Supervised visitation in Texas is a court-ordered arrangement in which a non-custodial parent can spend time with their child only under the supervision of an approved third party. This structure may be implemented to protect the child's best interests if necessary. John Powell provides an in-depth guide to supervised visitation in Pearland, TX.
Family Law Archives
Sole Custody vs. Joint Custody
A divorce or separation can be challenging for parents. In Texas, the concept of “custody” is referred to as “conservatorship” and “Possession & Access,” and it can be either sole or joint, depending on the circumstances. Sole custody (sole managing conservatorship) means one parent has the exclusive right to make crucial decisions for the child.
What Should I Bring to My First Consultation?
An initial consultation with a family law attorney is an opportunity to learn more about your case, your rights, your options, and how a specific lawyer can help. Preparing for your first meeting with a family law attorney can enhance the value of your time together.
What if My Spouse is Abusing Me?
The Texas Advocacy Project explains that domestic abuse is “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another.” Unfortunately, abuse remains a serious problem in our region.
What Constitutes Child Abandonment in Texas?
Parents have a responsibility to provide proper care and supervision for their children. The failure to do so could potentially be child abandonment. Abandonment is a criminal offense and can have profound implications.
What Happens if Parents Cannot Resolve a Custody Agreement?
Are you a parent who is going through a complex custody dispute? You may feel stressed out and overwhelmed. This raises an important question: What if you and your co-parent cannot agree on custody?
What is the Role of the Mediator?
Mediation is one of the most frequently used alternative dispute resolution (ADR) forms. Under Texas law (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Sec. 154.002), “it is the policy of this state to encourage the peaceable resolution of disputes”—especially true in family law cases.
How Does Divorce Work for Same-Sex Couples?
Are you a part of a same-sex couple who is preparing for a divorce in Texas? You may have many questions about your rights, your options, and how the legal process works. From a legal perspective, same-sex divorce is no different than an opposite-sex divorce.
Can a Father Request Sole Custody of His Child?
Are you a father in Texas who is preparing for or going through a difficult custody battle? Our state strongly favors some form of shared legal custody for parents. Our child custody attorney provides an overview of what fathers need to know about seeking sole custody in Texas.
What Can I Do if I Believe My Ex is Unfit to Have Custody?
When a couple splits up and there are children involved, you will need to deal with many contentious issues, including child custody. You want the best for your child, so what happens if you think your ex is an unfit parent?
What Factors Does the Court Consider When Determining Child Custody?
The court will generally determine child custody. The main factor is defined under Texas Family Code 153.002, or the best interests of the child. A judge must consider the child’s best interest when making decisions about custody, visitation, and child support.
What is the Difference Between Legal Custody and Physical Custody?
If you have children and are divorcing or otherwise splitting up with the child’s other parent, you will need to address the topic of child custody. This means you should be familiar with the terms and processes.
Can You Get Married While You are Filing for Divorce?
After a divorce, most people do not want to rush into another relationship, let alone another marriage. But there are some who get a boyfriend or girlfriend while married or shortly after the divorce filing and want to make things official with them as soon as possible.
How Long Does the Probate Process Typically Take in Texas?
Dealing with a loved one’s death can be devastating. Not only are you dealing with the grief of your family member’s passing, but also their estate.
What Factors Does a Texas Court Consider When Deciding Child Custody?
When a couple with children splits up — whether or not they were ever married — one thing that needs to be decided is child custody. Many parents seem to think they can request sole custody and get it, but that is not often the case.
Do I Need an Attorney to Navigate the Probate Process in Texas, and What are the Benefits of Hiring One?
When a loved one dies without a will, their estate has to go through what is called the probate process. Probate refers to the process of validating a will and distributing assets.
How to Co-Parent With an Abusive Ex
After a divorce or breakup involving children, you and the other parent will likely have to co-parent. This can be hard to do following a divorce, as there will need to be solid communication between the parents.
Do I Have the Right to Know Who My Ex is Bringing Around My Child?
Co-parenting after a divorce can be stressful. When your child was under your roof 24/7, and you had 100% child custody, you could monitor who they spent time with to a large degree.
A Guide for Resolving Conflicts Over Inheritance in Texas
When someone passes on in Texas, their property and assets must be identified and distributed to their heirs. As you likely already expect, this can be a complicated process.
What is Nesting?
Getting a divorce is invariably hard. If you are feeling the stress and the pressure that comes with the divorce process, please know that you are navigating a road that many other people have been down before.
I have to Relocate, What Should I Do About Custody?
Are you a divorced or separated parent in Texas who needs to relocate? If so, you probably have a lot of questions about how your move will impact child custody.
Grounds for Child Support Modification in Texas
Child support is a financial payment made by one parent to another following a separation or divorce. The funds are designed to assist with the costs of raising the child.
Do Surrogates Have Parental Rights?
A surrogate is a woman who becomes pregnant and carries a baby for someone else. A gestational surrogate—through in vitro fertilization (IVF)—means that the surrogate will not be biologically related to the child they will carry.
Who Becomes the Guardian When the Parents are Deemed Unfit to Care for a Baby in Texas?
Unfortunately, not all parents are fit to provide care for children—especially for infants and toddlers. What happens when a parent is deemed unfit in Texas?
