Have you recently faced a child custody case in Texas and are unhappy with the outcome? If you’ve been through a trial before a family court judge, it’s not uncommon to disagree with some or all of the judge’s decisions. Keep in mind that family court judges, despite their authority, can make mistakes. While we often view judges as imposing figures, they are simply doing their best to evaluate evidence, listen to testimony, and make decisions in the best interests of your child. Given the complexity of their role, errors can occur. Understanding how to win a custody appeal can help you address these concerns effectively.
However, this is also not to excuse a bad decision or unjustified decision made by a judge. Whether the judge misapplied the Texas Family Code or misinterpreted evidence submitted by you or your co-parent there are opportunities for a judge to make critical errors in even the most straightforward of family cases. With that said, we at the Law Office of Bryan Fagan want to make sure that you all are aware of the circumstances under which a child custody appeal may be in the best interests of you and your child.
Understanding Appeals in Texas Child Custody Cases
For starters, the Texas Family Code contains over 1000 statutes. A statute is a law created by the state legislature. These statutes are guideposts for family court judges to be able to make rulings in your and any other child custody case that goes before them. How a judge chooses to apply the Texas Family Code to your case will depend upon the circumstances that your family finds itself in. In an appeal, it is certainly possible that the judge made an error or misapplied the Texas Family Code to your case.
Next, determine if the judge misinterpreted any evidence submitted by you or your co-parent in your case. For that reason, you may file an appeal to bring to an appellate court’s attention the mistake made by your trial court judge. Much of the evidence submitted in a child custody case is extremely circumstantial. The judge needs to be discerning about how he or she applies the evidence against the Texas Family Code so that he or she does not oversell or undersell the importance of the piece of evidence.
In an appeal, you are not able to present new evidence for an appellate court’s consideration. Rather, you are asking the appellate court to consider whether the trial court judge made a mistake at some point during your trial. It could have been an issue with misapplying or misinterpreting the Texas Family Code. Important evidence might have been improperly excluded from the record.
What You Need to Know About Filing an Appeal
What you cannot do in an appeal is submit additional evidence for the appellate court to consider. Instead, you will ask the appellate court to review the trial court record and decide whether to uphold the decisions or rehear the case. While the requests that you will be making to the court may be simple the tricky part is getting everything lined up so that you can present your case.
This is where the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan come in. We are here to be able to assist you in filing an appeal, assessing what happened at the trial court level, and determining first whether an appeal is the best route for you to take. Today, we will discuss various options for addressing your disagreement with a trial court’s decision, especially if you believe that errors occurred in the case. Our professional group of family law attorneys know what it takes to win at the appellate court level and have the results to back that up.
We take this complex process and break it down into its component pieces to best ensure your success on appeal. Requesting a copy of the record from your previous case and reviewing both the evidence submitted and the evidence rejected by the court is crucial. You need to determine if the judge made any errors and understand the contexts in which they occurred. If you have questions about the trial court’s decision and it has been less than 30 days since the judge issued the ruling, contact our office for assistance. We can look at the circumstances of your case with you and help you determine what direction you may be able to go in your case.
Get Personalized Legal Advice for Your Appeal
We know that you may have more questions than answers at this point in your case. Additionally, finding answers to those questions can be hard to come by on the Internet. Finally, the entries you find on the Internet will not reflect your specific circumstances but will provide you with general information based on circumstances that many other people may find themselves in. However, until you can find information that is based on your specific life and your children’s lives then you will not know whether or not you stand a good chance to win on appeal in Texas.
For that reason, we recommend that you reach out to the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan today. We can offer to meet with you today at no charge to you for a consultation. We can listen to your situation, provide you with information, and help you determine what the best course of action is depending upon the situation you find yourself in. Time is of the essence in an appeal so do not delay in contacting our office to find out more about your chances of success upon appeal.
A motion for a new trial in a Texas family law case
When you receive an outcome in a divorce or child custody trial it can feel like all your hard work and patience were for nothing. Now, you face a situation where your co-parent appears to have gained the upper hand in key conservatorship and custody matters. The last thing you may want to do is consider lengthening your experience with the family court but that may be exactly what is necessary in this instance. Filing a motion for a new trial is not appropriate in every instance where you are not happy with the results of a trial, but you may find yourself looking at results that are not appropriate due to an error made on the part of a judge.
Filing a motion for a new trial allows you to present an argument to the court that those errors resulted in an outcome for your case which was inappropriate and not in line with the evidence presented in the trial. A motion for a new trial is a continuation of the facts and circumstances of your family law case. You are not appealing the decision to a new group of judges. Instead, you are asking the court that issued the decision to review the material in your motion and determine whether to hold a new trial.
You must file a motion for a new trial within thirty days of the court issuing its decision. The same judge who heard your trial will have the chance to correct any mistakes made in applying the law to your case. Be specific about the errors in the trial and clearly state what you want the court to do in response. If the court finds that a serious error impacted the trial’s outcome, it will grant the motion for a new trial.
