Posts Tagged ‘Standard Possession Order’
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
October is just around the corner so let’s review the Texas standard visitation schedule. The weekends and Thursdays are pretty standard.
For weekends you will have the 7th and the 21st and the there will be 4 Thursday visits this month (or Wednesday for older orders).
There are two holidays this month we have to deal with. The first is Columbus day. This is a Monday holiday and falls on a standard visitation weekend (1st). If your child has off for Columbus day, review your order as you will have an additional day. If you normally return at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, then you will return at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. If you return to school Monday then you will return to school Tuesday. This is a pretty straight forward holiday.
Let’s talk about the bigger elephant in the room. Halloween. It falls on a Monday this year, and it is not a standard visitation order weekend (i.e. 1st, 3rd or 5th). If you do not have a special provision in your order for Halloween, then without an agreement, you will not get Halloween this year. I would suggest working now on an agreement for that weekend. Perhaps you could offer to give up one of your weekend nights in exchange for Halloween night.
If you reach agreements, get it in writing.
Have a good October!
Tags: Children, Divorce, holiday, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Holiday visitation, Visitation, Visitation in Texas | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 29th, 2011
The month of May is relatively simple in terms of Texas standard visitation. The weekend periods of possession are Friday, May 6th for a mother who is not the custodial parent and Friday, May 20th. All the Thursdays (or Wednesdays) should be standard this month unless your child is in a school that lets out for summer break this month. In that case, any Thursday following dismissal will not apply as Thursdays are only during the school term in a Texas standard visitation order.
Sunday, May 8th is Mother’s day. If the child’s mother is the custodial parent then she will get this weekend even if it is the Father’s first Friday of the month. Mother’s day takes precedent over a standard weekend visit.
Memorial day is the custodial parent’s weekend so there should be no issues as to an extended weekend due to a Monday holiday.
As I said, pretty simple! 
As always, if you have general questions please comment. I will do the best I can to answer them as quickly as possible. Check out my newly refreshed and designed website at www.chrislawyer.com. Ain’t it perty?
Tags: Children, Divorce, holiday, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Holiday visitation, Visitation | 9 Comments »
Friday, April 1st, 2011
It’s April and since there have been no showers (in Dallas) will there be no flowers? I know, dumb. Today will be the first weekend visitation for you non-custodial parents in Texas as it is the first Friday of the month. Your next weekend will be April 15th (second Friday of the month) and then April 29th (5th Friday of the month). It is going to be a great visitation month!
Thursdays should be standard all the way through the month. The only holiday this month is Easter weekend. Unless you have a specific provision for Easter in your decree, it will be the custodial parent’s weekend.
April is the month of notices in a Texas possession schedule. If you are the non-custodial parent and you wish to pick your extended summer visitation, you will have to have given notice by April 1st of those dates. If you do not give notice you will get July 1 beginning at 6:00 p.m. and ending on July 31st at 6:00 p.m. The custodial parent has until April 15th to designate one weekend inside the extended summer visitation that they can exercise. This weekend begins and ends at 6:00 p.m. on Friday and Sunday respectively. If they do not designate by April 15th, they lose that weekend.
The final April notice date is again April 15th. If the custodial parent gives the other parent notice by April 15th they can pick one weekend that would have otherwise been the non-custodial parent’s weekend OUTSIDE the extended summer possession. The difference between this notice and the one just above is that if notice is not given by April 15th, they still can give notice throughout the summer if given 14 days in advance.
I think that just about covers it. If you have any questions, feel free to enter them in the comment section and I will try to answer them the best I can.
Tags: Children, Divorce, holiday, possession, Standard Possession Order, summer, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Holiday visitation, Visitation | 21 Comments »
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
March is upon us. Great time of year. College basketball is ramping up, spring is here…love it. For visitation purposes this weekend is the first Friday of the month and therefore the first possession period. The third Friday is March 18th and would be a normal visitation weekend UNLESS the child is on Spring Break that week or the week following. If the child is on break that week then it is the custodial parent’s (parent with custody) week and weekend. It trumps your normal visitation. However, if you are operating under a standard possession order for over 100 miles, then it is always the non-cutodial parent’s week.
Another scenario: if your child is on vacation the week of the 21st then you will also lose your weekend of the 18th because the kids will be dismissed on Friday the 18th for their break. It begins for a parent begins at 6:00 p.m. on the day that the child is dismissed from school, which in this case would be the time that your visitation weekend would have started. This does not apply if you are over 100 miles.
