Rights and Duties to Children

The Texas Family code provides special provisions regarding parenting time and access to children when the military parent is deployed.

Military deployment is not the same as a change of duty station (“PCS”). Deployment begins with the physical movement of individuals and units from their home installation to the designated theater of operations. One of

The U.S. Supreme Court recently had the opportunity to address the issue of international abduction in Abbott v. Abbott. In the opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court examined the applicability of the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in the context of a custodial parent’s violation of a ne exeat order. As a practical matter, this case underscores the importance in a divorce or modification case of the provisions regarding the child’s passport and the requirements for which parent gets to keep the child’s passport.
Continue Reading Abbott v. Abbott: New Supreme Court Opinion on International Child Abduction

While it can be a sensitive subject, if a husband has doubts about his paternity of a child born to his wife during their marriage, it is critical that this issue be considered in the divorce proceeding and addressed as soon as possible. When paternity is at issue, time is of the essence both in the interest of stability for the child, as well as protecting the presumed father’s rights.
Continue Reading Presumed Fathers: Time is of the Essence (When Paternity is at Issue in Divorce)

The Amarillo Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion, styled In re A.S., upholding the trial court’s imposition of a geographical restriction on the child’s primary residence in a case where the mother was appointed sole managing conservator.
Continue Reading Affirmed: Geographical Restriction on Sole Managing Conservator’s Right to Designate Primary Residence

Last Friday, November 12, 2009, its opinion styled In re Cooper, No. 05-09-00995-CV, the Dallas Court of Appeals conditionally granted wife’s petition for mandamus relief, holding the trial judge abused her discretion by imposing a residency residency restriction pending final trial in a divorce case that required wife, temporary primary conservator of the parties two children, to relocate from North Carolina, where she had secured employment and owned a house, to Dallas and contiguous counties, where she had neither.
Continue Reading Dallas Court of Appeals grants mandamus: trial court imposed greater burden for relocation than law allows