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Avoid harming your attorney-client relationship during your divorce by following these simple steps

If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, Avoid harming your attorney-client relationship during your divorce by following these simple steps with the great process!

Family Lawyers Houston: In yesterday's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, we utilized our time to discuss how you can improve and solidify the relationship that you have with your family law attorney. The nature of that relationship is as much about a partnership as it is about your attorney working for you or about you relying on your attorney for guidance and information. If one of you does not fulfill their responsibilities the relationship cannot succeed and ultimately you will not be successful in your divorce.

Fortunately for you (and your attorney), it is really not that difficult to build and maintain a positive and fruitful relationship with your attorney. Simple steps like communicating well (or at least often), asking questions and complying with requests for information/documents are about all you have to do in order to have a beneficial relationship with your attorney. Whether you like your attorney or wouldn’t want to share a meal with him or her if they were the last person on earth, your attorney is still an important person in your life for as long as your divorce goes on.

Today’s blog post will see us shift gears from discussing how to strengthen your relationship with your attorney to habits/behaviors to avoid in your relationship with your attorney. We will also get into situations that occur in many divorces and how to handle them in the event you end up facing them in your own.

Talk to your attorney about anything and everything

Think of your attorney as your personal confidant when it comes to matters related to your divorce and your life. Remember- your attorney must keep secret and confidential any and all information to tell him unless you expressly give him permission to disclose the information. You've probably heard of this concept before as something called the "attorney-client privilege." Any worries that the sensitive or embarrassing information that you are going to share with your attorney will be made known to your spouse, their attorney or anyone else without your permission should be tampered down due to this privilege.

With that said, let’s consider just how important it is to share information with your attorney. There is a lot of information that you have in your brain, computer or file cabinet that could be very beneficial to your case. On the other hand, there are probably more than just a handful of pieces of information that have the potential to seriously harm your case. Some information falls in between either of these two categories. Either way- if your attorney asks you for documents or information regarding a specific topic related to your divorce it is best to provide him with all of the information available.

Furthermore, I tell clients all the time to not be the one to make the determination that a piece of evidence is not relevant to the divorce. While you may think something is inconsequential and therefore not important, you should defer to your attorney to make this decision. He may have a different opinion and can tell you why something may be relevant if you are in doubt. Remember- you are trying to build a relationship with your attorney. Allow him to provide context and advice regarding what is and what is not relevant to your divorce. If you vehemently disagree then what you say goes. However, it is typical that a simple explanation as to why something may be relevant will assuage any concerns you may have.

Remember who the client is, and who the attorney is

As in most any relationship when you start to place more "importance" on either person trouble will quickly follow. I am not at all trying to argue that either person- you or your attorney- is the more crucial partner. Without you there would be no case and therefore would be no need for an attorney. On the other hand, without your attorney, you would be operating in a world where you have no experience and little to no knowledge of family law. You need him and he needs you. It’s as simple as that.

That is to say that when your attorney makes a recommendation, especially one that you disagree with, you should treat your attorney with respect. That doesn’t mean that you need to kiss the ground that he walks on, but it does mean that you need to understand that your attorney is your guide through the divorce and should be treated like someone trying to help you. If you own a business that performs any type of direct service for the public then you likely know the feeling of a client not appreciating or respecting you despite your best efforts to serve him or her. While you may not agree with every piece of advice you receive from your attorney that does not mean that you have the right to disrespect your lawyer. If you find yourself in a position where you are doing so it may mean it’s time for you to look for new representation.

Money- here today, gone tomorrow

Family Lawyer in Houston: A big no-no in the world of divorce is to hide assets or property that you own in an attempt to shield them from being divided in your divorce. For instance, you could have a big bonus coming into your bank account that you know would ordinarily be divisible as part of your community estate. However, you got the bright idea to open a new bank account in order to deposit that bonus and therefore hide it from your spouse.

You can try to rationalize a decision like that anyway that you would like but the bottom line is that it is wrong. Number one you are violating the temporary or standing orders that were issued by the judge in your case. Doing so carries with it significant penalties that would likely place a large chunk of that bonus in your spouse's column for the purposes of dividing up a property. A second harmful side effect of your attempting to hide property is that you are harming your relationship with your attorney by doing so.

Wait a minute, you may be asking. How can you harm your attorney-client relationship by hiding assets from your spouse? How does that actually affect him? Getting back to what we discussed in the earlier parts of today’s blog it is essential that your spouse have information in order to help you make good decisions. He can only get that information from one person- you. If you choose to withhold information and hide assets at the same time you are committing a double-whammy to your relationship with him.

If you make a mistake in relation to your case it is best to tell your attorney immediately. Think about when you were a kid and broke something around your house. Your first reaction was likely to hide the broken item and then to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of a way to undo what you did before your parents could find out. Coming forward to talk to another person about a bad act that you committed is one of the hardest things that we can do as a person. Pulling the rug over something to hide it feels a lot better- at least in the short term.

In the long run, however, failing to tell your parent about a broken window in your room can result in you not sleeping well due to cold air coming in at night. If you tried to fix something on your own you could end up making a bad situation even worse. In this situation, your attorney is like a parent in a way. You are relying on their expertise and knowledge to help you create a successful result in your divorce. Your attorney should be told immediately if you have done something that could potentially be in violation of your temporary orders. If you tell your attorney as soon as possible about that bad act he can attempt to mitigate its damaging effects.

If your spouse finds out about your hiding property from her before your attorney does you will likely wind up receiving a phone call from your spouse asking you why you did what you did. At that point, it may be too late to offer an explanation from your attorney. Often times your spouse will have filed an enforcement lawsuit against you seeking to enforce whatever portion of your temporary orders bar you from doing things like this. Had you told your attorney earlier about your actions, or spoke to him before hiding the bonus in the first place, you could have avoided this lawsuit altogether.

Before you hire your attorney make sure you feel like you can trust him

Houston Family Law Lawyer: You would be surprised at how many people going through a divorce hire an attorney based on the way he looks in a suit or because his office has the nicest furniture. If these sound like silly reasons to hire an attorney I would agree with you, but that does not change the fact that many people do hire attorneys for these specific reasons. For them, the actual advice that the attorney will provide is secondary to other factors that are more important in their mind ... Continue Reading

The attorney-client relationship is the key to winning your Texas divorce case

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Houston Family Attorney: While your marital relationship will be the central focus of your divorce, it is the relationship between you and your attorney that will be the most integral to success or failure in your Texas divorce. While one relationship did not work the way that you intended it to, the other is an opportunity for you to build a strong and trusting bond with a person that will be in your life for at least two months.

There are a lot of misconceptions that exist about attorneys. We’ve all heard the lawyer jokes, bad move premises and the general attitude of some in the media about attorneys- they don’t need to be repeated in this space. With that said, you can do a lot to help build a strong relationship with your attorney by focusing on the issues that we are going to discuss in today’s blog.

Know, first of all, that your attorney is not there to work on your case by themselves. Quite the opposite- your attorney is there to help guide and advise you on issues that he or she is knowledgeable of due to their years of experience. However, the ultimate decision-making abilities lie with you. You are the person whose name appears at the top of any pleading or motion filed with the court. You are a parent to the children who are going through this divorce with you. It is your home, your business or your property that is potentially at stake in the divorce.

Communication is key

Stop me if you've heard that one before. When it is all said and done you and your attorney will either be done in by or thrive due to your ability to communicate with one another. This is not the sort of heartfelt, meaningful conversation that family members share. When I say "communication" in the context of you and your attorney I really just mean the sort of communication that allows the direct transmittal of information from one person to another. You will need to communicate with your attorney and update him or her on issues from time to time. Your attorney will need to do the same with you.

It really is simple to figure this out as long as you and your attorney are both willing to work with one another. For example, the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan will bend over backward to help facilitate communication between ourselves and our clients. For example, it is not uncommon for us to ask a client if he or she has a preferred day of the week to communicate or a means of communication (phone, email, etc.) to utilize. We know that you have a busy schedule and we want to accommodate that as much as possible. Of course, there are some messages that need to be communicated throughout the week but for regular updates when there is nothing major to report we will work with you to figure out a time and means by which communication will work best.

Think about your case and how you will argue your positions to a judge

Houston Family Law Attorneys: It is likely that you will never actually have to go in front of a judge in your divorce case. We talked in yesterday’s blog post about how mediation has effectively made a divorce in Texas more about negotiation than litigation. This is a good thing for literally every person involved in your case. However, in the event that you will go to court, you and your attorney need to be prepared to present evidence that can help you. Begin by collecting evidence that could be beneficial to your case and provide that evidence to your attorney. Even if you think something is silly or not likely to be helpful you ought to provide it to him or her.

Many pieces of evidence may need to be explained to your attorney and/or their staff to be fully understood. Some things- text messages, emails, etc.- have context-specific explanations that need to be provided. If this is true of your case, it is best to work with your attorney's staff to schedule a time for you to speak to them about the evidence that you are providing. How you came about the evidence, what it represents and its significance to your case are good places to start a discussion. Your attorney can sit with you and analyze the evidence to figure out how to best utilize it in your case.

Do your homework and submit it on time

If you struggled in school with completing your work in a timely manner your divorce will offer you an opportunity to try again at this skill. At the beginning of your case, your attorney will hand you some paperwork to fill out. These documents are requesting basic information about you, your spouse and your family. It is helpful for your attorney to have these documents back by the time he or she begins to file your Petition for Divorce or needs to file an Answer for you. If you fail to turn these documents back into your attorney on time it may delay and ultimately harm your case.

Next, it is likely that your spouse will submit to your attorney what is known as Discovery requests. Discovery seeks to do exactly what you would think- obtain information about you and your life that can be used in your divorce case. These are not short or easy to complete requests. Some ask for you to answer “yes” or “no” type questions. Others will ask for you to fill in responses to some fairly detailed and complicated questions. Others will ask for you to collect and submit documents that are of interest to your spouse.

These requests must be turned in no later than thirty days from the date on which your attorney was provided the questions and requests from your spouse. As a result, you and your attorney will need to be on the same page as to how to respond appropriately to those requests. This can be done through exchanging emails about questions that don't make sense, or by having periodic phone calls to help you sort through issues. However, it is my experience that your best bet is to set up a time to speak with your attorney about the requests in person.

Remember- if it takes you 28 days to submit responses to these discovery requests to your attorney that only leaves him or her two days to review the material you provided, clarify any questions with you and then submit responses to their requests in an appropriate format. Like any good relationship, you need to think about your partner and how your actions will affect him or her. If you do not give your attorney enough time to do their job he or she may need to request an extension to submit your discovery responses. It is likely that an extension will be provided but your case may be unnecessarily delayed because of your actions.

If you need to communicate with your spouse do it in writing if at all possible

Divorce Houston: Have you ever been misquoted or misunderstood by a friend or family member? I think it is safe to say that we all have. It is a tough situation to be in, especially if that misunderstanding was due to something you told your friend or family member. We usually do not have an accurate record of what we say to other people so the misunderstanding can quickly evolve into a “he said, she said” battle.

In the context of a divorce case, he said/she said, is a recipe for anger, resentment, and delaying of cases. If you and your spouse are going over important subjects like your children, money, property or anything related to your divorce I would recommend that you have those discussions in writing rather than over the phone. Certainly, details can be ironed out in quick phone calls but if you are trying to engage in informal negotiations then use email. This way you can track exactly what was said and what was not said. You will also have a clear record of what you and your spouse want out of your divorce. Gaining a window into the thought processes of your spouse can be among the more valuable benefits of better communication.

Keep in mind that it is not uncommon for a rather small argument to blossom into something much larger in a high stakes situation like a divorce. Your attorney and your spouse's attorney can be great allies when it comes to calming down their respective clients. However, I can tell you from experience that the attorneys cannot help when each is relying on an entirely different set of facts than the other is. There is nothing more frustrating for two family law attorneys than to have upset, frustrated clients, who cannot get on the same page about what they are even arguing about.

