When you hear the word family lawyer, a lawyer for your family’s needs may come to mind. A lawyer who walks with you through all stages of life, and is at your beck and call, and can assist you in a variety of cases and manners.
You may want to set up an LLC, or get a Power of Attorney, or need advice on a Real Estate Transaction, or need help evicting a tenant, or get assistance with a traffic ticket, or you experienced a personal injury situation or car accident, or you need a Will drafted for you, or want to set up a guardianship for a special needs young adult turning 18 or an elderly parent facing dementia.
While in Texas, a lawyer can practice in any area of law the day they get their shiny new law license, and theoretically could help you with any of the above list of legal needs, the reality is that each of the above-mentioned areas of law is a unique body of law. Therefore, most attorneys are not well versed in every single area of law, since the legislature is always legislating, and the laws are always changing.
While each attorney may conceptualize “family law” differently, when I say family law, I think of divorces, suits affecting parent-child relationships, modifications, and enforcements.
In a divorce, the parties or the court will divide the estate, which is composed of assets and liabilities. Who will get the cars, who will get the house? The money in bank accounts? 401Ks? What about credit card debt? Student loan debt? A swimming pool loan? All of this will need to be addressed during the divorce.
Additionally, in a divorce, the parties or the court will need to figure out everything related to the children- where will they live, when will they see the other parent, who will make decisions for the children, who will pay child support and how much will it be, who will cover the child’s medical? Can they move? Can they travel? Who will claim the child on their taxes? Who can apply for, renew, and hold on to the child’s passport? All of this and more will be decided in a divorce case.
Suit Affecting Parent-Child Relationship, or SAPCR
However, what about when parents are not married, but have a child together? You can’t figure out all the child related things in a divorce because you will not be filing a petition for divorce for parties that never married. In that case, the lawsuit to figure out the child related issues, including custody, is called a Suit Affecting Parent-Child Relationship, or SAPCR for short. In a SAPCR, all the above-mentioned child related things will be figured out.
Modifications and Enforcement
What about when you have gone through the divorce, and now you are a few years down the road, and something changes. Maybe the non-custodial parent is making more money, and child support needs to be adjusted. Or maybe one parent wants to move out of the county or city, or maybe the child wants to go live with the other parent. In that case, a modification would be filed, to modify the prior order.
Lastly, what about when you get divorced or figure out child related matters in a SAPCR, but one parent is not following the court orders? One parent may not be paying child support, or one parent may be withholding the child and not allowing the other parent to exercise their periods of possession. In that case, an enforcement would need to be filed with the court, to let the court know one parent is not complying with the court order.
Hire a Family Law Attorney
These are the areas of law that I think of when I use the term family law- divorces, SAPCRs, modifications, and enforcements. Some other nuanced things fall under these broad terms, such as adoption cases, grandparent’s rights, CPS cases, voluntary relinquishments, name changes. A typical family lawyer may or may not take cases in these nuanced areas of law.
While you may have a lawyer friend who specialize in one area of law, most lawyers want to stay in their own lanes and not take novel cases, where they must learn an entire body of law for one family member or a friend’s case. It is never a good idea to ask your personal injury attorney cousin, or your real estate attorney neighbor, or your medical malpractice attorney friend to do your family law case. Make sure you hire a family law attorney for any divorce, SAPCR, modification or enforcement cases you may have in your future.
Heather is currently a member in good standing of the Real Estate, Probate, Trust and Family Law sections of the State Bar of Texas. Heather is also certified by the State Bar of Texas to represent litigants and proposed wards in heirship and guardianship proceedings.
