Your Child’s Best Interests Are Our Main Focus
Losing custody of your child or having the court restrict your access is a devastating experience. But it is particularly heartbreaking if you lose that access because of a default custody order. A default custody order is a judge’s decision in favor of one party due to the opposing party’s inaction. In Texas, the family court may grant a default…
While a parent’s religious beliefs (or lack thereof) usually don’t affect custody decisions, the family court has to consider religion if a parent’s spiritual practices or their religious community is abusive to the child. When it comes to custody decisions, defining religious abuse can sometimes create a very tricky legal situation, particularly if one parent is a member of an…
Rightly or wrongly, Texas is known as a “pro-mother” state when it comes to custody decisions. In this state, if a child’s parents are unmarried, the court will automatically grant the mother legal and physical custody. If the parents are getting divorced, the mother will likely get full custody if the child is 3 years old or younger. Legal and…
One of the most unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it prompted many adults to move. Millions of Americans relocated from the city to the suburbs or were forced to move into more affordable housing in different areas. If you or your co-parent are among one of these COVID-19 movers, you likely have concerns about how relocation might…
All children benefit from a consistent and continuous relationship with both parents, no matter how they might feel about one another. This continuity gets interrupted if one parent repeatedly violates custody arrangements or downright refuses to return the children after a visit. If you are having trouble getting your co-parent to return your child after a visit, here are 3…
In an article for The Atlantic titled, Can Children Be Persuaded to Love a Parent They Hate?, Barbara Bradley Hagerty describes what happened to the children of a Toronto family during their divorce in the early 2000s. The father of the family had custody of the kids during summer break. During the summer days, the kids played, swam, and had…
As vaccine access gives more and more Americans hope that the pandemic might be coming to an end, families will, unfortunately, have to deal with the fallout from COVID-19 for decades to come. More than 440,000 people have died in the US due to COVID-19 leaving behind untold numbers of spouses, partners, co-parents, and children. With each unfortunate death, surviving…
In the state of Texas, the answer to that question is yes. Texas Penal Code § 25.03 makes it illegal for a parent to abduct a child who is under 18 years of age if: Taking the child will violate a court custody order; The abducting parent is not the child’s custodial parent and takes the child outside of the…
There is nothing like a custody battle to bring out the worst in people. What may start out as an amicable breakup between ex-partners can turn into a knock-down-drag-out fight when custody decisions come into play. At Angela F. Brown & Associates, we’ve seen it all and heard it all when it comes to custody matters. From a parent fleeing…
Today is [or January 11th is] National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. On this day, we bring awareness to human trafficking, or the exploitation or enslavement of people by force, fraud, or coercion. Human trafficking is a crime that persists in almost every country. And unfortunately, human trafficking can intersect with family law matters, particularly when it comes to international custody…