A Caring Child Custody Lawyer Who Will Fight For You and Your Family
As a local El Paso firm, The Law Offices of Luis Yañez sees child custody often and can offer compassion and understanding of the situation at hand. If you’re seeking to gain child custody, or need help fighting it, we can help you. Above all else, we want what’s best for you and your child. Contact our team of child custody lawyers, today.
Understanding Custody & Visitation
Texas has two different forms for child custody: conservatorship and possessory conservatorship. Getting assigned conservatorship allows the parent to make all legal decisions meaning schooling, financial, medical, etc. A possessory conservatorship gives that parent the ability to visit the child but no legal decisions.
Texas typically goes towards a joint custody agreement, which gives both parents a voice of control regarding the child’s medical and education. In some cases, someone other than the biological parents can get custody of the child if neither parents are fit to raise the child or are deceased. If the child is unhappy with the parents they live with, once the child turns 12, they can ask the court to change caretakers.
What Are Your Parental Rights?
Understanding your parental rights at this time is vital to your case. Almost no parent stands above the other when it comes to first looking at custody and visitation abilities.
Knowing where you stand with your former spouse is the first step when it comes to parental rights. In many cases, parents are able to come to an understanding which they can present to the court.
If the parents cannot come to some agreement, that’s where the court must step in and make decisions for them. Some of the basic rights you have as a parent are:
- Negotiation visitation at the start of the separation
- Requesting paperwork from a school or doctor
- Social engagements
- School activities
- Emergency medical decisions
How To Determine Who Will Get Custody
The courts will consider the conduct of both parents and the impact they have had on the child. Texas looks heavily upon the previous history of domestic violence, drug, and criminal behavior. If the child has experienced abuse or neglect, the parent or parents will not be eligible to file for custody.
Visitation Plans
Texas law will presume the Standard Possession Order from Texas Family Code Chapter 153.252. This states that the parents may have possession of the child whenever they both agree. However, if the parents don’t agree, the noncustodial parent has visitation rights on:
- The 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends of the month
- Thursday evenings during school time
- Alternate Holidays
- 30 days during summer vacation
If parents live more than 100 miles apart, then the weekend schedule may be the same or reduced to one weekend a month with no mid-week visit. They also have the same alternate holidays and extended summer vacation of 42 days.
Texas can also enforce a Modified Possession Order if the Standard Possession Order does not work out for your family. That’s where we can come in as a child custody lawyer and help create a modified visitation schedule. This can mean alternating weeks or weekends, split weeks, day visits, etc. Although rare, a supervised visitation order can also be enforced if the child’s safety is questionable.
The Benefits of Choosing Us
At the Law Offices of Luis Yañez, we’ve dealt with hundreds of child custody and visitation cases. We know precisely what the courts will be asking and consider when it comes to obtaining custody or working towards visitation rights. It can be a tedious process depending on the situation you and your former spouse are involved in, but we don’t stop until we get the best results for you and your family. There’s nothing more important than a child having the proper care and parental guidance in their lives, and that’s something we strive to see fruition.
Contact Our Offices Today
If you need a child custody lawyer or a visitation lawyer, we’re here to help. Contact our offices today to schedule your free initial consultation to get yourself and your child back where you need to be.
