attention to this section of our blog post. Keeping notes of what you say and what your ex-spouse says in relation to your child is an important trait to pick up. For one, it will help you to remember better what was said so that you do not operate under mistaken assumptions and memories of things that did not occur. We’ve all been there- absolutely sure something happened, but as it turns out nothing close to that having occurred. Before you consider filing a family lawsuit- whether that is a modification or enforcement lawsuit- I would recommend that you review those notes to determine how your memories line up with the reality of the situation. You may find that your emotions are not justified by past events as they actually occurred. It is a good practice to be able to check yourself by keeping notes of your meetings, interactions, phone calls, etc. Better to know exactly what took place than to run off to an attorney for no good reason. Mediate, and meditate again (if necessary) The Woodlands Divorce Attorney: As I noted at the outset of today’s blog post, your case will very likely be decided in mediation rather than in a courtroom. Family court judges in most courts will mandate that you mediate your case at least once before stepping foot into their courtroom. When you and your ex-spouse find yourself facing a situation that is too big for you to resolve on your own, it is a good idea to push your attorneys to schedule a mediation early in your case. Many times I will encourage clients to mediate their case even if an agreement is in place before the case is filed. Let me explain. Suppose that you and your spouse are getting a divorce. You know that you are getting a divorce- there is no chance to reconcile with your husband and divorce is the only alternative that you can seek at this point. You feel good that you all sat at the kitchen table and hammered out an agreement that will allow you to avoid having to go to court. The next thing one of you does is walk into our office and tell one of our attorneys that you have an agreement for your divorce. All you are looking to do is have a lawyer draft order based on the agreement and you will be on your way. This sounds reasonable and in many ways is exactly what you should have done before coming to see a lawyer. However, I will add one thing to this discussion that should encourage you to seek advice from an attorney and mediator. Here is that information- even if you have an agreement with your spouse in place for a divorce settlement, there is nothing guaranteeing that your spouse will stick to their word and honor that agreement. A lot can happen in between the time you all agreed to something at the kitchen table and the time where a judge can sign an order. An order has to be drafted, both sides must review the draft and signatures from you and your spouse must be collected. We're talking at least a couple of weeks. In the event that you or your spouse change your mind on the terms of your agreement, there is nothing to protect you. You could come up with an agreement only to see your spouse change their mind at the last minute. As long as he hasn’t signed the divorce decree he can turn his back on the process. This is completely legal and happens all the time. Before you start to worry, here is where mediation can solve this problem. By going to mediation and resolving your issues there, you assure yourself of two things. For one, any agreements that you reach are going to be memorialized by a Mediated Settlement Agreement (MSA). You, your spouse and your attorneys will sign the MSA along with the mediator. This is significant because once it is signed there is no going back. I will tell clients that you cannot call me the next morning in a panic and tell me that the MSA needs to be tossed out because you realized you made a mistake of some sort. The final decree of divorce will be drafted off of that MSA. Next, not only will you have an agreement in place that is unbreakable, but you also will ensure that you have accounted for all of the areas that are necessary for a divorce. Divorces can be complicated and touch on a range of issues. By coming up with your own settlement you are possibly missing out on a number of subjects that you had failed to account for. By having multiple attorneys and an experienced mediator look at the MSA you are almost guaranteed of having an agreement that takes into account all the areas you needed to account for. What happens if you cannot agree on compromises after an order is established? Once all the parties and the judge have signed off on an order it is set in stone. In the future, if there are any disagreements between you and your ex-spouse you can go back and refer to the order to see what your responsibilities are. That is reassuring to have a guidepost like that, but it can also be frustrating due to the fact that your family may "outgrow" the order. In the future, you and your ex-spouse are free to resolve issues on your own without even filing a lawsuit. This is what judges assume will happen- the two of you will work together and resolve problems on your own without too much difficulty. You will save money and time by not filing a lawsuit and in the end, you will reach conclusions that are better tailored for your family than anything a family court judge could have come up with. In the event that you have a problem that cannot be solved by negotiation and compromise, remember that the order is what controls the situation. Think of the order as your fall back provisions. Whatever you cannot agree upon means that your order takes center stage. As long as have a mutually agreed-upon solution to a problem, you can go off of that solution. However, once one of you no longer agrees to abide by the compromise you must go off of what the order has to say. This is important for you to know since you cannot be assured that you will always be able to come up with solutions to your problems on the fly. So, what you should take away from this discussion is that your orders had better be workable for your family- both now and in the future. Questions about visitation problems? Come back to our blog tomorrow to find out more Spring Divorce Lawyers: As children age, and as your own circumstances evolve it may become apparent to you and your child’s other parent that your visitation orders need to be re-worked. What can you do in situations like this? If you find yourself in this sort of position, I would recommend that you return to our blog tomorrow. We will spend some time discussing this subject and how you can work around problems like this. In the meantime, if you have any questions about today's blog post or anything another subject in family law please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys can schedule you for a free of charge consultation six days a week. These consultations are a great opportunity to ask questions of our experienced attorneys and to receive direct feedback about your particular circumstances ... Continue Reading If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, What will impact a judge’s decision in regard to where your child will primarily reside? with the great process!
