Any aspect of family law entails significant changes that can impact the finances, logistics, and the lifestyle of everyone involved. Family law is a very personal area of the law, whether you seek modifications, grandparents’ rights, visitation rights, are adopting a child, or planning your estate. That is why it is essential to hire the right Texas attorney to handle your family law matter.
What is Texas Family Law?
In Texas, family law includes anything that has to do with the family, such as divorce, child custody, spousal support, modifications of custody or support, grandparents’ rights, adoptions, and division of property and assets. The laws in Texas are often complex and confusing, so it is best to work with an experienced Houston family law lawyer to help you or a loved one navigate the Texas family court process.
Understanding Custody Modification in Texas
When a Texas court order is issued in family court, the order is binding by law. An attorney can request a custody modification if the custody order needs to be adapted or can no longer be upheld by the parent. The Texas custody modification process can be time-consuming and complicated. If you seek a court order modification or wish to fight a modification in Texas, you need a family law attorney who has experience handling modifications. Edwin Lee Law can help you or a loved one reach an agreement that you need for a custody modification case in Texas.
Reasons for a Texas Custody Modification
An individual can seek a custody modification for several reasons in Texas. However, there may be circumstances that provide the custody order outdated, inappropriate, or useless in the eyes of the law. A custody situation may also change in a way that means either or both parties can no longer uphold the court order. For example, a custody modification may occur based on relocation, a change in parents’ work schedules, the preference of a mature minor, or potential issues of children’s safety when with the other parent. If you want to seek a custody modification, a Houston attorney, like Ed Lee, is vital during the modification process. He will take the time needed to gather evidence or documentation for the custody modification in Houston and surrounding Texas areas.
Understanding Grandparents’ Rights in Texas
Texas recognizes the special relationship between grandchildren and grandparents. Grandparents have visitation rights that are protected in Houston, TX, and beyond. Sometimes, exercising and protecting those grandparents’ rights in Texas can be difficult. If you are a grandparent seeking legal guidance to protect your relationship with a grandchild or need legal help reestablishing that relationship, Edwin Lee Law can help.
While the relationship between grandchildren and grandparents is highly esteemed and necessary in most children’s lives, parents have the legal right to keep their children from visiting grandparents in Texas. Fit parents have the legal right to decide with whom their children spend time. Married parents have legal custody and if they decide they do not wish to keep contact with relatives, the grandparents may be unable to pursue visitation rights through the Texas courts.
Understanding Texas Visitation Rights
Although parents have legal control over their children, there are situations in which grandparents can petition for legal visitation with grandchildren in Texas. If one parent of a divorced couple inhibits grandparents from maintaining a relationship, a petition for visitation may be warranted. A parent’s death is also grounds for pursuing legal visitation if the surviving parent tries to interfere with or extinguish the relationship. A petition may go forward if there has been a termination of parental rights and grandparents wish to seek guardianship or visitation.
A Texas family court judge’s decision to grant a visitation petition is based on the unique factors that are in the child’s best interest. Family law cases involving grandparents’ rights need time and attention from a skilled and compassionate Texas family law attorney who will handle the legal case with the sensitivity it deserves.
Understanding Adoption Laws in Texas
A child may only have one official set of parents under Texas law. Adoption cases ask the court to make legal parents out of people who are not already biological parents of a child. Texas adoption cases require the court to determine which parental situation will be best for the child.
Adoption cases in Texas are generally categorized as either contested or uncontested. Houston adoption case is a legal action serving the needs of a minor being without a legal guardian. Some situations that may lead to an adoption case include neglected, abused, homeless, biological parents dying, parents willingly giving up rights, and other unique situations. As a result of the adoption process, an adoptive parent becomes responsible for the children’s financial, emotional, and physical care.
The Beginning Steps of Adoption in Texas
For a Texas adoption to take place, the parental rights of either the child’s mother or father must first be terminated by a Texas court. A petition for adoption would need to be filed in the court with jurisdiction over the child.
There are two significant situations in which the court can terminate parental rights of biological parents in Texas:
- If the judge finds the termination fits within the rules outlined in the Texas Family Code, termination of parent rights is justifiable in the child’s best interest.
- A biological parent has voluntarily relinquished the child by signing over their rights to the state agency or other person.
If you are going about the process without an adoption agency, you will need to hire a Houston family law attorney to file the termination lawsuit on your behalf. If you find yourself in need of a Texas family lawyer, whether it is for an in-family or private adoption in Texas, Edwin Lee Law can help.
Your Houston Family Law Attorney
At Edwin Lee Law, we understand that each Texas family court case is unique. Court procedures and legal hearings are not a one-size-fits-all environment. Texas families may need assistance navigating what legal services they need most for their unique legal matter in Texas. Ed Lee can help.
Edwin Lee Law is here to help you and your loved ones understand Family Law, Veterans Planning, Medicaid Planning, Crisis Planning, Asset Protection, and Estate Planning. Our law firm welcomes the opportunity to consult with new clients in Houston and the surrounding Texas areas to learn more about how we can help meet your family law matters.