How Can I Obtain Visitation Rights in Texas?

If you are involved in a custody battle, it’s important to know what to do (and not to do) to get and keep your visitation rights. Your Houston family law attorney can give you more specific information that will relate to your unique case, but the following are some general best practices to make sure you stay a major factor in your child’s life.

How Can I Obtain Visitation Rights in Texas?

Get a Houston Family Law Attorney

The first step is to connect with a family law attorney who has plenty of experience in the local Houston courts and with Texas family law. A good attorney will be able to protect you and your rights, keep you grounded, give you an objective viewpoint, and represent you in negotiations and in court. They’ll also help you always put your best foot forward throughout your case.

Get a Handle on the Law

In Texas, visitation rights are referred to as “possession and access.” The Texas Family Code is the body of laws that governs these rights, and the good news is that the law favors giving both parents the opportunity to foster a relationship with their child. It will normally be assumed that you should have visitation rights unless there is some reason why it might be harmful to your child.

While the court does default to giving both parents part in their child’s life whenever possible, though, the ultimate standard for the court is always the best interest of the child. That’s why every case will be determined individually according to the unique factors of that situation.

In Texas, the term “conservatorship” refers to the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent and affects visitation. There are two kinds of conservatorship: joint and soul. In joint managing conservatorship, both parents share in the responsibility to make decisions for their child, so not necessarily equally. In a sole managing conservatorship, only one parent is allowed to make the important decisions in their child’s life, such as those that relate to education, religious upbringing, health care needs, etc. It’s important to understand that visitation rights and conservatorship don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.

Establish Paternity

Obviously, this only applies if you’re a father, but if you are not married to the child’s mother, you may not have legal recognition as the father. If you don’t have that already through the birth certificate, it’s important to get your paternity established as quickly as possible. This can be done if you and the child’s mother sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity form, or it can happen through court-ordered genetic testing.

Filing a Suit

If you have been denied visitation rights so far or are unable to come to any kind of agreement with the child’s other parent, you may need to file a Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (SAPCR). This asks the court to determine issues related to conservatorship, possession, and access.

It’s a petition, and your lawyer will help you fill it out with all the information needed about you, your child, and the other parent, and the kind of custody and visitation arrangements you’re looking for. You will also need to formally notify the other parent of this legal action. You do this by “serving” them. This is usually something done by local law enforcement, but you can use a private process server. Your lawyer will help you make the right decision here.

Mediation

Unless there is a compelling reason not to, the Texas court will usually ask parents to try to come to an agreement through mediation before allowing things to go to trial in the family courts. In mediation, a neutral third party will help you and the other parent discuss the situation and reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

Of course, in some cases, you may not be able to reach such an agreement, but if you can, the whole process is calmer and usually more cost-effective than going to trial. Your lawyer can also help you here and even provide a kind of buffer between you and the other parent so that things go more smoothly.

Court Hearings and Trials

If parents cannot reach an agreement through mediation, the case proceeds to a court hearing or trial. During these proceedings, both parties get a chance to present evidence and testimony supporting their positions, and then a judge will determine what arrangement serves the child’s best interests. You can expect the judge to be looking at your ability to care for your child, investigating how much you know about your child’s life now and their overall emotional and physical needs, as well as considering any history of violence or substance abuse.

The Standard Possession Order (SPO)

In Texas, the Standard Possession Order, or Parenting Time Schedule, determines visitation schedules. The SPO outlines when the noncustodial parent has the right to possession of the child. The precise details of this schedule depend upon how far apart the two parents live, with different options for within 50 miles, 51-100 miles, and more than 100 miles apart.

Customized Visitation Schedules

Customized schedules can better account for factors such as work commitments, extracurricular activities for your child, and any special needs. However, you do have to agree with the other parent, and any agreed-upon schedule must be approved by the court to ensure it serves the child’s best interests. It’s important to have a lawyer at this point so your rights are protected.

Other Things to Know

Supervised Visitation

In cases where the court has concerns about a child’s safety with a parent, it may order supervised visitation. This arrangement allows a parent to spend time with the child under the supervision of a third party (not just the other parent), or at a designated facility. Supervised visitation is often ordered as a temporary measure when the full picture isn’t yet clear, and there’s always the possibility of transitioning to unsupervised visitation.

Enforcing Your Visitation Rights

If the other parent is denying you your court-ordered visitation, you can take legal action to enforce the schedule, and your lawyer will help. Some options include asking for the non-compliant parent to face penalties, such as fines or jail time, for contempt of court, to get additional visitation time added on to compensate you for the missed periods, or even changes to custody or visitation orders if the problem is ongoing.

Special Circumstances

There are certain situations where things may be different from what is described here. This is often the case if one of the parents is in the military and needs to consider deployment issues. If a parent plans to move, especially to another state or country, this can also require a significant change to visitation orders. Finally, there are also some situations where grandparents can be given visitation rights, if the court believes it serves the best interest of the children. If you think you might have a special situation, talk to your lawyer.

If you’re fighting for your visitation rights, contact us at C.E. Schmidt & Associates, PLLC in Houston, TX as ​soon as possible. Call us at 346-235-1732 today, and we’ll get started fighting for your rights.