Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

My husband and I have monthly possession of our granddaughter beginning on the 1st weekend of the month. Our next weekend falls on Easter weekend and our son is threatening to not allow us assess to the child. He and our daughter in law will be in contempt, he also never advised the court of his new address. What will they be looking at as far as fine, etc.


Asked on 3/09/12, 3:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

I'm probably missing something obvious here, but how is it that you have any right to possession of your granddaughter at all? That's not something that Texas law normally provides for, and if this were a CPS case, you'd be the ones letting the parents have visitation, not the other way around. Typically, the only way a grandparent in Texas would have any possessory rights would be if their child had died or something. So I'm not sure I understand this. But assuming you have a valid right to possession, back to the question of what the court would do if there is a problem, that's hard to say without knowing something both about the general history of the case, what led up to this particular issue, and what that particular court's policies are. Often there's a long story behind this kind of thing, and sometimes there are legitimate issues on both sides. For example, there could hypothetically be a scenario where your granddaughter has severe asthma that's aggravated by your smoking, and every time she comes to see you, she's sick for a week afterwards. That situation would hopefully be treated rather differently than one where your son just decided he didn't care what the court order said, you weren't going to see he, and might also be treated differently from a situation where that exact issue had already been before the court a couple of months ago and was believed to be worked out. You really need to either talk to your attorney or consult with a local attorney who's familiar with this court to get a better idea of how to proceed.

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Answered on 3/09/12, 4:29 pm


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