You can avoid unwanted and unhelpful arguments by sticking to the plan of just communicated via email or text messages. This way you will have a clear record of what was said and where negotiations are. Secondly, you will not give your spouse an opportunity to mislead a judge, their attorney or any other person associated with your case by telling him or her an untruth about something that you supposedly had said ... Continue Reading

Avoid mistakes in your Texas divorce by following these pieces of advice

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Houston Divorce Attorneys: It is tempting to tell bold action in order to change the course of events. I think we can all say that at one point in our lives or another we have done something that we wish we would not have. Desperate times call for desperate measures some would say.

A divorce is certainly a desperate time for many people. Emotions are heightened and the subject matter involves your finances and children. The things in life that are most of important to people are at stake and we have very little control over many aspects of the case. What is a person to do when they feel like their life is slipping away and there isn’t a thing that they can do about it? What would you do if you found yourself at risk of losing your house or children?

The answer for many people is to do things that are possibly illegal and very much go against fair play. Even in a divorce, there are rules to follow and your failure to follow the rules could result in you receive a stiff punishment from your judge. To begin today's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan I would like to share with you some tips on what NOT to do when it comes to managing a divorce case.

Mind your own business and not your spouse’s

In a world of spy movies, it is common to see a character put a tracking device on the bumper of a vehicle in order to keep tabs on the driver. Surveillance of this sort is forbidden by Texas law and is obviously a no-no in your divorce. It may be tempting to track your spouse's movements- you may hold the opinion that the only way to prove that your spouse is doing something wrong is to present evidence of this sort. That "gut" feeling that your spouse is having an affair may not have any real evidence to back it up, but if you can track their movements that all could change.

Let me take this opportunity to recommend that you stop this sort of behavior before it starts. Like I already mentioned, putting a tracking device on another person’s vehicle without their knowledge is illegal. So you could wind up facing criminal charges as well as penalties administered by your family court judge.

The other major reason why it is not worth the effort to install a tracking device on your spouse's vehicle is that it will not be admissible into evidence. The key to any piece of evidence that you attempt to use in your divorce is will the judge even be able to consider whatever it is that you are attempting to utilize? Your spouse's attorney will surely object to the usage of any evidence that is obtained in an illegal manner. As a result, your judge will likely never see what you want him to see.

Emails are private- even if you know your spouse’s password It isn’t uncommon for one spouse to know another’s password or login information for a particular website. Your spouse may have logged into their email account on your phone and you’ve still got their information saved if you would ever be so inclined as to log on and see what is happening in their account. Now that you are going through a divorce and are possibly even suspicious of their habits you may be tempted to simply use the stored information on your computer to log into their email account.

Again, I would recommend that you resist the temptation. The same advice I gave in the section previous to this one about installing tracking devices on a vehicle apply to log into your spouse's email account without their permission. You are violating state and federal laws against this kind of behavior. The evidence that you obtain will not be admissible in a courtroom hearing or trial.

The other side of this issue is that by going behind your spouse’s back and violating their trust you are increasing the likelihood that your spouse is going to do something similar to you. I don’t have any scientific studies to prove this assertion but I am telling you this from my own experiences representing people in divorce cases. Once you “open Pandora’s box” in this regard your spouse will be emboldened to do the same to you.

What you will find happening is that if you and your spouse go tit for tat with one another as far as sneaky, bad acts are concerned is a longer and more expensive case than likely need be. Consider whether or not the “juice is worth the squeeze.” Is the end result of what you’re doing worth the actions it takes to produce those results? My opinion that the juice is never worth the squeeze in these type of scenarios.

Remain calm. Do not panic.

Divorce Attorneys Houston: It may feel like your entire world is crashing all around you in a divorce case. The things in life that you felt the most assured of may now be the very things that seem to be out of place and in disarray. Ending your marriage and having your children caught in limbo as far as where they will be living and with whom tends to make a person feel this way. I can’t say that I blame you and definitely would say that most people going through a divorce would feel the same way.

With that said, the feeling of your life being more topsy-turvy than usual does not justify your losing your cool and doing things that are out of character for you. I can safely assume (I hope, at least) that most of you reading this blog post are adults who know how to conduct themselves in public and in dealing with other people. We all have those moments where we think it would feel great to just let loose, use bad language and otherwise act inappropriately. These feelings can be exacerbated when it feels like we are being attacked emotionally.

However, most of us are able to separate our feelings of anger and hostility and how our behavior actually is when those feelings arise. Self-control is a huge part of growing up as a child and it is just as important in the context of a divorce. Your case will push your limits on how well you can conduct yourself in moments of adversity.

Examining a real-world example of how to keep your cool under tough circumstances

Let’s take a real-world example. I had a case recently where our client was always in a position where his wife would show up late to drop off their son for visitation periods. The parents decided that it would be best to do drop off/pick up in a restaurant parking lot in between where each was living. When it would come time for our client to see his son it would typically happen that his wife would arrive five to ten minutes late each time. What upset our client most (besides knowing that he was losing small bits of time with his child each time this happened) was that he knew his wife was a very punctual person. She was never late to anything- except dropping off their son.

I would get a phone call or email each time she did this. It would result in me sending a friendly email to the wife’s attorney letting her know that she was, again, not living up to her end of the bargain as agreed to in the Temporary Orders. The opposing attorney would get on her client to not show up late but it wouldn’t help. My client would end up getting frustrated but he knew that there wasn’t all that much we could do. This really was not something egregious enough to file an enforcement lawsuit against his spouse.

My advice to him was to keep his cool, remind his wife of the correct time to do these drop off/pick ups and to otherwise be as friendly as possible. He stood to gain very little by being rude and/or vulgar towards his wife. In a situation where words and actions can be twisted and manipulated with relative ease, an aggressive tone with your spouse can spell doom for your divorce. To the client’s credit, he never took the bait, never did anything but calmly remind his wife of the agreed upon time for drop off/pick up and then he would collect his son and go about their day.

This is the reality of divorce. There are going to be aspects of your case that you cannot control and that feel like you are being taken advantage of. Sometimes, as we saw in the situation above, you actually will be taken advantage of even if it is on a relatively small level. Be that as it may, divorces have a way of making those small slights seem like humongous episodes of disrespect. Talk to your attorney before you do anything rash. Talk to your attorney about these issues. It can help you avoid big mistakes down the line in your case.

Learn your temporary orders

Divorce Attorney in Houston: A lot of people take the position that they are hiring an attorney to represent them in divorce and as a result, it is the attorney's job to know their court orders, know all the facts of their case and to generally handle the business of litigating the divorce. There are some attorneys who I'm sure would be thrilled to have a hands-off client who placed this degree of trust in the attorney but I can assure you that this is a mistake waiting to happen ... Continue Reading

What does divorce mean to you and your family?

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Divorce Lawyers Houston: Stop for a moment and consider what a divorce truly is. Beyond the anger, hostility, jealousy, false promises, bad decisions and harsh words. What do you think a divorce really is? Is it purely an emotional matter where you and your spouse are going to air all your petty grievances against the other in a public setting? If you've been waiting years to tell the world about his having cheated on you after your first child was born a divorce is a pretty opportune time to do so. Or is he angling to get out of your marriage so quickly because you haven't shown him any attention in a decade? The stories behind every divorce vary, typically based on which spouse you are talking to.

Divorce can and often is all these things. At its core, however, a divorce is a family lawsuit. What's that? You've never really considered that a divorce is a real, live lawsuit? Like the ones you read about in the news or see on television, a lawsuit is a serious matter that involves the legal system, a judge and two parties that have often times have widely divergent views on any number of topics. Is it weird for you to think about suing your spouse?

The fact is that you cannot achieve whatever goals you have for yourself and for your family without filing a lawsuit against him or her. Your name will be at the top of a lawsuit and the letter "v" will follow (as in, versus) with your spouse's name beneath that. Like the Super Bowl or the World Series, it is team "you" versus team "them". The stakes are high and the emotions likely are as well.

However, this does not mean that this has to be a battle royal where two participants enter and only one comes out alive. You and your spouse can take many different routes to achieve a successful result in your divorce. I’ve seen so many different married couples go about their divorces in so many different ways that it could make your head spin. The end result is always that a divorce occurs and two people that were married leave the divorce no longer being so. The only question is, and what separates each couple, is how they went about achieving that end.

Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan will walk you through a number of our tips and tricks to get you through your divorce with your sanity and goals intact. Like I just said a moment ago, there are a number of ways for you to divorce your spouse but those ways are not created equal. Our sincere hope is that by reading our blog today you will set yourself apart from anyone else going through a divorce- most notably from your spouse.

Act the part- act like a good student

Family Attorney Houston: If Hollywood had their way, every person in America would think that a divorce was the sort of knock down, drag out fight that I was talking about in the opening section of today’s blog post. This is understandable, after all. Drama brings people to movie theaters. People acting like grown-ups and resolving their issues outside of court is not exactly exciting for anyone to watch.

With that said, I would tell any client of ours to do the basics of orderly behavior. For instance, if you have a meeting with your attorney, a mediation date, a hearing date or a trial date you ought to show up early for that appearance. We all have smartphones nowadays. Whip that baby out and play a game or read the news or do whatever it is that you do on your cell phone. It is better to be early and bored than late and angry at yourself.

The other thing that you can do is to keep track of things that happen in your case. Do not rely on your attorney to keep track of names, dates, appointments, bad/good behavior on the part of your spouse. You can track that sort of information on your phone, in an old-fashioned notebook or in a word document on your laptop. Either way, if you are a good note taker that skill will serve you well in your divorce.

Speaking of skills, look at the underlying skills that I have asked you to take advantage of: be on time and take notes? That should remind you of your days in school. Very basic things that your mom harped on you about growing up. Hopefully, those lessons sunk in back in those days because if not you are going to have to learn them now. These are not difficult things for you to do and they can pay off in big ways.

For instance, what if your spouse alleges that you mismanaged a pickup/drop off for your child on a random weekend? With as much as you have to go on in your life, it would be easy for you to lose track of what weekend it was and what exactly happened. Issues in family law cases are often "he said, she said" debates where the person with the more specific information often times wins out. You can be in the right and have nothing to hide but if your spouse can spout off with some specific issues and all you have are general denials then your spouse stands to win out on this one.

Instead, wouldn’t it be great if all you had to do was show your attorney your journal entry for that weekend? What if, as it turns out, your spouse was actually the one who arrived at the pickup/drop off point two hours late because she had overslept her alarm? If you can recall this information with specificity it is probably going to be enough to get your spouse to back off and drop the whole issue. If you can’t counter her arguments with this degree of specificity it’s likely that an enforcement lawsuit is going to be headed your way.

What not to do when it comes to acting like a grown up

Divorce Attorneys in Houston: On the other hand, lots of people going through divorce suddenly forget how to act like an adult. Either that or they never really knew and now that their life is under a microscope it is becoming obvious to everyone involved that this so-called "adult" is really just a child dressed in grown-up clothing. Here is some advice that I can provide on how to actually act your age while in a divorce.

First off, lay low when it comes to text messages and emails that could be considered threatening, aggressive, foul-mouthed or generally inappropriate. I see people come into our office all the time with a stack of papers a mile high that are just nasty text messages that their spouse has sent to them over the past few years. The thing about arguing over text messages is that those arguments are memorialized for the world to see long after the argument is over with. If you asked me what my wife and I argued about last week I probably couldn't tell you- that's how marital arguments typically work. Compare this to arguments that you and your spouse have over text message and everything- the bad language, nasty attitudes, and unflattering remarks- are always going to be there.

Next, you should refrain from locking your spouse out of any of your bank accounts or other important online accounts. If you are the spouse who handles the financial matters for your family then it is probably tempting to take advantage of that fact during your divorce. It would be easy for you to swoop in, change a few passwords and then do with your money whatever you would like without having to first consult with your spouse. However, this is a big no-no in the eyes of the law and your judge will be quick to point that out and punish you for doing so. At the least, it will anger your spouse and cause there to be yet another issue that will be fought over the divorce.