Family Law Attorneys Houston: If the family court order that you and your family have been operating under for years no longer suits your needs, what are your options? What if your 14-year-old son is expressing an interest to come live with you on a full-time basis? Will you have an opportunity to go to court and change the order if that's truly what he wants? Or will you have to go it alone by asking your child's mother to negotiate with you outside of court? Fortunately for you, either option is available in Texas. Our family courts invite parents like yourself to file modification lawsuits with the understanding that doing so is not a guarantee of achieving a particular result. In order to avoid going all the way to court and not achieving your top goal in a modification case, your judge will likely require that you and your opposing party mediate your case at least once in hopes of reaching an agreement outside of court. That will free up the courtroom for other parties and will hopefully allow you and your opposing party to work together to achieve an end result that suits both of you well. Older children and changing primary conservatorship If the issue of your case isprimary conservatorship of a child 12 years or older, then it is probable that you will be interested in having your child speak to the judge about where he or she wants to live full time. I say this not because I know your family, but because I know from having worked with many other families in your position. Most of the time, these folks have either done the research themselves or talked to other people who have told them that teenaged children have a right to speak to the judge about their custody preference. Let’s talk about that before we go any further in today’s blog post. Yes, the law in Texas is that any child twelve years or old will be able to speak to the judge about their preferences on custody. Specifically, it is likely that the judge will ask the child where he or she wants to live primarily and why he or he holds that opinion. It may be everything that it is cracked up to be, however. First of all, just because a judge has to speak to your child doesn’t mean that the judge is going to solely rely upon that child’s opinion when it comes to a final determination as to custody. Judges know just as well as you and me that kids change their opinions frequently. What your child wants today may not be what he or she wants in two years, two months or even two weeks. Being told by your child that he wants to live with you and not his mom Is not necessarily a good enough reason to hire a lawyer and file a modification case. Consider that the judge in your case does not have to agree with your child. Also, consider that the judge does not even have to ask your child the questions that you want him or her to ask. Your judge is not a child therapist or someone who is trained in questioning children. He or she has probably been to a judge's conference where they picked up some skill in doing so, but there is nothing that forces the judge to ask your child the specific questions that you want. Do not base your entire case on your child speaking to the judge, in other words. The court will focus on the totality of the evidence put before it, not just the opinion of your child. Once the judge has all of the information available to him or her, they will make a decision. The weight that the judge places on particular pieces of evidence will depend on the individual judge. What your judge finds to be important evidence may not matter too much to another judge. It is very difficult to guess the reaction of a particular judge to a particular piece of evidence, as well. What to do in the event that you and your child’s other parent cannot agree on anything? Houston Family Law Lawyers: Here is where the rubber meets the road. For most families, there can be relatively easy to reach middle ground on issues that range from custody to visitation to child support. Although you may not be completely happy with the agreement, you can still reason with the other parent and reach a consensus on whatever issue you are facing. The bottom line is that you realize that your decisions should be based on what is in the best interests for your child. Everything else in your case is secondary. What happens, though, if you find yourself in a situation where you and your child’s other parent cannot agree on anything in relation to your child. You’ve been to court previously and have a court order in place and both of you find yourself at differing views on a number of subjects contained within that order. On top of that, you cannot work the problems out with negotiation or walking a mile in other person’s shoes. This is potentially dangerous ground you are walking on, needless to say. It is situations like this that call for a concerted effort on both of your parts to establish some sort of middle ground. Co-parenting is a term that family law attorneys, judges, therapists and parents use ad nauseam these days. It basically means that you and your ex-spouse will share parenting responsibilities after the initial family case has concluded. It can be extremely difficult to do at times, putting aside your personal feelings for one another, but it is necessary for the betterment of your children. Sometimes all it takes is moving back a step and considering what role did you play in creating whatever circumstance has led you to be back in family court. It could be that you and your ex-spouse do not do well interacting