The Thursday visitations are standard with the exception of the Thursday during the week of the child’s Spring Break.
I hope everyone has a great March!
Tags: Children, holiday, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Holiday visitation, Visitation | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Wow, I have been a bad blogger! With the ice apocalypse in Dallas this year, I got a bit behind. Hopefully everyone survived without my extremely insightful and brilliant posts. :)
February 4th was your first weekend visit this month if you have a standard visitation order. Your other weekend possession this month will be this Friday, the 18th. Thursdays (or Wednesdays on some old orders) are pretty standard this month as well so you should get each of those.
President’s day falls on the non-cusotdial parent’s weekend this month so that weekend will extend the return time (depending on your order – if you have standard visitation it will) to either return to school on Tuesday morning or Monday at 6:00 p.m. This only applies if you have the language in your decree extending the visitation for Monday holidays AND your child is actually out of school on that Monday. You should already know if your periods of possession end by returning the child to school or if you return at 6:00 p.m. the day before they return to school.
That about wraps it up for this month. Happy President’s Day!
Tags: Children, Divorce, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Visitation | No Comments »
Friday, January 7th, 2011
Happy New Year everyone. January is upon us and the kids should all be back in school now. With the holidays behind us we enter a few months of normal standard visitation weekend and weekday visitations.
The first standard visitation in January for most of you was likely last night, the Thursday visitation (unless you have an old order and it would have been Wednesday). Thursday possessions should continue this month without interruption. The first weekend is tonight (as it is measured by the first Friday of the month). The third weekend will be January 21st and there is not a fifth weekend this month.
For some of your children, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day will be a holiday, but since it falls on an off weekend for visitation it should not be an issue.
Pretty plain month in terms of visitation. Until next month…
Tags: Children, Divorce, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in child visitation, Children, Visitation | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
The holidays are in full swing as we are wedged between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hope you all made it through Thanksgiving intact and didn’t put on to too much weight.
The weekend visitations begin tonight (or last night if you have Thursday overnights) December 3rd. December 17th will be the next and last scheduled weekend visit as the 31st (5th weekend of the month) will be swallowed up by the Christmas holiday visitation.
The Thursday visits (or Wednesdays if you have an old order) will continue all month until you reach one that is within the holiday visitation. There will be no more weekday visits this month following that as we will be in the Christmas holiday.
Under a standard possession order, this was the custodial parent’s Thanksgiving, so it will be the visiting parent’s Christmas. The holiday will begin when the child is dismissed from school for the holidays or at some set time such as 6:00 p.m. Check your order. It will continue through December 28 at noon (newer orders) or December 26 at noon (older orders). The custodial parent will then have them until school resumes after the Christmas holiday. Once they return to school you will return to the standard weekday and weekend visitation schedule.
In looking at the calendar I do not see any potential major conflicts or problems with the holiday schedule but that will all depend on when your particular school district lets out. Even then it would probably only be the Thursday visit where it would arise. If problems do arise, do something special for your kids this Christmas and work it out with the other parent. Don’t fight, don’t argue, just work it out this one time.
If you missed the post a while back about cooperative parenting from one of my readers you can read it here.
If I get too heavily distracted this December and don’t post…have a merry Christmas!
Tags: holiday, possession, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Holiday visitation, Visitation | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 8th, 2010
I was a little slow this month in getting the monthly standard visitation update done. Hopefully everyone knew that their first weekend of the month was last weekend. This is a pretty standard month for weekend and Thursday visits with the exception of a few items:
- There is a fifth weekend this month and it begins on the 29th of October. That is also the weekend of:
- Halloween – Obviously halloween falls on the visiting parent’s weekend. Be careful to check your order to see if there are specific possession times for this event. While it is not common to put halloween in a standard visitation order, it is sometimes done so check your order. If the parent with custody would like to have the child for a bit, be a good goblin and allow a few hours for some trick or treating. That is DOUBLE CANDY for the kids! Won’t they be excited.
- The other issue is Fair Day for those of you in the Dallas area. Many schools will let the kids out for a Fair Day. If that is on a Friday or a Monday, check your order well because a standard visitation order has a provision for extended weekends when Friday or Monday are a holiday for the kids. If it is a Friday holiday your visitation will begin at the normal time it would on Friday, but on Thursday instead. If it is a Monday holiday then your visitation will end on Tuesday at the time it normally would have ended on Monday.
