Archives for 2013

March 8, 2013 by Aaron Tress

HBO Documentary “Don’t Divorce Me!: Kids’ Rules for Parents on Divorce”

Educational Resources for Divorcing Parents

Many good resources help educate parents on how to maintain relationships with their children during and after divorce. For example, I highly recommend Dr. Richard Warshak’s book Divorce Poison: How to Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing. Dr. Warshak gives great advice to those parents who find that their ex-spouse is trying to alienate their children from them.

Another outstanding educational resource recently entered the market. HBO released a new documentary, Don’t Divorce Me!: Kids’ Rules for Parents on Divorce. The viewer is shown the effects of divorce on children from the perspective of children. Over two dozen children from the ages of five to ten are interviewed in the documentary. The documentary seeks to impress upon the viewer that they not forget to consider the child’s perspective.

“I recommend that all my clients watch this short documentary. It will make an impact.” —Bill McNamara

March 1, 2013 by Aaron Tress

Summer Visitation

How does the noncustodial parent choose which days during the summer to spend with the children?

During the Summer months, parents may adopt creative ways to share time with their children. For example, a father is entitled to designate when to use his 30 days of possession during the summer as long as he gives written notice to the mother by April 1. If the mother, in turn, files written notice to the father by April 15, the mother is entitled to one weekend with the children during the father’s summer possession period.

The above summer notifications may look something like this.

What if the noncustodial parent does not give written notice?

If the noncustodial parent does not give written notice, the Texas Family Code defaults to the month of July.

January 18, 2013 by Aaron Tress

Parent Locator Service

Q: What if I want child support but don’t know the whereabouts of the other parent?

Q: What if I want visitation but don’t know where my ex-spouse took my child?

A: Sometimes, when trying to establish paternity, establish or enforce child support, or enforce visitation, a person does not know the whereabouts of the other parent. Because the other parent has a legal right to participate in the legal process, a person must make a good faith effort to serve the other parent. For this reason, the Texas Attorney General offers a parent locator service. The service provides a person with the missing parent’s possible locations. A person can then serve the other parent at all the possible locations.

Q: What do I do to receive the possible locations of the other parent?

A: If you satisfy the minimum requirements, fill out this pdf and send the completed form to the address included on the form.

January 18, 2013 by Aaron Tress

Amarillo Court of Appeals enforces Alabama child support order under UIFSA

In re T.B., 07-10-00377-CV, 2012 WL 751950 (Tex. App.–Amarillo Mar. 8, 2012, pet. denied)

This was a case I recently handled at the trial level. This case involves the Attorney General’s enforcement of an Alabama child support order under UIFSA. This case arose under Chapter 159 subchapter G of the Family Code.

I successfully contested the registration before the associate judge and the referring court. I relied on section 159.607(a)(1) for my argument. The Texas trial court found that Alabama did not have personal jurisdiction over Quackenbush to order child support.

The Attorney General appealed this decision to the Amarillo Court of Appeals and successfully argued that the Full Faith and Credit Clause from the United States Constitution required Texas to accept the Alabama ruling. The Amarillo Court reasoned that even though the Alabama trial court cited erroneous facts to give itself jurisdiction over Quackenbush, he should have appealed the ruling in Alabama rather than relitigate this issue during registration proceedings in Texas. Alabama’s finding of jurisdiction stood, and the enforcement order received full faith and credit.

The Texas Tech Law School family law clinic handled the appeal, and they did and excellent job.

“Quackenbush may have been successful on appeal had he ignored Alabama completely. The lesson learned is that once a party appears in a foreign state, he better litigate all the way through the appellate courts.” —Bill McNamara

“If you’re handling a child support case involving a court order from another state, be sure to review Chapter 159 subchapter G of the Family Code.” —Bill McNamara