with each other one on one. All it can take is a glance, a movement of the hand, an eye roll or anything in between to trigger a bad emotion. Why not look to co-parenting websites, e-mail, text or a less personal means of communication in order to communicate with him or her. One piece of advice that I like to give people is to imagine that everything that you say to your ex-spouse will be kept by him or her in a file to be potentially used against you in a future court case. This may be a cynical way of working with another person, but if it keeps you from lashing out in anger or using inappropriate language I would argue that it is worth it. If you're not comfortable having a judge see what you wrote in an email to your ex-spouse, don't click send on that message. The other thing that I would like to share with you is to be as clear and concise in what you have to say as possible. Do not look at every email or text as a chance to re-litigate your divorce or any other petty problem that you have with this person. While you may have legitimate concerns with him or her, that doesn’t mean that you need to go for blood in every text message. Trust me- I have seen my fair share of multiple page text message conversations between clients and their ex-spouses. When I ask what the client sought to achieve by engaging in that sort of talk, their answer is usually, “I’m not sure.” Don’t put yourself in that position. Be clear in what you are communicating, do it in a kind way, and then end the conversation. Period. Make sure that you are clear on what your ex-spouse has told you Family Law Lawyer Houston: One thing that I recommend to clients is to be willing to always re-phrase what your ex-spouse has told you and to tell it back to him or her. That way you can show that you are actively listening to him or her and are attempting to make sure you are 100% clear on what he or she is telling or asking. Do not leave a conversation guessing at what he or she meant by a certain thing that they said. Get it straight from them and then you can move on to whether or not there is an issue at hand ... Continue Reading If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Do you want your child to live with you primarily? Read this blog to find out more with the great process!
Houston Family Law Lawyer: One of the most frequent questions that I receive when I am meeting with potential clients of the Law Office of Bryan Fagan is whether or not that parent has a realistic opportunity to be named as the primary conservator of their child. In the world of family law, primary conservator references the parent who cares for a child on a primary basis. The day in, day out care that is associated with raising a child is what is being referenced here. The most important aspect of this role is having your child reside with you during the school week. Another difference between being the primary conservator of your child and a possessory conservator is that the primary conservator has the right to receive child support payments from the possessory conservator. These are the two big elements associated with primary conservatorship that many parents are willing to go to court for in hopes that a judge would see the situation as they do and flip-flop custody. Switching conservatorship roles can be difficult, but is not impossible In some situations, your child's other parent will make the situation relatively easy for you to resolve. He or she could simply call you up to let you know they are coming to your house to drop off your child. The other parent would then leave and express no intention of returning to take the child back. In this situation, you would need to contact the Office of the Attorney General to let them know if this change and your child support could be stopped and a reversal of the conservatorship roles could be made by filing a modification lawsuit. On the other hand, it is more likely that your child’s other parent will not agree with you that you should be named as the primary conservator of your child. He or she will not come by your house and drop off your son or daughter just like that. Rather, he or she will contest any attempt that you make to be named as the primary conservator of your child. As we have already discussed, not only would a change in this regard mean getting less time with your child but it would also mean giving up the right to receive child support. As with any modification case, you would be looking to show that a substantial change in circumstance has occurred that justifies your being named as the parent who has the primary right to house your child. This is a huge change and the evidence you present would have to convince a judge that a change made in this regard would be in the best interests of your child. By all means, it is a good idea for you to consider hiring an attorney before you move forward with a modification case of any kind, specifically one where you would be named as the primary conservator of your child. Judges are not going to easily grant a request to throw a child’s life into turmoil for a period of time so your evidence has to be strong and arguments on point. While you can legally file a modification case without an attorney it is not advisable due to the complexity of the filing process and issues involved. What happens in a modification case? Essentially, you would be presenting information to a judge that would go to show why your child is better off with you as the primary conservator, while your opposing party