A side point to this issue is that it is never a good idea to withdraw a bunch of money at the start of your divorce and either hold onto it or deposit it in another bank account. The reason being is that if your spouse finds out about it and you fail to disclose that money to the court it could set you up for a big-time punishment. You could be made to return that money and then be fined for misleading the court. If you want to avoid paying your spouse’s attorney’s fees then it is wise, to be honest about the money that you and your spouse have ... Continue Reading

Family violence and family law in Texas

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Houston Family Law Attorney: When a family law attorney considers important factors in a potential divorce or child custody case, perhaps none is as quite as impactful as family violence. The reasons for this are obvious. Acts of family violence are irredeemable, despicable and any other term that you would want to use that connotes something extremely negative about the person who engages in that sort of behavior. I wanted to make note of this early on in today’s blog post because for the remainder of it I would like to take this opportunity to write only about the impacts of that behavior on a family law case in Texas.

What family violence is considered to be

Family violence is more than just hitting your spouse or your child. What’s more- the people that are considered to be in your family seem to grow every year, with a greater number of relatives potentially counting as family for the purposes of assigning a person punishment for having acted violently. If you are in a dating relationship with someone and he or she is violent towards you then this would typically qualify for a crime of family violence.

The only major factor that needs to be mentioned at this stage is that while being found guilty of having committed a criminal act of family violence is more difficult (beyond a reasonable doubt is the criminal standard), in family court you must only present sufficient evidence that a judge would find that it is beyond the preponderance of the evidence presented that an act of family violence did occur. Imagine the scales of justice for a moment. A preponderance of the evidence means that one of the scales would be tipped slightly below the other. However, beyond a reasonable doubt means that the evidence you present must weigh your scale down significantly compared to the other side. The burden, therefore, is much heftier in the context of a criminal case.

Conservatorship issues related to family violence

If your spouse were found to have committed an act of family violence then he or she will be in for a tough time during a divorce or child custody case. For instance, rather than being named as a joint managing conservator of your child, which is what is done in the vast majority of child custody cases, your spouse would be likely named as merely a possessory conservator while you have Sole Managing Conservatorship rights. This basically means that your spouse will have times that he or she can see your child (often in a supervised location) but that his or her rights to make decisions on behalf of your child are severely curtailed in comparison to your own.

Courts typically proceed with a great deal of caution when it comes to family violence

From my experiences, family courts will usually err on the side of caution when it comes to deciding that family violence has occurred in a case. The reasons for this is that most judges will not want to move on from this issue without seriously addressing it. Furthermore, if something were to happen down the line in a case that was the result of additional incidents of family violence then that judge would be at risk of a reprimand.

What types of punishments and restrictions will be imposed in a family law case when family violence is an issue? Let's consider that protective orders are usually very effective at deterring harmful acts in the context of a family law case. We will discuss more protective orders later in this blog post but I wanted to introduce the topic at this stage. Safety is the number one priority of a judge when it comes to a family law case, and being overly cautious in this area is something that is very difficult to argue with. The family violence in question does not have to be something that resulted in major injuries or even the police. However minor the incident may have been it is something that could result in your case changing dramatically for the worse if you are the perpetrator of the violent acts.

An example from our time in the family courts

Divorce Lawyers in Houston: In a recent case, an opposing party made an allegation of family violence against our client that was quite over the top. The incident in question involved our client getting upset at the opposing party’s use of a cell phone in order to contact other men. Our client took the phone out of her hands in order to see what it was she was doing. Well, that act led to his wife alleging that he has acted violently towards her.

A divorce was subsequently filed and this issue was taken up with the judge. What ended up happening was that the judge did make a finding that family violence had occurred but that finding carried with it no immediate restrictions on conservatorship rights or anything related to that. However, what did end up happening is that in the final decision of conservatorship the judge made rulings that were not favorable to our client and I couldn’t help but think that it was because of the family violence issue.

False allegations of domestic violence are unfortunately a reality in divorce cases

What I have found to be the case is that family violence allegations become more and more common in divorce cases. The reason, I believe, why this is the case is that people are willing to go to greater lengths in order to ensure their goals are met in a divorce. Family violence can impact conservatorship issues as we have already mentioned as well as the division of property in a divorce. When courts are as willing (rightfully so) to take all allegations of family violence seriously it makes sense that some people would be willing to bend the truth or make outright lies that family violence has occurred in order to meet those goals.

This is not to say that if you think you have been the victim of a violent act by a spouse or significant other that you should hesitate to bring those issues before a judge. On the contrary- a judge is there to keep you safe and to keep your family safe as well. However, if you are in a position where you have been accused of having committed an act of family violence it can spell disaster for you in your case both in the short and long terms.

The bottom line is that you need to think hard before you commit any action towards your spouse or significant other. You never know what he or she may be thinking or who is watching you. Acts that could be totally benign or non-violent in your mind may actually end up being considered to be violent by your spouse and more importantly by a judge.

Protective Orders and Family Violence

Protective Orders are one of the means by which a court can seek to diminish the future impact of acts of family violence. It can take a great deal of courage in order to bring acts of family violence forward to the authorities especially if you are a person who has been a victim of family violence for years. Violence between spouses or even people that are merely dating can be about control as much as it is about the anger or other emotions that are behind the acts.

What is a protective order in a Texas family law case?

Family Lawyer Houston: Safety is the name of the game when it comes to a protective order. Many people think only about a judge’s responsibilities when it comes to conservatorship, possession, visitation, property division and similar subjects in conjunction with a divorce but a judge’s top priority in your case will be to keep you and your children safe if you are the victim of an act of family violence.

We can extend family violence to incidents that involve sexual abuse and dating violence as well in order to get a full picture of what a court will be guarding against by considering the possibility of implementing a protective order within a divorce case. You would need to produce evidence that family violence has occurred but typically police reports, witness statements, photographs, and visible injuries are sufficient for this purpose. If a judge believes that it is likely that acts of violence could likely occur in the future then you can expect a protective order request to be granted.

The goals of a protective order are to create a situation where your violent spouse is held accountable for their actions while best ensuring your safety in the case moving forward. Your spouse will likely not be allowed to come within a certain distance from you or from your children unless your children are being supervised ... Continue Reading

So you’ve been served with a family lawsuit in Texas- what should you do now?

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Divorce Lawyer in Houston: Routine is not a bad thing. I think that we as human beings do better when have a fairly set routine for ourselves. A certain bedtime, a certain time to wake up, a work schedule to follow, etc. Our bodies adjust to a routine and eventually rely upon that routine to provide us with signals to drink, eat, sleep and take breaks. Along the way we become so used to our routines that variances in that rhythm can really throw us for a loop. “I’m a creature of habit!” is something that you may have heard from friends or family members in your life.

One of the things that can seriously throw you for a loop when it comes to our daily lives would be to walk to your front door or to the reception area of your office and be handed paperwork by a stranger. When you open up the envelope or look down at the papers you see that you have been handed what look to be legal documents. Your name is there and your spouse’s name is on the paperwork too. Or it could be an ex-spouse’s name in the event that you previously got a divorce. What’s the meaning of all this, you may be wondering.

When you finally get a chance to catch your breath and read through what you’ve been handed you come to find out that your spouse has filed for divorce from you. This could catch you by surprise or maybe you were expecting it. The question that you will inevitably run into no matter what is- how do you proceed from here and what should you do next? Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC will seek to answer that question for you.

What responsibilities do you have after you’ve been served?

To begin, you should know exactly what needs to be provided to you for proper service to be effectuated. The first document is called a citation. A citation is nothing more than a notice from the court where your case has been filed that tells you in (somewhat) plain English that you are being sued. The other document that you will be served with is called a Petition. Your spouse will not coincidentally be called the Petitioner since she filed the lawsuit and you will be called the Respondent since you will be responding to her Petition.

The Petition is a very basic document but it contains important information nonetheless. For starters it will name you and your spouse. If you have children their initials and ages will be included as well. Next, whatever grounds for divorce your spouse is citing will be noted in the Petition. For most parties it is irreconcilable differences, i.e., that you and your spouse have grown apart and there is no chance at reconciliation. Insupportability is the other term that might be used in reference to this situation.

If you and your spouse have children there is a child custody component to your divorce and the Petition will specify your spouse’s contentions with how conservatorship and possession issues should break down as well.

Finally, there may be a notice of hearing included with these documents informing you of the pendency of a hearing in your case. You will be provided with a date, time and location for the hearing. In divorce cases a Temporary Restraining Order will typically accompany a notice of hearing. These are temporary orders that basically seek to keep everyone’s property and person safe until a court date can be had and formal temporary orders can be laid out. Basically you will be asked to not harm your spouse, their property, their vehicle or to withdraw your children from school or otherwise hide your children during the time period before your hearing.

These are the documents that you can expect to receive from a process server or constable in the event that you are sued with a family law case. Now that we know what you will receive in your hand it is time to discuss what your actual responsibilities are moving forward as far as responding to a Petition.

Getting an Answer filed

Divorce Attorney Houston: If you are sued for divorce you will need to file and serve an Answer to the Petition. The Answer needs to be filed in the court records for your case and will need to be served upon your spouse. If your spouse has an attorney you can fax, email or a PDF version of mail a certified copy of your Answer to that attorney’s office. Many times you can simply select their email address when you file the Answer online and he or she will be served using that method. Technology is nice sometimes, isn’t it?

Please keep in mind that it is important that you file your Answer within a certain period of time for that to be a validly and timely filed Answer. These are not suggested time frames or anything of that nature. Don’t think of it as something that you can get away with if you happen to wait an extra week or something “major” comes up in your life. Texas law requires that you file an Answer to your spouse’s Petition by 10:00 a.m. on the first Monday after the expiration of twenty days from the date you were served.

This sounds more confusing than it ought to be- and it is in my opinion. What you need to know is that you should count twenty days after your date or service and then jump to the next possible Monday. That is your deadline. In many cases it works out that you have closer to 25 or more days rather than twenty days to get your Answer filed in a timely manner.

This “problem” will not go away if you ignore it

It’s human nature to want to push to the side those things that we find to be unenjoyable, annoying or frustrating. This divorce lawsuit that you are facing may be all three of those things but I can tell you that it will not go away just because you bury it under other paperwork in your home. There is the potential for your spouse to be able to go to court and have her own final orders established without your knowledge or consent if you fail to file a timely Answer. The Answer, once filed in a timely fashion, means that you must be notified of court dates or other filings by your spouse. Without the Answer you may be left in the dark. Issues regarding your children and property can be decided without your say.

Most people at this stage in their case will look to hire an experienced family law attorney to represent them. I don’t have the space today to go over this specific sub-topic in greater detail but I can tell you that our website has many articles regarding tips on how to interview and hire the right attorney for your family law case. Simply go up to the top of our website and use the search mechanism to read through our advice on this subject from other blog posts we have written.

Hiring an attorney does not take away your responsibilities to respond to the divorce petition in a timely fashion but it does give you some help in responding properly and in a fashion that protects you and your rights. In tomorrow’s blog post we will continue to discuss this topic in an effort to prepare you for the steps and processes to come in your own family law case.

Questions about divorce, child custody or other family law case? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC

Houston Divorce Lawyers: The attorneys and staff with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC take a great deal of pride in representing people in our community just like you. If you have any questions about the information contained in today’s blog post please do not hesitate to contact us today. We offer free of charge consultations six days a week with our licensed family law attorneys ... Continue Reading

What effect will a DUI or DWI have on your child custody case?

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Spring TX Divorce Lawyer: If you are a person that has an ongoing battle with substance abuse issues then you know better than anyone just how much of an impact addiction can have on your life. Make no mistake, whether it is drugs, alcohol, prescription medicine or another addictive substance you likely understand that the behavior that you are engaging is in bad for your health and bad for your relationships with the people most important to you.

Unfortunately it is a different subject altogether when it comes to actually being able to stop the behaviors. Among the difficult parts of being a family law attorney is being exposed to our clients’ and opposing clients’ behaviors that are clearly having a undesirable effect on their lives and the lives of their children. It is probably similar to the feeling that their family members have: being in close contact with the person but just being unable to do anything about it.