What are the Most Common Estate Planning Mistakes?
When it comes to certainties in life, like death and taxes, people are frightened of both. However, death is often the scarier of the two.
Can an Estate Plan Be Disputed By Someone?
Having an estate plan helps in protecting you, your loved ones, and your assets. However, there are some situations in which problems can arise.
What if I Want to Move Out of State With My Children?
If you are a divorced or separated parent with young children or teenagers, you are certainly not alone.
Can a Child Testify at a Custody Hearing?
For parents, going through a divorce or separation can be especially daunting. Your relationship with your child matters.
Should I Have an Estate Plan in Place for My 18-Year-Old?
Are you the parent of a recent or soon-to-be high school graduate? A child becoming a legal adult can be stressful for parents.
How Often are Children Split up in Child Custody Cases?
You may have heard about sole custody, shared custody, legal custody, and physical custody, but do you know about split custody?
Can a Child Be Adopted at Any Time?
Adoption can be an exciting proposition for a person or couple who is ready to expand their family. For some people, it may be a necessity after a child’s parents have died or had their parental rights taken away.
Why is Estate Planning So Important?
Many people don’t have any plan in place because they wrongfully assume you need to be a millionaire to need a will or trust.
What are the Key Strategies for Estate Planning?
We may not want to think about it, but death is inevitable. We are all going to face it at some point, so you might as well plan for it.
How Often Do I Need to Update My Estate Plan?
Estate planning is not something everyone wants to think about or discuss with others.
Why Choose Powell Law Firm to Help With Your Estate Planning Needs?
Estate planning is essential. Every adult should have an estate plan that has been crafted to meet their unique needs.
Do Widows Have Guaranteed Rights Over Estates in TX?
There are few things more difficult than dealing with the loss of a spouse. Even when it is expected and planned for, there can be many legal and logistical challenges.
Does Child Support Increase if My Salary Increases?l
Who doesn’t like pay raises? Getting a higher-paying job is always exciting, since the cost of living seems to increase all the time.
What Constitutes Child Abandonment in TX?
Most Texas parents want to do what is best for their children. They feed them, provide them shelter, and care for their medical needs.
Does Child Support Increase if My Salary Increases?
Child custody and support are common issues in Texas divorces. If you are a non-custodial parent, you may be concerned about child support and whether the amount will change years after the divorce.
How to Choose the Right Trustee When Estate Planning
When creating an estate plan, there is a lot to think about. For example, not only will you need to make decisions about how your assets and property should be distributed, but you will also need to name an executor/administrator of your estate and, if you are holding assets in a trust, you will need to name a trustee.
Parental abduction: What you need to know
Your ex-husband picked up your daughter on Friday. Your custody agreement states that he gets her every other weekend. Usually, he brings her back on Sunday evening, but he called last night and said he would like to keep her one more night and he would take her to school on Monday. The request was not typical, but after you spoke with your daughter, you agreed to the extra night.
3 points fathers should know about parental alienation
You know that you and your kids had a good relationship before the divorce. Now that they are with their mother most of the time, they have been acting strangely with you. They might seem like they are upset with you or you might find out that they said they don't want to spend time with you. There is a chance that parental alienation might be the cause of the behavioral changes. If you think this is the case, you should learn about the legal options available to make that stop so you can work on cultivating a good relationship with your children again.
5 tips for battling through a high-conflict custody case
Think there was a lot of conflict before you and your spouse decided to split up? According to the American Bar Association, 10 percent of divorce cases dissolve into high-conflict child custody battles. These can lead to accusations of parental alienation and parents ignoring direct court orders.
When Child Custody Disputes Go Too Far
Child custody cases can become extremely contentious. They can quickly escalate into situations involving parental alienation. This is when one parent attempts to pit the child against the other parent. In the most extreme cases, one parent may go so far as to kidnap their own child, which can have serious consequences and can present major challenges for the other parent.
What Baby Boomers Need To Know About Divorce
Divorce, in general, is not a new concept. Divorce on a grand scale among people over the age of 50, however, is. The phenomenon is called "gray divorce," and it is on the rise. Sociologists from Bowling Green State University say the reason this is happening is two-fold. People are living longer than ever now, and they simply grow apart. Furthermore, women are more capable of surviving financially on their own now, which could account for the more than half of all divorces being initiated by women.
Not All Marital Conflicts Are Created Equal
When two people get married they live happily ever after, right? Maybe in a Disney movie, but certainly not in real life. It is inevitable that when two distinctly unique people join together conflict will happen from time to time. But is conflict always bad for couples?
How To Terminate Your Alimony Payments
Is it time for your alimony payments to your ex to come to an end? In Texas, it is possible to terminate payment of spousal maintenance, more commonly known as alimony. However, it can only be done under certain conditions and there is a process that needs to be followed.
Is Professional Business Valuation Necessary?
Businesses are not like bank accounts. You cannot simply look at a statement to determine their value. They can be quite challenging to value, which adds an extra layer of complexity to a divorce when one or both spouses own one. If you are going through a divorce and you or your spouse owns a business, you may be concerned about the necessity for a professional business valuation. Here are some things to consider: