The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth issued a very important opinion today in a big win for O’Neil Wysocki’s appellate team on Michelle O’Neil and Karri Bertrand. The underlying order awarded Father the exclusive right to determine the children’s primary residence without regard to geographic restriction and gave each parent the independent right to make educational decisions. Mother filed to modify the orders and sought temporary orders in the modification suit. The trial court left the primary designation with Father but ordered the children to be enrolled in the Mother’s school district. In the intial hearing, the trial court made no finding of significant impairment, but later entered such finding.
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Significant Impairment Standard Applies When the Primary Conservator Seeks to Vacate a Geographic Restriction Within One Year
Subsection (a) of Texas Family Code section 156.102, entitled “Modification of Exclusive Right to Determine Primary Residence of Child Within One Year of Order,” provides:
“If a suit seeking to modify the designation of the person having the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of a child is filed not later than one year
Anticipated change of circumstances does not support modification
Where a change of circumstances is anticipated by the parties prior to entry of an order, such change does not rise to a “material and substantial change of circumstances to support modification”. The First District Court of Appeals confirmed this in their recent holding in Smith v. Karanja. Smith v. Karanja, 2018 WL
Dallas lawyers see return to high bar for temporary orders in divorce modification suit
When filing a modification suit regarding children and seeking temporary orders to change the designation of the person who has the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child, a new law requires that an affidavit be filed with the initial pleading setting out the grounds for the request. This law went into
Custody Orders — Planning for the Future
Children grow and change over time, as do parents. People not only get older, but change jobs, remarry, divorce, sell houses, buy houses, have problems, and successes. Change is inevitable…. right? But, how does change effect children and custody orders?
The Texas Family Code allows custody orders to be modified until the child turns 18.