The most frequently abused substance that I have seen parties to family law cases abuse is alcohol. Whether alcohol is being abused recreationally or as part of an ongoing addiction the effect is often similar. It could be that your drinking is limited to your time at home where only your children are made to suffer from erratic behavior and dangerous decision making. If you are involved in a family law case involving those children then your past actions will have an effect on your case moving forward.

What would happen if you were arrested for DUI (driving under the influence) or DWI (driving while intoxicated)? Are you aware of what the effect would be on your case and on your future ability to parent your children? Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC seeks to share some information and perspective that we have gained in our years of representing people that have gone through family law cases with our office.

The best interests of your child

In any family law case involving your children, a judge will apply what is known as a “best interests” standard against any action of yours in relation to your child. What is or is not in your child’s best interests is up to the judge’s determination but your ability to make decisions that are intended to keep your child safe is at the top of a judge’s hypothetical list of attributes that a parent should have.

Let’s counterbalance the point I just made by discussing a case that I was involved with in 2017. An opposing party in a child custody case was arrested for DWI while his son was asleep in the backseat of the car. Our client hired us to file a modification lawsuit on her behalf in order to see that her ex-husband’s visitation time be severely reduced and that he be forced to undergo random alcohol testing to ensure that he is not drinking.

This was a case that never saw the inside of a courtroom. The opposing attorney understood the significance of his client’s actions and never pushed back too hard on the reasonable demands that our client was making. She simply wanted to keep her son safe. The outcome- her ex-husband being arrested with her son in the back seat asleep- was probably the best case scenario for the people involved in that story. The situation obviously could have been much worse.

Do not put yourself in this man’s position. You can choose to a large extent whether or not you will let an addiction take hold of your life to the extent that you decide to get behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated. Nobody is going to argue that addiction isn’t real and isn’t powerful. However, what I am arguing is that if you let the addiction take you for a ride (literally) it can have a profound effect on your family law case in a negative way.

Parents in Texas family law cases share responsibilities

Spring Divorce Lawyer: Ideally in a Texas family law case, you and your child’s other parent will always be put into positions where you can share the burdens and joys of parenting your child. In very rare instances is one parent’s time and access to their child curtailed severely for any reason. However, once it becomes apparent to a judge that one parent is unable to provide a safe and stable environment for the raising of a child then a judge is forced to restrict access to the child for that parent.

Add in a DUI or DWI and that is a game changer. Evidence of an arrest on these charges can be one of the worst things that could happen to your case. Any favorable evidence that you can collect to present to a judge can rarely overcome a DUI or DWI. Parent of the year plaques, perfect attendance at baseball games, an otherwise impeccable history of parenting could be down the drain (for a period of time) after an arrest related to alcohol.

That’s not to say that eventually you would not be able to get back to even ground with your child’s other parent. Time heals many wounds, even if not completely. However, for a period of time after an arrest and conviction on DUI or DWI charges it is hard to argue that you have the judgment necessary to always act in the best interests of your child. Depending on the judge a conviction from five years ago may not be that relevant in their eyes. A more recent arrest and conviction almost assuredly will factor largely into their decision making regarding your case.

Sole Managing Conservatorship

Sole Managing Conservatorship is the likely outcome for you if you are found to have had a recent or ongoing problem with DUI/DWI arrests. Sole Managing Conservatorships still allow you to have time with your child but on a smaller scale than in a Joint Managing Conservatorship. Perhaps more important, however, is that your right to make decisions for your child will be severely curtailed under this type of conservatorship.

That is one thing that many parents do not consider, initially at least, to be as important. The focus is always on time and is rarely on decision making. As parents we hang on to the memories that we have shared with our children and do not value the ability to make decisions involving their education and health care with as much fervor.

If a judge determines that you are a safety risk to your child then it is impossible for him or her to find that you should have much contact with him or her. How much driving (especially in the Houston area) is necessary for you to go see your child right now? Probably a significant amount. Driving is a reality of living in Texas.

Where to go from here if a DUI/DWI will be a factor in your divorce or child custody case

Having an experienced family law attorney by your side in a family law case is essential. If you are the parent who has a DUI/DWI conviction on your record you absolutely need to be able to counter the arguments and evidence that will be presented against you. With the facts already being harmful to your case it is critical that you be able to present alternative facts and evidence for a judge to consider. Acknowledging your bad acts is important but not backing down in the event that your opposing party tries to be too aggressive when restricting your access to your child is important too.

Questions on DUI or DWIs and how they can affect your family law case? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC

Houston Divorce Lawyer: If you have any additional questions for one of our licensed family law attorneys please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. A free of charge consultation with one of attorneys is only a phone call away and can provide you with peace of mind and answers to your questions ... Continue Reading

Winning your Texas family law case starts with having a plan

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The Woodlands Divorce Attorney: In yesterday’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC we introduced the topic of coming up with a game-plan for your family law case and the importance of having an attorney by your side to help you with that planning.

Once you have researched, met with and made a decision about what attorney to hire the next step is actually following through with your decision and hiring the attorney. Today’s blog post will begin by discussing what happens when you decide to hire an attorney and where your case will go from that point forward.

Deciding to hire a family law attorney

Hiring an attorney is an important milestone in the life of your family law case. If no lawsuit has yet been filed you are basically confirming to yourself that filing suit (either a child custody suit or divorce) is the best thing to do for you and your family. Things can truly become “real” for you at that point and clients have told me that reality sort of snaps into focus once you meet with an attorney to go over details of representation, their contract with you and actually paying a retainer.

This is a great time to ask any questions that you would like to know the answers to prior to signing the dotted line of a contract. Questions about communication with the attorney, attorney’s fees, the expected length of your case, particular sentences contained in the contract, etc. are all relevant and reasonable questions to ask of the attorney you plan on hiring.

Putting some money on the table

I have already referred to the word “retainer” in this blog in reference to paying your attorney to represent you. A retainer is non-refundable sum of money (a deposit) that you make in order to hire the attorney of your choice. A retainer will retain that attorney’s services for you to utilize in your case.

What does a retainer typically amount to? Well, that’s a great question for you to ask the attorney in your initial consultation. In a city as big as Houston you will find attorneys that have retainers of varying amounts. The attorney will come to an amount to charge for a retainer based on their experience and the complexity of your case. The more complex your case is the more the attorney will likely charge. If you are hiring the attorney the day before an initial hearing in your case he or she will take that into consideration and move their retainer up a notch in terms of price.

Signing a contract

Every attorney has a contract that you will be asked to sign at the same time you pay your retainer. This contract goes over our responsibility to you as a client and also provides you with information about the scope of our representation of you. Attorneys provide a copy of the contract to you so that you can read through it before signing it. This way there are no questions about what the attorney does and does not have a responsibility to do for the duration of their representation of you.

Filing legal documents, sending out notice of representation

Depending upon whether or not you will be the petitioning party (party who initiates the lawsuit) or the responding party (respondent) your attorney will file legal documents on your behalf with the court. Your opposing party and their attorney will then know who is representing you and who they should contact moving forward in your case.

Getting information from you

Spring Divorce Lawyers: At this stage of your case it is probable that you will be asked to complete some paperwork that will help your attorney learn more about you and more about your case. This is, for the most part, going to be basic information about you, your children, your children’s other parent and any other persons who are relevant to your case.

If yours is a divorce case then your attorney may end up asking you to start collecting important financial documents like tax returns, paycheck stubs, business invoices and things of that nature. The reason for this is that it is likely that your spouse will request this information in a process called Discovery at a later date in your case. It is best to begin collecting and organizing this information now rather than waiting until the last minute. The more work that you can do in relation to this exercise the better off you will be. The less work that your attorney has to do for you means less that you have to pay the attorney down the road.

That said, the attorney does the heavy lifting for you

A lot of people outside of the legal world assume that a family law case is mostly lawyers yelling at each other and parties yelling at one another. This is true to an extent but for the most part a family law case is comprised of negotiation and paperwork. Fortunately if you hire an attorney he or she will be doing the lion’s share of the paperwork for you.

It is your right as the client to view any paperwork filed before it is sent on to the court. The name of the game in a family law case is working to achieve a settlement rather than heading to court for contested hearings or a trial. Your attorney should be able to work with the other side on coming together on any issues possible in order to shorten the length of your case and to achieve a resolution that you can be satisfied with.

The length of a case

Most family law cases settle before reaching a trial. Mediation is required in most courts in Texas so don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a formal negotiation with your opposing party on more than one occasion. Your attorney will attend mediation with you and will be in charge of the ongoing discussions and communicating your settlement offers and counter-offers to the mediator.

While it is wise to hire an attorney with courtroom experience it makes sense to value the ability to work with the other side and reach settlements as well. If your attorney expresses no desire to negotiate or be flexible in the offers and counter offers that are made to your opposing party I believe that you are missing a big opportunity to avoid protracted litigation and instead settle your case and move on with the rest of your life.

Completing the final orders of your case

Once your case has come to a close the final orders of your case will need to be typed out and signed by you and the opposing party. Your attorney will either be drafting these final orders or will be reviewing them and sending notes back to the opposing attorney in order so that they may negotiate and eventually agree upon the language that is included.

There are often times additional paperwork that needs to be completed like wage withholding orders, real property documents that relate to the division of the equity in a home, and things of that nature that your attorney will be able to do for you in most circumstances. Much of this is pretty intricate so it is wise to make sure that you hire an attorney that specializes in family law initially. When it comes to receiving child support on time or getting the equity out of your home that you agreed to in the divorce you do not want the paperwork to hold you back.

Questions about managing and succeeding in a family law case in Texas? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC

Divorce Lawyer in Spring TX: The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC stand ready to represent you in your family law case. If you have any questions about this process or seek clarification on the information that we wrote about today please do not hesitate to contact our office.

We offer free of charge consultations six days a week with our licensed family law attorneys. We will sit with you and answer your questions and address whatever concerns you have about your case or the process in general ... Continue Reading

Follow these steps to win your Texas family law case

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Houston Family Law Lawyers: Suppose that you are going through a divorce and are beginning the process of hiring an attorney. How would you go about doing that? Would you drive up and down the busiest street in your area of town and look at the names on the buildings around your home and make a decision that way? Sounds a lot like walking up and down the snack food aisle and picking a bag of chips based on how snazzy the packaging is. You’ll probably take a bite when you get home and be disappointed that the chips don’t taste as good as the packaging made them out to be.

Hiring an attorney to represent you in a family law case is sort of like this. You can do a quick run-through of the attorneys in your area and make a selection based on how their name looks on a sign and you may get lucky. That may end up being the best attorney in the world for you and your family. Or you may be disappointed. That lawyer may not even be a family law attorney- he or she could be a general practice lawyer who takes whatever case walks through their door because their landlord charges a lot of money to keep the lawyer’s name lit up outside on the sign in front of their building.

What you should consider doing is research into the attorney that you hire. Don’t hire a lawyer because their office furniture is nice. Don’t hire a lawyer because you think that person “looks like an attorney” (whatever an attorney is supposed to look like based on your opinion). Ultimately if the attorney’s office furniture looks really nice it’s probably because the lawyer paid a lot of money for it. If it was purchased with a credit card he or she needs to pay that card off and will do it by charging you and the other clients that lawyer represents a lot of money in all likelihood.

Finding a good attorney is important. Finding a good attorney who makes you feel confident is even more important. Finding a good attorney, who makes you feel confident and that you can afford is the most important thing. You can have all the legal knowledge in the world in the form of your attorney but if you find out halfway through your case that you can no longer afford to pay the attorney’s fees you will soon be looking for another attorney. Your rather expensive attorney will turn and file a motion to withdraw from your case as soon as you are unable to pay your monthly fee.

All of this is to say that there are so many components to a family law case that to not pay attention to each one would be to do yourself a huge disservice. In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC we will discuss how to manage and succeed at your family law case in Texas.

