After a divorce or separation, finding the right balance of custody and visitation is crucial not just for the co-parents but also for the well-being of the children.
Texas has standard custody and visitation orders, which are often seen as the default or fallback arrangements for families who do not live together. However, these arrangements do not work for every family.
Fortunately, courts have become increasingly more flexible about ordering non-standard visitation that works in real life for families. To find out more about visitation rights in Frisco, schedule a meeting with a seasoned visitation attorney to discuss your situation.
Before a court can determine a visitation schedule, it must establish child custody and possession. The state refers to custody as conservatorship, and parents who have some type of custody are conservators.
Custody is different from possession. Parents who are managing conservators have the right to make confident decisions on behalf of their children. The courts can designate one parent as a managing conservator or order both parents to be joint managing conservators.
In an ideal scenario, both parents are managing conservators with the right to make all parenting decisions for the child while in their care. It is a good alternative for people who can communicate well with each other and when both parents have the child’s best interests in mind.
Sometimes, joint managing conservators is not a workable scenario. In those instances, the court will order a primary managing conservator. This parent has the right to make most of the decisions about the child without consulting or getting permission from the other parent. Parents can negotiate these rights, or a court can order them.
Management of the child is not the same as possession of the child, though they often flow together. Parents can split equal time with a child and have one parent as the primary or sole managing conservator. In addition, parents can share joint managing conservatorship and not have an equal access schedule. Access can result from shared possessory conservatorship or visitation rights for a Frisco parent.
The possessory conservator is the parent who has primary possession of the child. In some scenarios, both parents are possessory conservators. Those parents can have a 50/50 child custody arrangement, or one parent may still have the child with them most of the time. Several factors determine the child’s primary residence and do not necessarily reflect parental fitness or ability.
If one parent is the possessory conservator, they have the right to designate the child’s primary residence. When the other parent gets access to the children, it is through visitation. The goal of child visitation is to ensure that the child spends sufficient amounts of time with both parents, including the non-possessory parent.
The Texas Family Code has a standard possession order, which is presumed to be in the best interests of children over the age of three. Standard visitation includes the first, third, and fifth weekends of the month from Friday when school gets out (or 6:00 p.m.) until Sunday at 6:00 p.m. and Thursday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
If the parents live more than 100 miles apart, the non-custodial parent can keep the standard order or opt for one weekend a month. The Code also allows for extended possession, which includes the same weekends but runs from Thursday through Sunday night or Monday morning. These orders include time during the holidays and an extended possession order for the summer.
These arrangements do not work for all families. When working with a co-parent, a Frisco lawyer could tailor an order that ensures visitation rights while working with a non-traditional schedule.
Frisco courts follow state laws that use the best interests standard to determine child custody and visitation issues. Under those standards, the courts presume that generous visitation rights are in the child’s best interests. However, that is a rebuttable presumption.
The court will examine the parents’ history of interactions with the child, ability to care for the child, and other factors to determine the appropriate visitation schedule. To learn more about your visitation rights in Frisco, schedule a consultation.
Our Law Firm’s approach to your case is based on individual circumstances. Whether it is a simple negotiated settlement, or it requires an aggressive approach, we will protect and defend your best interests.
