Child Visitation Attorney in The Woodlands, TX Fights for Parental Rights

Pursuing solutions that safeguard your parenting time

The term “parental visitation” has fallen out of favor in legal circles, because it implies that a noncustodial parent is an outsider rather than a co-equal parent. The favored term is “parenting time,” although visitation is still used for other persons, such as grandparents or siblings, who may have the right to spend time with a child. A noncustodial parent has the right to frequent and meaningful parenting time to maintain a loving relationship with his or her child, but courts may restrict or prohibit visitation if it is in the best interests of the child. If your divorce decree or paternity order has granted you parenting time, the Law Office of Jerry Porter can help you manage any legal problems that arise.

Remedies for interference with parental visitation in Texas

It is not uncommon for parents to have difficulty scheduling exchanges of custody within their parenting time schedule. However, particularly following a bitter child custody dispute, custodial parents often put obstacles in the path of noncustodial parents seeking to exercise their visitation rights. Interference with parenting time takes many forms:

• Failing to make the child available for the exchange
• Scheduling activities the child might prefer during the other parent’s time
• Withholding affection when the child seems to enjoy the other parent’s time
• Rewarding the child for being difficult during the other parent’s time

One parent’s persistent attempts to disrupt the other’s parenting time can be grounds for a modification of a custody order, granting joint custody. If you are a custodial parent and have reasonable objections to your ex-spouse spending time alone with your children, you should tell the court rather than risk sanctions for violating your parenting plan. If you can make a case for unfit parenting, the court can restrict or prohibit visitation.

Perhaps the most difficult parenting time conflict arises when the custodial parent considers relocation with the children. This is especially troubling when the noncustodial parent’s career obligations prevent a time-sharing arrangement. In these difficult cases, the court weighs the mother’s and father’s rights, but ultimately decides based on the best interests of the children.

Grandparent’s visitation rights in Texas

Grandparents often find themselves cut off from their grandchildren following a divorce or the death of their child. In Texas, a court can authorize grandparent visitation if it is in the child’s best interest, and one of the following circumstances exists:

• The parents are divorced
• A parent abused or neglected the child
• A parent has been incarcerated or found incompetent
• A court-order terminated the parent-child relationship
• The child has lived with the grandparent for at least six months

Visitation statutes do not give a grandparent an absolute right. An experienced visitation attorney can help you convince the court that visitation is in your grandchild’s best interests.

Contact a Woodlands family law attorney with experience in visitation disputes

The Law Office of Jerry Porter understands how important your parenting time is to your relationship with your child. In more than 30 years of practice, I have helped resolve disputes over visitation for parents and grandparents in The Woodlands, Montgomery County and throughout the greater Houston area. To schedule a consultation, call 281.296.3131 or contact the Law Office of Jerry Porter online.