Defending Grandparents’ Rights

Grandparents can attempt to gain certain rights regarding their grandchildren under the Texas Family Code in certain circumstances. Quite often, we encounter situations where one biological parent and sometimes both have difficulties in caring for their children. Sometimes alcohol, drugs, or neglect is involved. On other occasions, a biological parent has left one or more of their children with a grandparent, or Child Protective Services (CPS) has removed a child either permanently or temporarily from a parent due to domestic abuse, and the child is placed with its grandparents.

How The Law Applies To Your Rights

Texas Family Code Section 154.433 allows a grandparent to seek rights to possession (“visitation”) only of a child without requesting conservatorship or custody. Meanwhile, grandparents can also acquire the ability to request conservatorship, “custody,” under other sections of the Family Code.

For example, under Section 102.004, a grandparent may seek custody of a grandchild either with the agreement of both parents, the surviving parent, or the individual who currently has managing conservatorship of the child or if it is necessary to award the grandparent custody because the child’s present circumstances would “significantly impair the child’s physical health or emotional development.”

In addition, under section 102.003 of the Family Code, any party, including grandparents, may be able to acquire the ability to request custody of a child if the party meets specific requirements, such as having had “actual care, control, and possession” of the child for a period of time.

Conservatorship

If a grandparent is awarded temporary or managing conservatorship, orders can also be made requiring the parent or parents to pay monthly child support and to either provide health insurance or pay for the monthly cost of the children’s health insurance. Depending on the circumstance of each case, some of our grandparent clients have been able to care for their grandchildren until a biological parent has been rehabilitated and the court allows the parent to regain custody. In other cases, a grandparent is granted the permanent role of managing conservator.

Uphold Your Rights With Our Help

As you might imagine, this is a very fact-specific area of the law. One of the experienced family law attorneys at our firm can help you evaluate whether you, as a grandparent, might be able to acquire rights to your grandchild. Call our Texas lawyers at 512-982-1161 or email us here to schedule your initial consultation today if you are ready to meet with someone you can rely on for your grandparents’ rights needs.