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Understanding what happens at a temporary custody hearing is essential, as it can significantly impact custody arrangements. During this hearing, a family court judge decides on temporary custody matters, potentially shifting control away from the parents. The outcome can be uncertain, even with experienced attorneys offering guidance on how judges may lean. This unpredictability highlights the importance of approaching temporary custody hearings with thorough preparation and care, given the critical role these initial decisions play in the custody process.
Negotiation with your co-parent is almost always the best course of action to take when it comes to trying to arrive at a decision that is in the best interests of your child. Even if you and your co-parent are not seeing eye to eye very much these days that does not mean that the two of you can’t still be a good negotiating team. Prepare and maintain an open mind are crucial for negotiations, whether informal settlements or formal mediations. This is where you and your co-parent can control the proceedings much better than you can in a courtroom.
Protect yourself, your child, and your finances
Set up a hearing through the Office of the Attorney General if you anticipate being named as the noncustodial parent in a child custody case. Their office oversees the payment of child support in Texas and can be a great help to you when it comes to establishing court orders not only on child support but on a range of important subject matter.
We know that child support, child custody, visitation, and conservatorship issues are important to you as a parent. Now the two of you can have those issues determined for you in court but you can still negotiate with one another. Contact the Office of the Attorney General to learn more, but better yet contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan to better position yourself for an important hearing. Be it a temporary orders hearing in a child custody case or an initial hearing in a child support matter.
As a noncustodial parent, evading child support obligations offers no benefit. Texas state authorities or your co-parent will inevitably pursue child support against you. Instead of waiting passively, take proactive steps by filing your child support case—either through the OAG or a private family law attorney. Taking control of the case pace allows you to prepare thoroughly, gather necessary documents like pay stubs and employment records, and present a strong case. Disadvantage awaits those who enter negotiations or court proceedings without adequate preparation.
Paternity must be established
Before discussing anything related to a child custody case, either you or your co-parent must establish paternity. All fathers must have more than just their name on a birth certificate or informal recognition by the mother. You need a court order signed by a judge declaring paternity. Without this, you have no more of a legal relationship with your child than I do.
Therefore, it’s crucial to prioritize investigating this matter. Child custody should be second on your to-do list. Avoid signing anything before your court appearance, where the government provides a free DNA test to establish paternity. It’s risky to acknowledge paternity before receiving the test results, as undoing this could incur significant costs or delays. Contact the Office of the Attorney General to handle paternity matters and prepare for a child support case upon confirmation of paternity.
Once paternity is established, thorough preparation is key for pursuing child support. This involves providing comprehensive supporting documents to substantiate your case. Child support amounts rely on your net monthly income.
What your net monthly income is may be an easy question to answer if you are a salaried employee at a normal company. However, if you have a job like this but also work multiple side jobs then you may run into a situation where it is more difficult to calculate your net monthly income especially when your net monthly income is unstable each month. Fluctuating incomes require you to show the court a longer history of your earnings to ensure a fair assessment of child support.
What can you do if you can’t pay the full amount of child support?
It happens from time to time that we have more months left over than we do money. During those periods it is difficult to make ends meet and we may rely more on credit cards to pull through until more prosperous times return. We already mentioned how variable income earners go through something like this with relative frequency. However, when you add to your list of obligations the payment of child support, we have to consider an entirely new issue. Now we have a bill that we cannot put on a credit card. You need to be able to pay that money to your co-parent each month or risk the consequences.
If you find yourself in this type of situation all is not lost. You should plan on paying the most amount of money that you can towards the obligation, however. You can look at your budget and move money around as best as possible to position yourself for the money that you are going to need. For example, there may be streaming services that you need to go without for a month or two to be able to pay as much child support as you can.
Avoid skipping payments to manage your child support responsibly
Whatever you do, do not skip a payment or a series of payments. This can put you in a position where you are not able to make up the ground. It is hard to dig yourself out of a hole when you have the shovel at your feet making the hole bigger. Do what you can to minimize the damage each month. Try and increase your income even if it is only temporary to stay out of a position where you will be falling behind chronically in child support.
Once you have a child support order set by the court you are in a position where you do not have to worry about your co-parent denying you visitation with your child because you won’t pay whatever amount of child support, she wants you to pay that particular month. This is a much better situation to find yourself in and is a key reason why it is not a bad thing to get set for child support at the beginning of your child’s life.
The alternative is to find yourself having to pay varying amounts of child support each month as your co-parent attempts to justify their requests for additional money. This will not always work out well for your co-parent and is something that you should avoid falling into the trap of. While you have a child support obligation you are going to be in a position where you at least know how much money you need to pay each month and can budget toward that number effectively. Planning is important once you get involved in a child custody or child support case.