Other than that, everyone should have standard Thursdays (or Wednesdays depending on how old your order is) this month and the weekends of the 1st, 15th, and 29th.
Happy Halloween and be safe out there with the kids. Next month we will learn all about Thanksgiving visitation. Fun!
Tags: Children, Divorce, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Visitation | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Alright, September is here, school is in full swing and we are back to our school time standard visitation schedule. September is a pretty straight forward month with the exception of Labor Day weekend. Labor Day is following the first Friday of the month which is a standard weekend period of possession under the standard visitation laws.
You will pick up at your normal time (per your order), however your drop off time will change this weekend. If you typically drop off at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, then you will now drop off at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. If you typically return to school on Monday morning, then you will return them to school on Tuesday morning. This provision can be found at §153.315 of the Texas Family Code for a standard visitation schedule and extends the weekend because of the Monday holiday.
Weekend visitation rights will be on the 3rd of the month and ending as described above, and the 17th of the month with standard pick up and drop off per your order. You will also have the right to each Thursday this month.
I can’t think of any other issues that could arise, but if you have any questions, please provide them in the comment section or contact me at the email to the right.
Tags: Children, Divorce, possession, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Visitation, Visitation in Texas | 4 Comments »
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
In previous posts I have discussed the various schedules that occur in a Texas standard possession order. For review we have covered:
There have been other discussions on Texas standard visitation which you can access via “visitation” on the tags below.
To finalize the discussion I wanted to cover some of the other issues that arise in Texas standard visitation.
Agreements
One of the first paragraphs in a standard possession order states that the parties are free to agree on any possession order they like, but absent agreement it will be a standard possession order. This is set out in §153.311 of the Texas Family Code. This means that standard visitation is just a fall back for when the parties cannot mutually agree on visitation. This is the legislatures way of trying to get the parents to work things out.
General Terms and Conditions
These are set out in §153.316 of the Texas Family Code. It covers:
- Where the child should be dropped off at the beginning of the non-custodial or visiting parent’s possession. This can be at the home of the custodial parent, at the home of the visiting parent, or some other location like the child’s school or a police station. Check your order to determine where this is.
- If the possession is to begin at the time the child’s school is dismissed, then the child is surrendered at the school at the end of the school day.
- Where the child should be picked up at the end of the non-custodial parent or visiting parent’s possession. This will typically be the opposite of the place in number 1., but can be at any of the three. Check your order. NOTE: All transfers are to take place at these location. If no agreement has been made to modify these provisions, this is where you must pick up and drop off.
- If the possession ends when school resumes, the visiting parent will return the child to school at the beginning of the school day.
- Each party is supposed to return the child with the clothes and items that they brought. You cannot imagine what a big issue this can become, or maybe you can. The provision is simple…what the child comes with, the child goes home with. Do the clothes have to be washed? No, it does not say that. You simply must return those items with the child.
- Each party can designate a competent adult to deliver the child. This means that a parent can pick an adult to transfer the child pursuant to numbers 1. and 2. above. If your order does not specifically restrict someone, then they can choose any competent adult. If you disagree with the adult’s competence, you will have to go to court. This provision is for pick up and drop off only. This provision does not mean that the parent can designate a person to visit with the child while the visiting parent is not there. Visitations are set up for the parents. However, there are circumstances where a parent can allow others to visit with the child (grandparents, new wife and family, etc…) This may be the subject of another post.
- Each parent shall give notice to the other parent in possession of the child if they will be unable to exercise visitation of the child. This notice should be in writing if possible. This is probably the most ignored provision of a standard possession order in Texas. You shouldn’t ignore it because if it happens enough (no notice given for missed possessions) it can be grounds to take away visitation rights.
- Send it in writing as soon as possible. This can include an email.
- If possessions begin or end at school, and the parent will not be able to get the child from or to school, you must notify the other parent so that proper arrangements can be made. Nothing will get you in trouble faster with the court than a child missing school.
The above is a general summary of some of the additional rules in a standard possession order in Texas. My comments are not all inclusive and there are many fact scenarios that I did not cover. If you are having problems with any of these, contact a local attorney and discuss it with them.
Tags: Children, Divorce, possession, Standard Possession Order, Visitation
Posted in Children, Divorce, Visitation | 1 Comment »
October is just around the corner so let’s review the Texas standard visitation schedule. The weekends and Thursdays are pretty standard.
