Mark Scroggins 0:06
Hey folks, Mark Scroggins with Scroggins Law Group back to answer some more of your frequently asked questions between the reclamation transformation podcast. One of the things, though, that is really important to remember is that the answers to these questions Do not create an attorney-client relationship between you and me, or you and my law firm. So if you have questions that you want to follow up on, and you’re actually seeking representation, reach out to Scroggins Law Group or reach out to another law firm, and they can walk you through the process. How are the terms of child visitation established? Well, so visitation is a little bit of a misnomer, because in Texas, it’s referred to possession and access. So that is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the amount of time that you and the other parents have with the child. The presumption in Texas is that parents should be named what are called Joint managing conservators. Now, that plays to a certain degree on what your possession and access will be, but not significantly. Possession and access is all about the time you have whereas conservatorship is all about the rights and duties that you have as a parent to make child rearing decisions. So the presumption in Texas is that the minimum amount of possession and access that a joint managing conservator should have is what is called a standard possession order, a standard possession order, it used to be called an expanded standard possession order. But this is basically what it is now if the parents live within 50 miles of one another. And that would be every Thursday during the school year from the time that school is released, return to school on Friday morning, then every first, third and fifth weekends of the month, calculated off of Fridays. At the time schools released on Friday, returned to school the following Monday, or if you’ve got like a teacher in service day, or a holiday on that following Monday, it go to Tuesday. Okay, then you’ve got alternating holiday schedules one year, you’ve got Thanksgiving, the next year, you know, Mama does one year, you’ve got the first part of Christmas. Next part; husband’s got the first part of Christmas, same thing with spring break. And then during the summer, you have 30 days, and I would say uninterrupted, but that’s typically not the case, it’s generally going to be broken up into different pieces there. Now, if people live over 100 miles apart, the presumption is all of those things that I just mentioned, with the exception of it’s Thursdays from six to 8pm, during the school year, and it’s every first third and fifth weekend of the month from Sunday at or Friday at six to Sunday at six. And then the summer period is not 30 days, it’s 42 days. So there are lots of different things that can be done. And it’s important to remember that that is just the presumption and every presumption that I talked about is rebuttable. So somebody could get a hell of a lot less. Somebody could get a hell of a lot more. It just depends on what the facts are in your particular matter. So if you’ve got those questions, reach out to a board certified lawyer here at Scroggins Law Group and we’ll shepherd you through the process.