would be presenting contrary evidence. As I mentioned earlier, the case boils down to what is in the best interests of your child. Notice that what you want and what you think is fair is not especially relevant. If it makes sense for you to be named as the child’s managing conservator but a court determines that it is in your child’s best interests to remain in their current home, then your modification case will be unsuccessful. Part of many modification cases, especially ones where primary conservatorship is at issue, is the appointment of a guardian ad litem to your case by the judge. The job of a guardian ad litem is to meet with all the parties to your case and to report back to the court on its findings. This is an important job since the judge cannot follow you and the other parent home. The guardian ad litem is sort of the eyes and ears on the ground for the court in terms of assessing what is in the best interests of the child. More specifically, the guardian ad litem represents the best interests of your child in the modification case. Because you are attempting to change an important aspect of your child’s life, which may or may not actually be for the best, the law doesn’t allow for you to speak for your own and your child’s best interests in this regard. A neutral person (the guardian ad litem) will be inserted to help the judge make an unbiased interpretation about this. The guardian ad litem does charge a fee so please be aware of that. The fee can be paid by one party or by both, depending on the orders from the judge. More on modification cases in Texas family law Keep in mind that whatever order you have in place from a family court judge will continue to be the rules of the road for you and your child's other parent until you come back to court and the judge makes additional rulings or signs off on a new order altogether. Typically a new order is achieved through a modification case. A modification case allows for you or your child's other parent to modify a court order based on your ability to prove that a change is necessary due to a substantial change in circumstances for you, your child or the other parent. Unless and until the court order is modified, you will be expected to follow that order exactly as the language reads in the order. If you do not follow the order exactly as the order reads then you can be held in contempt of court which carries with it criminal penalties including jail time. At the very least you can be made to pay fines to your ex-spouse and can lose time with your child. Many parties to modification cases see their case effectively come to a close in mediation. Mediation allows you and the other parent (and your attorneys) an opportunity to settle your case outside of court with the freedom to come up with your own solutions. Sometimes with the help of an experienced mediator, you can arrive at solutions that you had previously not considered before. Geographic restrictions: In your order for a good reason Many of the changes that parents want to make in relation to a court order have to do with where they can live. As long as your child has friends and activities that he or she is happy with, it is unlikely that your child will be overly excited at the opportunity to move. However, you may have a new job that has been made available to you, a new location that seems more appealing or the desire to be closer to family in another area of the state. Whatever the reason, your plans to move may be upended by a geographic restriction. A geographic restriction does just what you would think that it would do. It places a restriction on where your child can reside primarily. A typical geographic restriction would be to your home county and any county that borders your home county. If your child’s custodial parent decides to move beyond the confines of the geographic restriction then you would need to alert him or her to the fact that you will need to file an enforcement case against him or her. That enforcement case will attempt to enforce the terms of your prior court order by pointing out a specific violation of the order and then recommending a response that the judge should have that violation of the court order. Violating the court’s orders is generally known as being in contempt of court. There are criminal penalties that can be assessed in this type of situation. Finally, if you made it out of your child’s initial court case without a geographic restriction in place, then you can attempt to file a modification case that would seek to insert one into an amended order. It would seem to me that there would be many ways that you could show that doing so would be in the bests interests of your child. What can you do if your child tells you that he or she wants to live with you instead of their other parent? Family Lawyers in Houston: Children tend to change their minds often on where they want to live on a full-time basis. So, if your child expresses an isolated desire to move in with you full time I would recommend that you look into it and see what your child’s desire to move is based on. If there is legitimate cause to attempt to switch the conservatorship arrangement, then you are justified in filing a modification case. If your child’s reasoning is based on not wanting to eat their veggies at mom’s house then you may want to hold off on filing that modification lawsuit ... Continue Reading |
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December 2018
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