Child Custody

Texas courts make custody decisions on the legal and physical custody of a child based on the child's "best interests," which includes the scrutiny of all the pertinent facts and circumstances in the case. The Texas terminology used to describe legal custody is "managing conservatorship." There are two types of managing conservatorship: sole managing conservatorship and joint managing conservatorship.

Texas law presumes the parents shall be appointed "joint managing conservators," which has two basic components. The first is allocation of the parental rights and powers, meaning deciding which parent or whether both parents get to make various parenting decisions regarding the upbringing of the child, such as educational, medical and religious decisions. The second component is dividing the actual physical possession of the child between the parties, which includes the physical care and supervision of the child on a day-to-day basis.