Child Custody Attorney | Rockwall County, TX

Your children are paramount in your life, and for anyone entangled in a child custody dispute in Rockwall County, Texas, understanding how the legal system actually works can bring real peace of mind, so this episode from the child custody attorneys at the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC walks through the terminology and structure Texas uses, starting with the fact that while many states use the word custody, Texas law uses the term conservatorship, with two types of conservators, managing and possessory, and two further sub-categories, sole managing conservator and joint managing conservator; the episode then explains the different types of custody arrangements that can follow a divorce, including joint custody, where both parents share some degree of custody, sole custody, where one parent holds primary custody, legal custody, which covers decisions about education, medical care and religion, and physical custody, which determines where the child primarily resides, before turning to how courts actually decide these questions under the best interest of the child standard, weighing factors like each parent's relationship with the child, willingness to support the child's relationship with the other parent, geographic proximity, history with substance abuse, ability to cooperate, and each parent's overall health, age, employment and well-being; the episode also discusses the role mediation plays in Texas custody cases, noting that courts encourage spouses to use mediation to create a custody plan that serves the child's best interests, and that courts typically approve a mutually agreed-upon plan unless there's a reason not to, allowing families to avoid the added conflict of a courtroom battle when possible; this episode is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice, and the laws discussed apply to the State of Texas.