What are the types of child custody in Texas?

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.

Interestingly, and contrary to what the title implies, "joint managing conservatorship" does not necessarily mean that the parties share the rights and possession of their child equally, although often parties will agree to do so.

Under certain circumstances, usually if a party has been found to have committed family violence, the court will appoint the custodial parent as the "sole managing conservator" and the non-custodial parent as the "possessory conservator." The significance of this is that the court cannot impose a geographical restriction on the child's residence if a party is named as the sole conservator, whereas in most joint conservator arrangements, there is such a restriction.

The Texas Family Code does not favor one parent over the other, and custody decisions are based upon the relationship of each parent to the child and the child's "best interests." For help with your child custody matter, please contact Addison, TX family law attorney Jon R. Boyd for assistance.