Finding new evidence
Discovering new evidence that you did not know about or have access to during your trial can be grounds for filing a motion for a new trial. However, this evidence must be significant enough that it could have changed the trial’s outcome if it had been presented. Additionally, you must show that the evidence was not available to you due to a lack of diligence on your part. Finally, you need to be able to show that the evidence is admissible. Admissible evidence is the type that can pass the objections of an opposing attorney. If the evidence’s authenticity is in question or if the evidence is hearsay, then you would not be able to win a motion for a new trial based on that sort of evidence.
What if you didn’t respond to the petition originally? Can you file a motion for a new trial?
It sometimes happens that you may have received bad advice or otherwise been unaware that your spouse or co-parent filed a divorce or child custody case. Your co-parent needs to serve you with notice of the lawsuit. Notice means you would be legally informed of the lawsuit, allowing it to proceed. However, if you were served with papers but did not respond, or if you genuinely did not know about the lawsuit being filed, the situation would be different. What happens then?
If your co-parent is on the ball, she likely followed the rules of the court and waited to have a default judgment rendered against you. This judgment results from your failure to participate in the lawsuit despite receiving notice. If you were not properly served or genuinely unaware of the lawsuit, you can file a motion for a new trial, which should be granted if you can prove these circumstances. There are arguments for you to make that out of fairness you should be able to participate in such an important case. Those arguments become weaker when you were physically served with the paperwork and just chose not to play ball, however.
What role does an attorney play in all of this?
You do not need to hire an attorney to represent you on an appeal or motion for a new trial. However, it is highly recommended that you hire an attorney simply because having someone by your side who has gone through this sort of case before can create a much better outcome for you and your family. Consider what you would do if you had a problem with your vehicle’s transmission. Would you take the car to a mechanic or roll underneath the car in your driveway and start to take a look?
The same principle applies in this world of family law. The stakes in a family law case are much higher than trying to fix a broken-down vehicle, too. What happens in a family law case can impact you and your children for years to come. With so much at stake in your case, it would be important to at least consider whether to hire an attorney for your initial child custody case and then for an appeal, as well. If you wouldn’t try to fix your vehicle, then why would you try to represent yourself in an appeal for child custody purposes?
Experienced Family Law Attorneys for Your Appeal
Fortunately for you, there are experienced attorneys here in the Houston area who focus their attention on family law cases. On top of that, you can find attorneys who have succeeded on behalf of their clients in appeals, as well. The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan are proud to say that we have achieved great results for clients both at the trial court level and upon appeal. Whether you need an attorney in your first child custody case or are looking to find a lawyer who can help you file a motion for a new trial or an appeal, we are here for you.
Be careful about the attorney you decide to hire in your appeal. Even if you try to hire a family law attorney that does not mean that you are going to be able to hire the right one for you and your case. Most family law attorneys do not have the experience that you need to be able to help position you to win an appeal or motion for a new trial. There is already a lower level of success that is expected at the appeals level than at the trial court level. Adding to those difficulties by choosing to work with an attorney who has not represented clients upon appeal before is making a tough situation even tougher.
While it is a good idea to learn as much as you can about the appeals process in Texas from reading through blog posts like this one, ultimately what you will need to do is learn about your specific case and its chances of success.
Consult with Experienced Attorneys for Your Appeal Options
The best way for you to be able to do this is to speak with an attorney from our office. We can schedule a free-of-charge consultation where you can ask questions and receive information about your circumstances. Our attorneys have a perspective on appeals that are based on experience. Whereas some attorneys will share with you opinions based on what they have heard about appeals we can share with you opinions that are based upon our specific experiences and representing clients and families just like yours.
There are also options like attending mediation which may suit you and your family better than filing a motion for a new trial or trying to appeal a decision. Attending mediation early in a family law case can help you avoid circumstances where a long and drawn-out family law case occurs. By avoiding a trial, you can avoid the possibility of a judge making a mistake or misapplying the law to your case. Therefore, there would be no need for you to consider an appeal or motion for a new trial in that circumstance.
No matter what, you need to be able to take a step back and assess your situation as honestly as possible. Filing a motion for a new trial or an appeal with no chance of success do you or your children no favors. The only way you can have any degree of assurance that you are doing the right thing by filing a motion for a new trial or an appeal would be to speak with an experienced family law attorney who handles appeals and motions for a new trial.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, if you find yourself dissatisfied with the outcome of your child custody case in Texas, it’s crucial to understand how to win a custody appeal. Family court judges strive to make decisions that serve the best interests of the child, but they can still make mistakes. By appealing, you have the opportunity to address potential errors and seek a fairer resolution. Ensure you work with experienced legal counsel to navigate this complex process and strengthen your appeal. With the right approach, you can advocate for a custody arrangement that better serves your child’s needs.
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Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.
Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.
His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.
Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.
