Child Custody

Direct Answer/TLDR Usually, no. If there is a court order giving the other parent possession and access, you should be very careful about withholding the child unless there is a true emergency. Parents often believe the other parent is making bad choices. The court may agree that the choices are not ideal and still expect the order to be followed. The line between bad parenting and dangerous parenting matters. Texas courts are not usually looking for perfect parenting. They a

Short Answer/TLDR In most Texas custody cases, the non-primary parent pays child support to the primary parent. The amount is usually based on statutory guidelines applied to the paying parent’s "Net Resources." That means the court is generally not doing a broad “who has more money in the household” fairness analysis. Typically the court is simply identifying the obligor, calculating that parent’s net resources, applying the guideline percentage, and addressing medical and d

Direct Answer Yes, 50/50 custody can happen in Texas. But there is a huge difference between parents agreeing to 50/50 and a judge ordering 50/50 after a contested fight. In my experience, 50/50 schedules are very rare in contested cases, especially in Montgomery County. The reason is simple: if two parents cannot agree on how custody should work, judges are often skeptical that those same parents can successfully operate a high-cooperation 50/50 schedule. That does not mean

Short Answer/TLDR A Standard Possession Order is the parenting-time schedule Texas courts often use when one parent has primary possession and the other parent has regular possession and access. The details can vary depending on the distance between the parents, the age of the child, the school calendar, and whether expanded provisions apply. But the basic point is this: the Standard Possession Order is the baseline schedule Texas courts frequently return to in contested cust

Short Answer/TLDR In Texas custody cases, the “primary” parent is a short-hand way to talk about the parent conservator that is granted the right to designate the primary residence of the child. That right is important because many other practical issues flow from it. The primary parent usually has the right to enroll the child in school. The other parent is usually ordered to pay child support. The possession schedule is usually built around the child primarily residing with

Short Answer; tldr Joint managing conservatorship means both parents have rights and duties regarding major parenting decisions, though those rights may not be identical. Sole managing conservatorship means one parent has certain exclusive decision making rights that the other parent does not have. A lot of parents here the words "joint conservatorship" and make a the understandable mistake of believing that they will receive equal parenting time. However, joint managing cons

The Short Answer When parents come into my office to talk about “custody,” they usually mean the big question: Who gets the kids? Texas child custody law breaks that question into separate parts. The first part is conservatorship. Conservatorship is about parental rights, duties, and decision-making. The second part is possession and access. Possession and access is about the schedule—when each parent has physical time with the child. It's an important distinction. A parent c

When parents search for information about child custody in Texas, they are usually not looking for a law school outline. They are worried about their children, their schedule, their rights, child support, and whether a judge is going to see the situation the way they see it. Over the next several weeks, Looney Law PLLC will be publishing a practical, plain-English series on common child custody laws in Texas. The goal is not to turn parents into lawyers. The goal is to help p