There’s a first time for everything

Family Law Lawyer Houston: Most of the people that hire our office to represent them are going through a family law case for the first time ever. Many of these people have never had any sort of involvement with the legal system before or had even been inside of a courthouse. Rather than think of this as a disadvantage, I will usually tell these folks that in my opinion it is a sign of a life well lived if you have never had to become involved with the courts before your divorce or child custody case. These cases are not fun but they are, many times, essential to your life.

I’ve already waxed poetic about hiring an attorney the importance of doing your due diligence and finding one that checks all the boxes that you have set out for yourself. There are lots of attorneys out there for you to choose from, and fortunately for attorneys there are lots of potential clients out there who will make a determination that any one of us is the best fit for him or her. You have that little voice inside your head that tells you to move forward or run the other way when it comes to hiring someone to perform a service for you. Listen to that voice and you will fine in all likelihood when it comes to retaining an attorney to work with you on your family law case.

The initial consultation with an attorney will tell you a lot about that person

If you’ve conducted some research on attorneys and feel confident that you would like to meet with him or her to discuss your case it’s likely that their website provides you with multiple contact methods by which you can set up a meeting. Some attorneys (like the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, for example) will allow you to set up a free of charge consultation. We will allow you to come into our office and sit with one of our attorneys in order to have a private and confidential meeting about your case, your questions and your concerns.

Many attorneys will charge you money to come in and have a consultation. You will need to make a decision for yourself whether you would be willing or able to pay to speak with a lawyer. Ultimately whatever lawyer you end up deciding to hire you should feel confident that this is the person who will be looking out for you and your family rather than for their own interests. In the consultation you should try to pick up on how well your attorney listens. Attorneys love to hear the sound of their own voices and if you find an attorney who allows you to speak in complete sentences and doesn’t cut you off in the middle of a point then I think this is a good sign that you’ve found a humble, reasonable attorney.

The attorney that you meet with should be able to provide you with some preliminary thoughts on your case and what you may be able to do in terms of working to achieving the goals that you have set out for your case. See if the attorney has been paying attention to what you’ve been saying. You should mention your goals more than once to the attorney. If the attorney starts discussing a possible path for your case and doesn’t incorporate anything that you have told him or her then he or she probably hasn’t been listening to you all that closely.

Hire an attorney only after conducting a thorough review of candidates

Kingwood Divorce Attorney: If you own a business and put out an advertisement for a job opening it wouldn’t make sense for you to close down the ad as soon as you get one resume. The purpose of putting your ad out there is to accumulate as many qualified candidates as possible, interview the best of the best and only then to make a decision as to what candidate should become an employee. The vetting process is incredibly important when it comes to hiring a new attorney.

In tomorrow’s blog post we will start off by discussing what happens after you have selected your attorney to represent you in your family law case. What are the next steps in the process? How will your attorney communicate with you moving forward? For those of you who are new to this process I would highly recommend returning tomorrow to read more about it.

In the meantime if you have any questions about the material that we have covered today, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. Our licensed family law attorneys are available six days a week to meet with you. In a free of charge consultation we are able to sit down with you in a pressure free environment and answer your questions, listen to your concerns and address the issues that are the most important to you. We appreciate your consideration of our office and hope that you will return tomorrow to read more about the process involved in a Texas family law case ... Continue Reading

More on dirty tricks employed in Texas divorce cases

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Houston Family Law Lawyer: In yesterday’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC we began our topic of dirty tricks parties will sometimes choose to employ in divorce cases by bringing up the subject of false allegations of violence perpetrated by one spouse on the other. In today’s blog post we will continue to discuss this topic as we share two other dirty tricks that I have seen people going through divorces use with varying degrees of success in the past.

Cancelling out available attorneys via conflicts of interest

This is sort of an age old technique that has been made fairly well known due to television and the media but I figure it’s worth mentioning here- if for no other reason than it is sort of entertaining to think about. The basis of this dirty trick is that a person can contact every single divorce attorney within a certain geographic area in order to keep that attorney from being able to take the case of their spouse.

Here is the basis for doing this: once an attorney speaks to a potential client he or she is barred from being able to then represent that person’s spouse. This is due to the first spouse having already shared information about himself to that attorney in the consultation. The end result is that because the attorney possesses a degree of knowledge about that person, if he or she were to represent that person’s spouse there would be an unfair advantage.

As a result, this is a conflict of interest that is achieved through trickery. If your spouse is mad at you and wants you to struggle to find a “good” or reputable attorney she may take it upon herself to go and talk to every attorney with a good reputation within a ten mile radius of your home. This may not be the most efficient use of her time but it theoretically could bar that attorney from representing you in that divorce. I can’t guarantee it and an attorney would need to consult with the Texas rules of professional conduct for attorneys to verify this, but the general principle that it could represent a conflict of interest still holds.

Keep in mind that you would not be without recourse, however. If your spouse were to do this sort of thing you have the ability to throw it back in their face (metaphorically speaking) by producing evidence of these misdeeds. If you can collect evidence of some sort of your spouse having engaged in this sort of dirty trick you can show a judge in a hearing that your spouse committed purposeful acts of wrongdoing against you. It would not be surprising if a judge were to punish your spouse somehow or to at least assess attorney’s fees against your spouse.

The bottom line is that if you have a feeling that a divorce is approaching in your life do not sit on the sidelines and let your spouse make the first move. Listen to your instincts and act accordingly. You can do your research and meet with potential attorneys quickly and efficiently given the presence of attorneys online. Most attorneys (our office included) has multiple means by which you can set up a consultation on their websites.

Looks can be deceiving- especially when it comes to parenting

Family Lawyers in Houston: Hopefully this is not an applicable dirty trick to your situation because it is involves your children. In some marriages one parent shoulders almost the entirety of the burden of parenting the children while the other gets off much easier. It could be because your spouse works long hours or is just generally uninterested in the day to day workings of your family that he is not an overly involved parent. Sure, he has lived in the same house as your children but he is rarely at home and when he is there is a high level of disengagement. This could be something that has driven you nuts for the duration of the marriage. Maybe it is the primary or secondary reason for your having pursued a divorce in the first place.

In and of itself this is extremely frustrating. I am a parent of two small kids and am fortunate enough to have a wife who is just as engaged in the parenting process as I am. With two kids at home it is easy to become frustrated, angry or worked up over any number of issues that arise in the normal course of parenting. Having a partner to lean on and shoulder some of the burdens of parenting can be extremely important and can provide peace of mind if nothing else.

Imagine, then, the frustration that you would feel if you or your spouse were to file for divorce only to see in court documents and in testimony in live court, your spouse suddenly making himself out to be a parent of the year candidate. The father who could not find time to attend school recitals, performances and could barely be made to cook a dinner once a month was now proclaiming to anyone who would listen that he was and is every bit the active and attentive parent that you are. Would you be shocked beyond belief to see this “transformation” that your spouse would have made?

Do not be shocked if this situation plays itself out in your case. Perhaps not to the lengths that I have described in my hypothetical example but to a large extent you find that every parent in their divorce case will play up their strong suits when it comes to parenting. If no strong suits exist many parents will invent strengths where none could realistically be found even after close examination. I think the tendency to play up your attributes and downplay your shortcomings is a reasonable one considering how important the divorce is. However, to completely fabricate a history of being an involved parent takes a great deal of guts.

Your spouse’s motivation is fairly transparent in this regard: he wants to get as much time with your children as possible in terms of a visitation/possession break-down. Perhaps he realizes the error of his ways and is lying to make up ground that he ceded to you in your marriage. A more cynical person may note that he wants to become the primary conservator of those kids because he does not want to be on the hook for child support payments until those children graduate from high school or turn eighteen.

Whatever the motivation, you need to be aware of the prevalence of this behavior to varying degrees in Texas divorce cases. You should do your best to identify this trick early on in your divorce and make sure that your attorney is aware of the difference between your spouse’s actual parenting techniques and the ones that he states were employed in the court records. There is no shame in staying on top of your spouse and making sure that the court is aware of his actual parenting record. Bringing in witnesses to contradict your spouse’s stories about involved parenting is a good idea.

Dirty tricks happen in divorce cases- but you don’t have to be caught off guard by them

Family Law Attorneys Houston: The idea that you will be fortunate enough to avoid any falsehoods or dirty tricks coming out of the mouth or case filings of your spouse in a divorce is just simply not realistic. It’s likely that you won’t see bad acts like the ones that we described in yesterday and today’s blog posts, but sneaky, untruthful and misleading statements are made frequently in divorce cases. You will be better off if you are aware of these practices and can protect yourself from them ... Continue Reading

Be aware of these dirty tricks that may be used against you in your Texas divorce

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Divorce Houston: Anything is fair in love and war. So goes the old saying that I’m sure we’ve all heard a time or two either in real life or a movie. From my experiences as an attorney I think it’s fair to say that that quote could be extended by a few words to include, “and also family law cases.” There is something about family law cases, specifically divorce cases, that brings out the emotions of the parties. It makes sense to me- after all, a family law case is centered around your marriage and your children. There are no more personal subjects than these in the world.

The reality of a divorce is that most cases are civil and most parties work together as much as possible to ensure a drama-free case. On the other hand, some divorces feature one or two parties that are difficult to deal with where drama is the norm. These divorces are not straight forward and bring out the worst in one or even both parties. The tough part is you can never be sure that yours won’t be one of these divorces until your case starts.

What would you do if you found that your spouse was going to make your life extremely difficult during the course of your divorce. Suppose that at the beginning of your divorce your spouse made it abundantly clear that information was not going to be easily obtained, violence may be a possibility and threats were going to be a common occurrence? Would you know what to do or how to counteract these measures to influence you and the court?

In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC we will take this opportunity to share with you some examples of the “dirty tricks” that many spouses employ in divorces against well meaning persons like yourself. Do not assume that just because your spouse has never displayed these characteristics before that he or she will not choose your divorce to start doing so. With that said, let’s begin by addressing the “whys” associated with bad behavior, dirty tricks and divorce.

Why do seemingly “normal” people act poorly during their divorce?

The reasons why people do bad things or employ dirty tricks in a divorce are varied. No two people are created the same so there are as many reasons and explanations for bad behavior as there are people. I’m not going to attempt to sort of every possible reason why dirty tricks may be used against you by your spouse. We simply don’t have the space for that sort of thing. However, I do have opinions that I have formed based on my time serving our community as a family law attorney.

Fear, as it is in many areas of our lives, is a key motivator when it comes to employing dirty tricks in a divorce. Your spouse may be concerned that you will attempt to “take” your child from him or her. There may be financial concerns that you don’t know about that he or she is having. What if paying a couple hundred dollars in child support had convinced your spouse that he or she would go bankrupt? Do you think he or she would want to do anything possible to prevent that from occurring?

When an animal is backed into a corner he is at his most dangerous. The same goes for people, unfortunately. If your spouse believes himself to be in a position where he must do whatever is necessary to protect himself and his interests he will do so. The result of that fear are the dirty tricks that we will be discussing today.

The best thing that you are doing is working to identify these dirty tricks and learning how to combat them. Preventing them from occurring in the first place is the best plan but mitigating the damage that they cause and anticipating their usage is the next best thing in my opinion.

Violence being alleged that did not actually occur

Family Lawyers Houston: I will say that most allegations of abuse in a divorce case do have merit. People are forced into positions where they need to ask a court for protection for themselves/their children due to the bad acts of their spouses. For these people, asking for a temporary restraining order is justified. However, in regard to divorce cases it is unfortunately not that uncommon to be confronted by a false allegation of family violence.

Sometimes the allegations are so unreasonable that for anyone to believe them the person would need to cease using their common sense. There is a certain degree of strategy at stake in doing so. Many people believe this to be a good mechanism to obtain a leg up in their child custody or property battles. The restraining order will not only keep you from coming into contact with your spouse, but it will eliminate any contact between you and your child for a period of time.

These episodes can become especially detrimental to a case in the event that the allegations are in relation to a child custody situation. Often times you will be served with paperwork where your spouse alleges that you engaged in some act of violence against him/her or your child. Hearings can be held as soon as three days after you are notified of the application for the restraining order so acting quickly is very important.

