In late 2007 (September) Texas made over 300 amendments to the Texas Family Planning Code that had major repercussions for families in Texas that were faced with a Texas Child Custody battle. Whilst this is not a site for legal advice, so I won’t be able to outline all of those changes in detail, it is pertinent to say that the majority of those changes were connected to how the child/parent relationship is treated in law, as well as to practical matters such as how the state of Texas would treat visitation rights, and how child custody arrangements would settled moving forward.
Other areas that the new legal arrangements for Texas child custody touched upon included child support arrangements, and also some quite detailed work on how parenting plans could be arranged, and what was needed to ensure that these would properly protect the rights both of the parents, and also of the children.
The new arrangements are very much designed to promote more amicable settlements between parents, and to try to make it that Texas child custody battles are less about being a tug of war between the two parties, and are instead are more about coming up with solutions that both parties can agree on.
This is an important legislative move, because it very much tries to factor in the needs of the child more carefully in to the equation, and what is best for them. And most commonly that is to have two parents staying actively involved in the day to day care of them.
Moving forward it is hoped that this more collaborative approach to settling child custody battles will result in Texas custody agreements that are more quickly agreed upon, and that also are in the best interests of both the children and their parents.