What the court decides about custody becomes part of your child’s everyday life for years to come. We help you build a parenting plan that protects your place in their world and holds up to what’s genuinely best for them.
Custody in Texas is decided under one controlling question: the best interest of the child. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.002.[1] Courts call decision-making authority conservatorship and parenting time possession and access, and most parents are appointed joint managing conservators who share rights and duties. A Texas child custody lawyer’s job is to translate that framework into a parenting structure your children can rely on.
At Hicks Family Lawyers, we treat conservatorship as a structure to be designed with care, not a contest to be endured. The orders entered now will govern where your children live, how decisions are made, and how both households function for years. Your children’s stability is part of what you have built, and it deserves the same foresight as anything else you have built.
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Tell us what you’re facing. We’ll explain your options and the likely next steps – clearly, and without pressure.
Texas policy favors children having frequent and continuing contact with both parents when that contact serves the child. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.001.[2] From there, the court appoints conservators and allocates rights and duties: where the child primarily lives, and who decides education, medical care, and other major questions.
Parents are ordinarily appointed, and Texas law presumes that naming both parents joint managing conservators is in the child’s best interest. That presumption is rebuttable, and a finding of a history of family violence removes it. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.131.[[3]
Joint managing conservatorship allocates decision-making. It does not divide everything evenly, and one parent is often given the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence. Which rights are shared, which are joint, and which are exclusive is where the real design work happens.
Parenting time runs on a possession schedule, and Texas presumes the standard possession order provides the reasonable minimum for a fit parent. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.252.[4] The standard order sets weekends, midweek time, holidays, and extended summer possession, with an expanded alternative many parents elect.
Equal possession is not required by law, even for joint managing conservators. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.135.[5] Many families still build 50/50 or custom schedules by agreement when the logistics genuinely serve the child.
Schedules reward precision. School calendars, exchanges, travel, and holidays should be designed once, carefully, so the calendar itself never becomes a source of conflict.
Most Texas custody orders are built by agreement rather than imposed at trial. A well-designed Texas parenting plan sets conservatorship rights, the possession schedule, exchange logistics, and how future disagreements will be resolved.
Courts review agreed plans against the child’s best interest before entering them. The care invested at the drafting stage determines whether the order holds up in daily life, and a plan that anticipates the hard weeks protects everyone through them.
Contested conservatorship cases turn on evidence: caregiving history, stability, each parent’s capacity, and the child’s needs. We prepare them with discipline, because documentation and credibility decide these cases.
When a child’s safety requires immediate action, emergency custody orders can restrict possession or access while the court examines the facts. Protection comes first; permanent structure follows.
Some cases stay difficult no matter how reasonably one side behaves. In high-conflict custody matters, we pair firm boundaries and court intervention with steady documentation, because protecting your children’s stability is the outcome that matters. We negotiate first, and we hold the line when protection requires it.
Children’s lives change, and orders can change with them. A custody modification adjusts conservatorship or the possession schedule when circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the last order.
A move that changes the child’s primary residence is governed by its own analysis. Relocation and move-away disputes are among the most consequential custody matters Texas courts hear, and they reward early, well-documented planning.
We bring the same advisory discipline to parenting structure that we bring to complex estates. The questions are mapped early, the schedule is engineered around your children’s actual lives, and agreements are drafted to prevent the next dispute rather than merely end this one.
We are problem-solvers and skilled negotiators first. When your children’s stability requires firm positions, we take them, calmly and with evidence. The goal is a structure your family can live inside for years, and a childhood that stays steady on both sides of it.
Custody rarely stands alone. These related matters carry the same advisory approach:
The structure you build now becomes the childhood your children remember. With the right design, both households stay steady, decisions get made without drama, and your children keep what matters most: two parents who planned for them.
Your guide to the next chapter
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Tell us what you're facing. We'll explain your options and the likely path - clearly, and without pressure.
Common questions
No. Texas presumes joint managing conservatorship, which concerns shared decision-making, and expressly does not require equal possession time. Equal or near-equal schedules are common, but they come from agreement or evidence, not from a presumption.
It is the default schedule Texas presumes reasonable for a fit parent: set weekends, a midweek period, alternating holidays, and extended summer time. Parents can expand it, customize it, or replace it by agreement when something else fits the child better.
Yes, and most families should. Agreed parenting plans are favored, provided the court finds the plan in the child’s best interest. A carefully built agreement gives you control over details a judge would otherwise decide.
[1] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.002 (Best Interest of Child) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.002
[2] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.001 (Public Policy) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.001
[3] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.131 (Presumption That Parent to Be Appointed Managing Conservator) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.131
[4] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.252 (Rebuttable Presumption: Standard Possession Order) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.252
[5] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.135 (Equal Possession Not Required) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.135
[6] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.003 (No Discrimination Based on Sex or Marital Status) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.003
[7] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 153.009 (Interview of Child in Chambers) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.153.htm#153.009
