Child Custody

Geographic Restrictions ・Modification Suits ・Parental Rights ・Possession & Visitation

Who makes the decisions?
Who has my child and when?

“Custody” can refer to many things in the context of family law litigation. Primarily, it regards conservatorship and possession/access.

  • Conservatorship involves decision-making rights or duties of a parent for their child.
  • Possession & Access involve the question of who sees the child, for how often, and under what circumstances.

The majority of custody cases end with Joint Managing Conservatorship, which means that both parents are able to come to an agreement on the legally important questions: medical, educational and psychological decisions for the child.

Sole Managing Conservatorship is less common, but not necessarily rare. In Sole Managing Conservatorship, one parent retains sole rights for decision-making while the other parent is a Possessory Conservator who only has the right for possession and access of the child.

What these two categories have in common is that one parent is assigned “primary” custody, which can be defined as the exclusive right to determine the primary residence of the child. Depending on the specifics of the case, the right to determine primary residence may or may not have a geographic limit–most often the county of child’s current residence or possibly also including some or all of the surrounding or “contiguous” counties.

Although it is possible to lift geographic restrictions and relocate the child’s primary residence out of state (or even out of the country), very few county judges will consider the request absent severe circumstances; cases requesting a change to geographic restrictions often go to a jury trial and tend to become very complex and expensive. However, sometimes the request is necessary.

Schedule a Consultation

Latest Posts