The end result of a restraining order hearing is that your contact with your children could be severely curtailed. This would put you at a severe disadvantage when it comes to fighting for your rights as a parent in the custody portion of your divorce. An affidavit (written statement made by your spouse under oath) will usually be attached to the application that specifies the act or acts that are the basis of the affidavit and application.

The tough part of this type of situation is that the temporary restraining order can be obtained by your spouse on an ex parte basis from the judge. This means that he or she does not need to notify you or your attorney of the hearing and can obtain an order without you present. Right or wrong, an affidavit is usually enough if the allegations made are significant or credible enough to substantiate the allegations(s) being made.

More on divorce dirty tricks to be posted in tomorrow’s blog

Family Lawyer in Houston: As it sometimes happens around our blog, I got a little too wordy today and could not fit all of the dirty tricks that I wanted to share with you into one post. With that said we will continue to discuss this topic in tomorrow’s blog post. Showing a false interest in your child’s activities (when none was shown before) or attempting to keep you from obtaining the best lawyer available are the topics that we will be discussing.

When it comes to combating these dirty tricks knowledge is power. You can do quite a bit of good for yourself just by educating yourself on the issues and figuring out how to identify them before it is too late in your case ... Continue Reading

What you need to think about before filing for divorce when your spouse lives outside the U.S.A.

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Divorce Attorney in Houston: I don’t think you could find anyone who would try to argue that filing for divorce is a pleasant process. While every step makes sense in its own way that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things that can frustrate even the most patient person. After having represented many people in divorce cases across Texas I can tell you that most of those folks have great intentions but are not thinking all that clearly during their case due to stress, anxiety and a mix of perfectly understandable emotions.

The tough part about a divorce is that the mistakes that you are capable of making within the case may not have any ramifications of effects on your life until years later. Many issues surrounding divorce are made to be more complex when your marriage was conducted outside the U.S.A. or your spouse lives outside of the country. In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC we will discuss what issues are most important when it comes to an international divorce.

What makes a divorce international in nature?

You may be asking yourself what exactly constitutes an international divorce. In a state like Texas where many of us were born or at least once resided outside the State or country there are a lot of people whose cases may fairly be termed as an international divorce. Let’s first establish what an international divorce is.

An international divorce involves persons who were marred in another country, own property outside of the United States, have adopted a child not born in the United States during the course of your marriage or were simply married in a foreign country. If your marriage or family life meets one of these qualifications then your divorce may involve international issues.

What this means on a practical level is that not only will the laws of Texas be relevant to your divorce but the laws of another country may also come into play. It is not a given that our laws are the same or even similar to the laws of the other country. In many instances those laws may differ a great deal. When you are having to deal with the sort of complex issues that your divorce will likely represent it is wise to have a representative (like those with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC) who have helped other people find solutions for themselves in situations like the one you are facing.

What do you need to do when you file for an international divorce in Texas

The tough part about having to file an international divorce is that the laws in Texas may not even allow you to file in our state. To be fair these laws apply equally to persons whose divorces could be qualified as international or domestic but they absolutely bear mentioning here.

For starters, you and/or your spouse must have resided within the state of Texas for at least the past six months and the county where your divorce will be filed for at least the previous ninety days. How can you establish residency for these purposes if you are ever called to do so? Household bills like a utility state would seem to do the trick in most situations. Payroll receipts from a job work well also as frequently as people work from home these days it may not be as proof positive as in previous years. Overall, you will want to collect documents that can potentially be used as evidence to establish residence before you move forward with your international divorce.

Once you meet the jurisdictional requirements of Texas you then need to concern yourself with the various jurisdictional requirements that are in place in whatever country’s laws will come into play for your particular divorce. We don’t have the space to list out the particular jurisdictional requirements from every country around the world but suffice it to say that you need to know what they are before actually filing for divorce. Google can be an effective tool in many applications of our lives but I do not recommend merely “Googling” the divorce laws of Mexico or Canada and then moving forward with a divorce. It is best to have an attorney by your side who can conduct research that is more detailed and based on knowledge that you likely do not possess.

What can be done if your spouse does not live in the U.S.A.

Houston Family Attorney: In some situations you spouse may be living outside the United States. It is not out of the question that a Texas court can take jurisdiction over the case and therefore have the case here right here in the Lone Star State. The best way that I can think of to have Texas take jurisdiction over your case would be to have your spouse served with divorce papers while here in the country.

From personal experience, I can tell you about an instance where personal service of divorce papers probably would have worked much better than having to serve someone internationally.

Our office had one case in recent years where we represented a man who met a woman on the internet and eventually married her in Texas. They then moved to her home country, Colombia, and started a life there together. They built a house and lived together as husband and wife for many years.

Our client ran into some health problems that required that he return home to Texas for surgery. His wife and he flew back to Texas and went to a local hospital where he had a procedure. When he woke up from the surgery our client came to find out that his wife had essentially dropped him off at the hospital and left immediately afterwards. She had returned to their home in Colombia without him. Our client had family that he could lean on for assistance in Texas but his property and his wife were in Colombia. What could he do?

He came into our office where we advised him of the jurisdictional requirements to actually file for divorce in Texas. Surprisingly, he had waited months to speak to an attorney about filing for divorce in Texas so he had just about lived here long enough to establish residency for divorce purposes. Remember, even though they were married in Texas that didn’t automatically qualify him to be able to file for divorce here upon his return to the United States. He would still need to be a resident of Texas in order to file for divorce in Texas.

Next up, we had two practical considerations to deal with. First of all, his property was pretty much completely in Colombia. It is unlikely that a Texas judge would implement any orders that would affect that property due to those orders have little to no weight in a Colombian court. We had to unfortunately inform our client that while we could help him get divorced in Texas, it would likely have no effect on his Colombian property or whether or not his spouse would file for divorce from him in Colombia.

The final issue, which proved to be most difficult, was actually getting his wife served with divorce papers so she could be notified of the proceedings in the United States. Our client could not convince his wife to return to the United States so that we could serve her personally. The alternative was that we would need to serve her via the United Nations’ method for serving a person internationally. While it was not impossible it was difficult, took a great deal of time and cost more than serving a person domestically.

Divorce is complex and international divorce is more complex

Houston Family Law Attorneys: After reading today’s blog post if you have any questions about the material that we covered please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. I understand that you may have specific questions about your circumstances that you need to have answered. We offer free of charge consultations six days a week where we can answer those questions and address your concerns in comfortable and pressure free environment. Our attorneys practice only in family law and serve clients just like you from across southeast Texas ... Continue Reading

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How to enforce a child support order when the paying parent lives outside of Texas

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Divorce Attorneys in Houston: One of the most helpless feelings that a parent can experience is being in a position where you are not receiving the court ordered child support that you are entitled to. This can leave you vulnerable to the ups and downs of your own income leaving you little wiggle room to plan and budget for your family. On another level, it can and should anger you because your child’s other parent is placing other responsibilities ahead of providing for their child. Having someone essentially tell you that your child isn’t that important can be extremely hurtful- especially when that other person is your child’s parent.

Make no mistake, you have options available to you if and when your child’s other parent does not fulfill their end of the bargain when it comes to paying child support. The most straightforward and practical option when it comes to bringing the violations of your child support order to the attention of a judge is called an Enforcement suit.

An enforcement lawsuit seeks to do exactly what it sounds like- enforce something, namely a court order. You would file this lawsuit just like a Divorce or Original child custody suit. The only difference is that this the second case under the original case number that you were assigned in your child custody/divorce case. In this suit you would be notifying the judge of the other parent’s violations of the child support order and can then request “relief” from the court in the form of money and possible jail time for your child’s other parent.

It takes effort and planning on your part to get to the point where you can successfully present your case to a judge. Before then you are just another parent who is not receiving the child support payments you are supposed to be. Sometimes taking that first step towards learning about child support enforcement cases is the most difficult step in the process.

What happens, though, when your child’s other parent does not live close to your child or even within the State of Texas? Is the process the same for parents that do live in-State? Today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC will detail this subject.

People moving frequently is a reality in today’s world

As economies change, the job market changes as well. Gone are the days where a person is well guaranteed to grow up and live in one geographic location. Many times, people will up and move not only across a city but across the country for a variety of reasons.

Family courts cannot force you or your child’s other parent to reside in a certain place. However, a family court does have jurisdiction to limit where your child resides. Many parents choose to include what is known as a geographic restriction within their original court order. This geographic restriction often limits where your child can live to the county where your case was filed and any county that borders it. Family law language would term this as any county “contiguous” to the county where your case has been filed.

I have seen families in the Houston area use Harris County and any county contiguous to Harris. I have seen parents state that their child can live in Harris or Montgomery counties. I have even seen some parents state that the child must remain in a school district due to the excellent reputation of the schools. Whatever option is chosen, you need to know whether a geographic restriction is in place for you child and if so where your child can reside.

Getting back to the specific topic of this blog post, it happens that sometimes parents will cross state lines and begin to live in another state even if a geographic restriction is in place for their child. This parent is most frequently the non custodial parent- meaning that their child does not live with him or her primarily. There is nothing against the “rules” to do this. Again, a court cannot tell this parent where he or she can live. However, what it does do is open up the places where the child can reside. The reason being is that once the non custodial parent leaves the geographic region, so can the custodial parent and child.

Out of sight, out of mind unfortunately

Houston Divorce Attorneys: Once your child’s other parent moves out of state it becomes an unfortunate situation that because he or she does not see your child as frequently their motivation to pay child support can decrease a great deal. Maybe their move was predicated upon the promise of a job in the new location that did not actually come together as planned. Whatever the reason, if you are left waiting on child support from a parent that lives out of state here is what you need to know.

There are procedures in place that all states follow that allow for parents to enforce child support orders when the parent who owes child support resides outside of the home state. The Uniform Interstate Child Support Act (UIFSA) is the federal statute that contains the specific laws that pertain to this subject. In Texas the Office of the Attorney General is the governmental body charged with overseeing the complex child support structure in Texas.

You as the custodial parent would need to send the child support order to whatever body governs child support enforcement cases in the State where your child’s other parent resides. Then the order is reviewed and it will be sent on to the county judge where the other parent lives. It is in that court that child support enforcement cases are hard.

You may be asking how an out of state court would so easily enforce the child support laws of Texas. To answer this question you would need to know that UIFSA operates based on the legal certainty that the out of state court would honor Texas state law and the court in the other state would apply our laws to the process in whatever state the other parent is residing in.

What happens if the other parent does not pay

Whatever collection methods are approved by Texas law will be enforced in the out of State court. Garnishing the parent’s wages is a possibility if the parent’s employer can be found out. Missed child support payments can be made known to credit bureaus and liens can be placed on the property of that parent. Finally licenses like hunting, fishing, driving, commercial driving, etc. can be suspended for the failure to pay court ordered child support.

In extreme situations you can ask a Texas court to hold a non-paying parent in confinement for a period not to exceed 180 days or six months. Depending on the amount of child support that is actually owed this may be an option. Either way, an enforcement case is pretty straightforward in the sense that you must show the missed payments and the amount of money that is owed. There is not much the other parent can do to counteract your alleged proof of the violations.

Experience is essential when managing a child support enforcement case

Divorce Attorneys Houston: If you intend to pursue a child support enforcement case against your child’s other parent it is in your best interest to become as well versed in the child support laws of our state as possible. If at all possible you should hire an attorney who has handled these type of cases before so that you can be as prepared as possible heading into the case.

After reading today’s blog post if you have any questions about the material that we covered please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. We offer free of charge consultations with our licensed family law attorneys six days a week. Whether you live in Baytown, Katy, Conroe or Tomball we work tirelessly on behalf of our clients and take pride in doing so. Before you rush into a case without much knowledge of the process or the law it is best to meet with an attorney who has been there and done that. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC are those attorneys and we thank you for your consideration ... Continue Reading

Handling issues related to the Right of First Refusal in Texas family law cases

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Family Lawyer Houston: The right of first refusal is an issue that comes up in family law cases that can cause even the most creative and experienced family law attorney to scratch their heads on how to proceed. Essentially, the right of first refusal allows a parent who is not entitled to possession for a specified period of possession to be able to take possession of the child if the other parent is not able to do so. Allow me to provide you with an example of how this situation could arise in real life.