Modifying child support: your options explained
A child support order can be modified in the future. This can be done in several ways. The first way would be to simply contact the Attorney General and ask them to do a review of your child support figure to determine if it is appropriate. If not, then they can file a modification request with the court to have your child support figure potentially adjusted. Please note that your child support can be reduced or increased if your wages change substantially. A small increase or small decrease in your net monthly income would ordinarily not result in a change in your child support obligation one way or another. However, there’s no harm in asking to see what adjustments can be made in your circumstances.
Rather than going through the Office of the Attorney General, you can file a modification case yourself and ask the court to increase or decrease the child support you receive or pay. A material and substantial change in circumstances would need to result in the court granting your modification request. Having proof of an income change is a good place to begin.
Next, if your child has a need that has developed since the last time you were in court which has led to an increased need for support that would certainly be worthwhile to bring up. Next, you could also make an argument that your child support should decrease because you have had a child with another woman and that reality should decrease your child support. Either way, check with an attorney to go through your change in circumstances to determine what your chances are at getting a decrease in child support.
Unpaid child support: understanding the consequences
Past-due child support cannot be forgiven or erased from records. Your failure to pay child support will only make the situation that you find yourself in that much more precarious. It is not a good thing for you to owe child support. It potentially harms your child; it harms your relationship with your co-parent and puts you in a position where you will need to be constantly on guard about your co-parent attempting to bring you back to court for an enforcement lawsuit. Trying to enforce your prior order and then asking the judge to increase child support if your income has increased would be a double whammy that could result.
The amount of child support that you owe will grow each month by an amount greater than the actual monthly payment of child support. Interest accrues on the balance due. Your child support balance will increase almost like a credit card or other bill if you do not start to make large payments towards the principal amount.
It does not matter if your child comes to live with you full-time or if you take on the responsibilities of being the primary conservator of your children. You would still need to focus on paying child support in full each month. However, you should notify the court if your child comes to live with you so that you can request a change of status with the court. Until there is a child support order that states you no longer have the obligation to pay child support then you need to continue to do so.
Starting a child support case on your own as a noncustodial parent
What some people do not know is that a non-custodial parent can start a child support case. The assumption is that it would be the custodial parent who has the motivation to file the lawsuit. However, all parents have the motivation to do what is best for their children and to establish their obligation for financial support sooner rather than later. This is preferable to many people as opposed to living in a situation where you do not know how much money you will be on the hook for each month in child support. Living a life like this is difficult because you are not able to effectively budget from month to month.
Even before you get to a temporary order hearing you will be able to meet with your co-parent at a negotiation conference provided by the Office of the Attorney General. If you can agree with your co-parent on issues like child custody and child support, then you all can have a settlement agreement drafted on that date and you will not have much of a need to do anything as far as a courtroom is concerned. Child support is a subject that can be emotional to negotiate. Sometimes both sides to a negotiation have to feel the push of a deadline approaching to make significant movement. Always prepare to negotiate and avoid blaming your co-parent personally for a failed settlement conference. It may just be that your circumstances may it extraordinarily difficult to settle a case and that has little to do with your co-parent.
Focus on paternity
When you are the legal father to a child that puts you in a good position to be able to negotiate and present a case in family court. You have standing to bring a series of lawsuits such as a child support suit. Being the legal father to a child also allows that child to inherit from you and vice versa. Finally, you can deepen the bond that you and your child have by seeing it through and establishing paternity.
Do not underestimate how tricky this can be. There may be some loops that you need to jump through to get you and your co-parent into a courtroom together. For that reason, you need to consider hiring an experienced family law attorney. An attorney can help you to navigate the sometimes difficult landscape of a family law case. A lawyer can help you understand what you are facing, how to prepare, and how to develop goals for yourself as you engage in a child custody case in Texas.
In summary, grasping what happens at a temporary custody hearing is vital since these proceedings involve a family court judge making key decisions about custody arrangements. Even with legal advice on possible judicial inclinations, the results can be unpredictable. This highlights the necessity of meticulous preparation and strategic presentation to effectively advocate for your case. By understanding the complexities and implications of these hearings, parents can approach this critical stage with the necessary clarity and preparedness, working towards the most favorable outcome for their children’s well-being and their own parental rights.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations offer you a valuable opportunity to deepen your understanding of Texas family law and how filing a divorce or child custody case may affect your circumstances.
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- How to Prepare for a Temporary Protective Order Hearing
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- Clarification of standard custody for temporary orders in a modification suit
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- Understanding the Role of Texas Child Protective Services in Custody Cases
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