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