Suppose that your ex-husband is scheduled for a visitation period with your son beginning at 6:00 p.m. on this Friday and ending at 6:00 p.m. on the following Sunday. In the morning on Thursday, he receives a phone call that alerts him to the fact that he will need to work this weekend. Since your divorce decree contains a right of first refusal, he must contact you as soon as he becomes aware of this scheduling conflict and provide you with your right to refuse visitation that is offered to you. You have the option to take possession of your son this weekend even though the divorce decree states this is your ex-husband's weekend for possession of him.

We also see issues that arise when parents like yourself begin dating again after a divorce has concluded. If you are not able to take possession of your child for a weekend visit, you may want your girlfriend to be able to pick your child up from his mothers’ home and then drop him off the following Sunday. Since you are able to designate an adult to pick your child up in the event that you are unable to, what’s the harm in having that same adult care for your child during a weekend that you’re not able to see him? Your girlfriend may really want to see your child, and after all- it’s your weekend so it should be your call, right?

How is the right of the first refusal defined in your custody orders?

This is the first question that we need to ask ourselves in relation to your particular circumstances. If you are considering whether or not to include a right of first refusal in your child custody orders, you and your attorney need to first think about how that term is going to be defined and applied as it pertains to your family. What is the specific period of time that a parent cannot be with the child that will cause the right of first refusal to be triggered?

You may be able to negotiate that if you or your new spouse is unable to be present with your child during a period of possession (sometimes lasting between four and eight hours), then you must contact your ex-spouse and allow him or her to come and pick up your child for that certain period of time. Whenever the predetermined/agreed to amount of time is over, your ex-spouse would then return your child to your home and allow you to complete your period of possession as scheduled.

Even when you get specifics as this handled, you need to consider the effects of including that kind of language in your order. If your ex-spouse gets home from work at 12:00 a.m. do you have to get your son dressed and over to the other parent's house within the hour? That would seem impractical and not necessarily in your child’s best interests, but strict language regarding the right of first refusal could theoretically make this a necessity. A compromise could be that if the parent were to become available to possess the child at a time after 9:00 p.m., the parent in possession of the child on a temporary basis could wait until 9:00 a.m. the following day to drop the child back off at the other parent’s home.

The other issue that we need to discuss is what your child would be comfortable with as far as a substitute adult to possess him or her when you or the other parent is not available. It sounds ok enough for you to have your mother, father, aunt or girlfriend available to watch your child for half a day when you have to work unexpectedly. However, if your son doesn’t get along with any of those people then it would not seem like it would be in his best interests to leave him with any of those folks. Unless you and your child’s other parent have a group of people that are able to care for your child in these situations then a right of first refusal may not be a wise thing to include in your orders.

How will extracurricular activities be handled?

Divorce Lawyers Houston: In this day and age, there are camps, classes, training sessions, and other activities for any sport or extra-curricular event under the sun. Odds are decent that you and your ex-spouse may not see eye to eye on your child's potential or the role of these activities in the life of your child. For instance, you may believe that your child should only be involved in extracurricular activities to the extent that they can make friends and build their self-confidence. However, your ex-spouse may believe that these additional activities are essential for the development of your child and that he or she has the potential to become a professional ball-player, musician or dancer. How can this fundamental disagreement be solved?

I have seen some families achieve success when each parent is allowed to select one activity for their child to participate in each semester of school. The costs for activities would then need to be divided up in some manner between parents. Additional activities (camps, classes, etc.) would be paid for by the parent who selected that activity. Transportation to and from activities would also need to be determined. If you and your ex-spouse earn similar incomes the costs could be split evenly. Otherwise, a proportionate split may be more appropriate.

Another issue that may be relevant to discuss for your family is whether or not both parents may attend practices or rehearsals. If you and the other parent can be around one another without issue then this is not a problem. However, if you all have shown an inability to be in close proximity to one another you may have to limit attendance to the parent who paid for the camp or activity. Both parents in most cases can attend performances and games, no matter what parent is in possession of the child on that particular day.

How will you be reimbursed for uninsured medical costs?

As a part of any child custody order, you or your child’s other parent will be made to be responsible for providing health insurance for your child. Whether it is insurance provided for by one of your employers, insurance through the private marketplace, Obamacare or Medicaid, your child will need to be covered. One of you will pay for that insurance or will reimburse the one who pays for medical coverage.

However, not every cost that your child will incur for medical treatment will be covered by insurance. These are called uninsured medical costs. Suppose that you take your child to a pediatrician appointment and he orders a test for your child that is not covered by insurance. Once you receive a bill for that test you would need to submit the bill to your child’s other parent so that he can pay you back for the test you paid for (in the event that it is his responsibility to pay uninsured medical expenses).

What I will advise clients to do is to negotiate to include a deadline by which medical bills have to be submitted for reimbursement purposes. For instance, a provision in the order that specifies how much each parent has to pay towards uninsured medical costs, as well as a deadline to submit the relevant bill to the other parent, is a good idea.

I would tell you that it is common to have parents agree to split 50/50 uninsured medical costs. Since it is usually the primary conservator who takes the child to the doctor or for unscheduled visits to hospitals and such, it will be that parent who has to pay the bill upfront. What I tell parents in this position to do is to set up a reminder on their phone to submit bills by the end of the month to the other parent to be reimbursed, However, a good practice is to simply scan and email the bill to the other parent as quickly as you can. That way you have a record that the bill was submitted and you can be paid back as quickly as possible.

Issues related to military parents

Family Attorney Houston: If you are the primary conservator of your child and have been deployed overseas as a member of our military, you have the ability to designate an adult to exercise your possession and conservatorship rights while you are overseas.

The law in Texas is there is an order of preference as far as assigning that right. For example, you should first give preference to the other parent. That other parent would not normally have the right to determine the primary residence of your child, but you could allow him or her to act in that capacity for as long as you are overseas and unable to do so yourself. However, if selecting the other parent to take these rights on a temporary basis were not in the best interests of your child, then a nonparent may be chosen instead ... Continue Reading

Creative solutions to problems regarding parental rights in Texas

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Houston Family Lawyers: If you are going through a difficult child custody or divorce case and are in need of practical solutions to the problems that you are facing, you have come to the right place. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan achieves successful results for our clients in part because we are able to arrive at practical solutions for our clients using negotiation and our experience in Texas family law.

In every family case, there is an issue that seems like it will be nearly impossible to solve. While it may be unavoidable that you will have tough circumstances in your case, it does not have to be true that those tough circumstances will invariably lead to a trial.

Parenting decisions related to the education, physical health and mental well-being of your child are among the most important rights that you will have in relation to your child. How those rights are allocated between you and your child's other parent can determine a great deal of how happy, productive and healthy your child will be in the future. Given the importance of this subject, I wanted to devote today's blog post to discuss how you can arrive at a desirable outcome and not have to see the inside of a courtroom in order to do so.

Educational Decisions

We touched on this briefly in yesterday’s blog post but I think that it bears repeating today. Parents in Texas family law cases no longer have to assign the right to designate the primary residence of their child to one parent in particular. It is possible for you and the other parent to agree that your child’s residence should be restricted to a specific geographic region, instead. This can go a long ways towards making you and your child’s other parent satisfied that neither of you will be a primary conservator of your child, it still opens up some questions about where your child will attend school.

Children in Texas are allowed to attend a school in the school district in which either of their parents resides. If this is the case and either you or the other parent are within your rights to have your child attend the schools zoned to your residence, what we need to figure out is how are the educational rights going to be divided between you and your child's other parent as far as decision making is concerned.

What school will your child be attending? How will it be possible for you and your child’s other parent, when you are not in agreement with one another, make educational decisions together on behalf of that child?

In many cases, the two parents will eventually agree that one of them should be able to make decisions regarding education exclusively. The parent who holds this right would have to seek out the counsel and opinion of the other parent but would not be bound in any way by those opinions. If this option is not chosen, what can you all do to avoid stalemates when there is a disagreement on a particular issue?

In the search for a tie-breaker, a therapist, counselor or other trusted individual is oftentimes sought to fill this role. The counselor could select the appropriate school for your child at the beginning of each school year. If not a therapist, a pediatrician or school administrator/official can fill these shoes if necessary.

Medical decisions that involve surgery

The term "invasive medical procedure" is the language that you will see used most often in reference to medical procedures that closely mirror surgeries. However, you and your child's other parent will need to figure out for yourselves what an invasive medical procedure is. Do dental procedures count as an invasive medical treatment? What about a tattoo? Look to the terms of your settlement agreement and ultimately the order in your case to see what you all define an invasive medical procedure as.

On a more practical level, you and your child's other parent will need to figure out how you are going to manage the scheduling of doctor's appointments. Can this be done without consulting with the other parent? Can both parents be present in the doctor's office during an appointment? Hopefully, surgeries and other invasive procedures are not that commonplace for your child, but a doctor's appointment probably will be.

Another major issue that you will need to get squared away is which doctor is going to be your child’s primary care physician. Once you figure this out you will need to decide how specialists are going to be considered and selected if the need to do so arises. What some families will do is agree to maintain primary care with a particular doctor for as long as practical. If that physician moves, retires or a parent wishes to change to another physician, that primary care doctor should be consulted and their choice for a replacement should be used.

A good rule of thumb for your attorney to use with you in this sort of setting is to try and have you think about this decision in the way that you would have you and your child's other parent never separated in the first place. How would you all have arrived at a solution in this setting if there were a disagreement between the two of you?

If you are like most families, you would sit down at the dinner table and discuss the issues once enough information has been collected to have an intelligent discussion. From there you would decide what arrangement, as far as parental decision making is concerned, would be the best for your child.

Psychological or psychiatric treatment- who calls the shots?

Houston Family Law Attorney: The same type of analysis can be done for psychiatric and psychological decisions that we just wrapped up in our previous section on invasive medical procedures. These are also very important rights that will need to be divided between yourself and the other parent to your child. Consider just how often medications are prescribed for children or the role that specific diagnoses (like ADD or ADHD) can have on your child in school and other places. You need to arrive at a parenting structure that benefits your child.

Consider why you and your child’s other parent are no longer in a relationship. Could it be that issues like this helped to drive you both apart from one another? It is probably not the case that one of these disagreements was the driving factor that led to the breakup of your relationship, but it could very well be that the disagreements on these sort of subject contributed heavily to the decision to end the relationship.

Drug use among children is a problem in our country. There are all sorts of facts and figures that I could cite here, but I think we would all agree that any amount of drug use by a child is too much. As such, if you find yourself in a position where your child is abusing drugs or alcohol it is extremely important that you be able to see to it that the child receives treatment. However, not every family can agree on how best to handle it.

Consider a situation where your child was caught smoking marijuana. Your ex-spouse may just think that it is a phase that he or she is going through. Nothing to be all that concerned with, certainly no need to send your child to a doctor or other medical professional for consultations. However, you may take the exact opposite point of view. You could see the situation as a cry for help from your child and a long-lasting problem that you have to nip in the bud while you still can. When you all hold such divergent views how can you possibly arrive at a solution that is acceptable to both of you?

What your attorney should be working to help you avoid is a situation where you seek expensive medical care for your child over the objection of your child’s other parent. Your child’s other parent could then reverse course a week later without consulting you. What you are then left with is a child who is not really receiving any consistent care for their problem(s), a bill for medical care that provided no benefit to anyone, and two upset parents. Sounds like a perfect storm for a family law case.

Your attorney should be working with you to answer a few, important questions. First of all, which parent should be making the decision on whether or not to have your child formally evaluated for a medical/psychological problem?

Once that decision is made you need to decide which parent is going to be the one to make a decision on what course of action to take on behalf of your child? What happens if it becomes obvious that it may be necessary to consider inpatient care for your child? If nothing else, a tie-breaker would be good to have inserted into the court order in the event that no conclusion can be reached on these subjects.

What about other rights not included in the Texas Family Code as necessary?

Divorce Lawyers in Houston: The three rights that we just finished discussing are the big-ticket items that you and your attorney will focus heavily on when it comes to negotiating final orders in your family law case. However, there are other rights that can be important as well that are not always discussed in family cases ... Continue Reading

What will your child’s school do if you and your ex-spouse disagree about an educational decision?

If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, What will your child’s school do if you and your ex-spouse disagree about an educational decision? with the great process!

Houston Family Lawyer: After your divorce, you and your ex-spouse will likely share (to one extent or another) the decision-making responsibilities associated with your child going to school. Sometimes that could mean a decision regarding whether or not to have your child skip a grade or be held back. It could mean the decision revolves around whether or not to allow your child to enter into a special education course in a subject where he is struggling. Regardless, these are usually emotionally volatile situations that can lead to disagreements between parents.

Odds are you and your ex-spouse will not agree on every single contested issue that comes before you that relates to your child. If you disagree with one another regarding an educational decision, the next question you need to ask yourselves is what will happen to your child? Will the school be able to move forward with what it says best? Will you and your ex-spouse need to see the judge? In today's blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, we will discuss this subject in greater detail.

A school will look to a court order whenever you and your ex-spouse disagree

If you have been to court and have been issued a court order signed by a judge, that order will be consulted in order to determine what role each parent can play in the educational decision making in reference to a child.

It may be that you are the only parent who has to be consulted when it comes to making decisions regarding education for your child. If that is the case then this becomes a much easier question and the school can move forward with whatever decision you make. Your ex-spouse may disagree with your decision, but that means he or she will need to take it up the judge in an attempted modification of that order.

It gets trickier if there is no court order in place or if the current order requires you and your child’s other parent to agree on educational decisions for one to be made. While you and your ex-spouse work to arrive at a conclusion regarding what to do, the school will have to wait. They cannot do anything without your permission and that of your spouse. The best thing that your child’s school can do is provide both of you with information with which a better decision can be reached.

In the end, if a mutually agreeable decision cannot be reached, many families will just head back to the courthouse and attempt to modify the order in a way that is favorable to their side. Most schools will not weigh in on what parent is doing the better job of parenting your child. Before you negotiate parental rights and duties in your divorce, you need to consider the long term consequences in areas like education.

What to do about picking your child up from school

Suppose that you pick your child up from school every day. However, in your divorce, you and your spouse agreed to a Standard Possession Order. Given these circumstances how can you proceed?

In many cases, parents like you will mutually agree to not abide by all the terms of your Standard Possession Order. You are completely able to create your own customized parenting plan that better suits your circumstances. The Standard Possession Order will act as a fall back plan for those times that you and your ex-spouse cannot agree on a plan.

An issue can arise in situations like this, however, when your child’s school does not know who will be picking him up from school. They can always refer to your orders in a pinch, but since you do not have to follow those orders to the letter there can be problems that potentially arise.

The school may take it upon themselves to remind you and your ex-spouse that for the safety of your child that teachers and administrators would like to know ahead of time when the routine will be changed. Providing written notice to the school of any anticipated changes in the transportation schedule would be appreciated.

A quick phone call or short email can make a huge difference to eliminate confusion among those people at your child's school who is in charge of making sure the kids go with the correct parent on a certain day. I have seen situations where both parents go to the school to pick up a child and there can be difficulties when the child can only go home with one of the parents. At the very least you will be asked by the school to provide written notice of about any anticipated changes to the Standard Possession Order.

What happens if a parent wants to eat lunch with their child every day at school?

Divorce Lawyer Houston: There is nothing abnormal about you or your child’s other parenting wanting to eat lunch with him or her at school once a month. What can become burdensome (and this is something that I have seen happen) is when one parent wants to eat lunch at school every single day. A divorce decree will usually state that both you and your child’s other parent will be able to attend school activities. It doesn’t matter which parent is in possession of your child.

Additionally, many school districts in Texas will allow you and your ex-spouse to visit your child at school during lunchtime. I can remember fondly when my mom would come to school when I was a kiddo. She would sometimes come with some lunch from a restaurant for a friend and me, which was always a special activity.

However, in other families, that type of situation could get out of hand. Imagine a scenario playing out where you and your child's other parent both come to school during lunch to see your child. While you may do this every once in a while, it can become distracting if your ex-spouse were to do this every day.

In the situation I was alluding to a moment ago, I have seen an opposing party come to school literally every day with Subway sandwiches for his kids. Our client, who had made box lunches, would get extremely frustrated with this because it was an unnecessary distraction for her children since he was beginning to come to school every day.

Basically, the school will keep an eye on the situation and will need to make a determination if your spouse going to lunch at school every day has become a distraction or not. I doubt that each school or school district has a set in stone policy, either.

So, your child’s school will likely be making a judgment called based on its own experiences and the recommendations of its administrators. The emotional well-being of your child is surely attached to their educational well-being. Do not be surprised if your child’s school asks your ex-spouse to limit their visits to the school if they believe that the visits are having an adverse effect on your child or any other student.

Parent-Teacher Conference: A potential site for disagreement between parents

I don’t think that anyone would attempt to argue that a parent-teacher conference wasn’t a school activity. As such, it is likely that both you and your child’s other parent have the ability to both attend this event. However, unlike a basketball game played in front of a hundred people in a large gymnasium, this event will be held in a small classroom with only you, your child’s teacher and your ex-spouse.

Your child’s school will invite you and your ex-spouse to both attend the event. Given that teachers, depending on the school are often very busy on the night of parent-teacher conferences, you may not be able to have separate time slots scheduled for you and your ex-spouse. Also, it does not matter that the event is scheduled during the school week when you are in possession of your child. Your ex-spouse may attend this activity regardless of whether or not he or she is in possession of your child on the evening the conferences are held.

Unless your court order bars your ex-spouses from attending events like this, or their parental rights have been terminated outright, you can expect that the school will welcome both you and your child's other parent to the conference. Hopefully, you and your ex-spouse are in a place where you can attend this event together without an issue. However, if you are reading this blog post something tells me that this is, unfortunately, not the case.

If your child’s school has a reason to believe that there could be some conflict when you and your ex-spouse attend the conference then separate conferences may be scheduled. Or, you may need to work out a separate day for you or your ex-spouse to attend separately.

What happens if your ex-spouse wants another person to pick up your child from school?

Houston Divorce: Now you are about six months removed from your divorce and your ex-spouse's boyfriend/girlfriend, mother or new husband/wife wants to be able to pick your child up from school. It is essential that your child has a support system that he or she is able to rely upon after the divorce. That support system will oftentimes include people that fall into these categories. Imagine how much important it will be to have your child be able to have loving persons available to care for him or her after your marriage has ended ... Continue Reading

What does your child’s school need to do once you have been to family court?

If you have need a best suitable service your Child Law experience, What does your child’s school need to do once you have been to family court? with the great process!

Houston Divorce Lawyers: One of the most frequently asked questions of me in relation to people’s family law cases is what their child’s school needs to do in relation to their newly produced family court orders. Many of those orders will tangentially affect your child and their school. Picking up a child from school, dropping off a child at school, allowing for early release of the child for a doctor’s appointment and what parent can access information are just a few of the instances where your child’s school is relevant when discussing your family law situation.

The administration and teachers of your child’s school come face to face with issues related to family law cases on a daily basis. They have a need to balance your parental rights and that of your child’s other parent, all the while keeping a focus on the well-being and learning of your child.

It is not an easy position for these folks to be In, but they don’t get to choose the situations that their children find themselves in. They, like you, just have to make the best of whatever circumstances are in play.

To what extent does school administration have to review final orders from your divorce or child custody case?

In any family law case that affects the relationship that a parent has with one of their students, the school will need to be aware of any of your parental rights have been restricted or terminated outright. The rights that you have are likely to be assigned specifically in the order. If the order doesn’t state that you have a particular right, then it is difficult to argue that you actually do.

For instance, most parents after a family law case will retain the right to attend school events for their child, speak to their child’s teacher(s) and access their educational records like progress reports and report cards. A big thing for many families is making sure that both parents are listed as emergency contacts for their child. Imagine your child breaking a bone at school and not being telephoned at work to let you know what has happened. This can be a major factor in why schools need to know the particular circumstances of each of their students.

This can be especially important if your child is being considered for alternative learning environments, special education coursework or accelerated learning opportunities. In some families, only one parent has the ability to make decisions whether or not to enroll their child in these type of courses. However, your family may not be in the same boat and school officials need to be aware of your particular circumstances so they don’t contribute to the violations of a court order.

What if there is no court order in place at all?

An even trickier situation for your child’s school could involve you and your spouse- even if you have never gotten a divorce or been to family court. For instance, if you and your spouse are still legally married but are not living together and have been separated for some time, that may give your child’s school the impression that you are divorced. This sort of informal divorce/separation can be very confusing for your child’s school officials.

On the other hand, you and your child’s other parent may never have gotten married and the school is not aware of this. It doesn’t matter ultimately what your relationship status is if you have never been to court. As long as your child’s father has been legally declared as your child’s parent then he has the same parental rights associated with your child as you.

However, if he has not been legally declared your child’s father than he has no legal rights to her and therefore would not be able to take part in decision making, pick up/drop off or access to school records unless you speak to the administration about those circumstances specifically.

What happens in a situation where you are the only parent to interact with your child’s school?

Family Law Attorney Houston: In many situations, you may find yourself as the only parent who has a role in interacting with your child's school when it comes to their grades, classes or picks up/drop off issues.

Your child's other parent may play a role in their life but if it does not involve school-related matters the school may be completely unaware that there is another parent involved. If you are the only parent who is working with your child's school, then it is likely that they will be seeking only your approval on any of the issues that we have been discussing today.

Could your child be enrolled in school by someone other than you or their other parent?

It is possible that your child could have originally be enrolled in their school by a non-parent. Maybe you were going through problems with your spouse that required that you leave the home and attend counseling, therapy or something similar where you could not be present for your child for a period of time.

Public school policy in Texas is that if a parent is not available to enroll a child in school, a non-parent can be allowed to do so. That nonparent would need to show proof that he or she has the legal capacity to do so. This can occur even if you do not have a court order to show the school. That non-parent can not only enroll your child in school but can also be asked for input on decision making responsibilities for your child.

While this is not an ideal situation, the school is in a position where they need to get input from someone close to your child. This is the policy of the schools but is not always the most “comfortable” thing to do from a legal perspective if there is nothing from a court to justify allowing the non-parent to act in this capacity.

The best-case scenario for you and your child's other parent is to sign over power of attorney to the non-parent as soon as possible. The non-parent can provide that form to your child's school to keep in their records for future reference.

What is a power of attorney?

You may sign a legal document that allows another person to be able to step into your shoes and act in your capacity as a parent on behalf of your child when you are unable to do so. That power of attorney may be limited to certain areas (like educational issues) or can be more broadly applied. This is done on a voluntary basis and would not be the result of a court order.

Let’s say that you are going to be away from your child for a certain period of time. You may decide to leave your child with your mother and then sign a Power of Attorney that allows your mother to act as a parent to your child when it comes to decision making related to school or medical issues.

While you are away from your child, your mother would have temporary rights. Keep in mind that if you have been to family court previously and have had your parental rights restricted in any way, you are now only able to assign rights to your mother that you have retained.

What does your child’s school need to do when an absentee parent comes to withdraw your child?

Houston Divorce Attorney: Suppose that your child’s father has never been involved in her life in any way. With this background in mind, your child’s school would only have been interacting with you on the day to day matters related to your child attending school there. Your child’s father would not be known to the school administration. What happens when her father comes to school one day, announces that he is your child’s father and wants to withdraw her from school?

It is likely that your child’s school would not readily accept that this person has the right to make this request. Each public school in Texas has different protocols in place for responding to requests like this ... Continue Reading

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