Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I need to get "custody" of my granddaughter. CPS placed her with us as "care givers" right after she left the hospital. She will be 6 months old on February 7th. Her mother has seen her 1 time and her father has seen her 3 times. I need to be able to get a legal document so that she can be covered under my insurance at work. I just found out her medicaid runs out today, 1/31 and my husband and I make too much money for her to continue to get medicaid. I do not understand the differences of custody, guardianship, conservatorship, etc. I believe both parents will agree to sign any papers. CPS was never any help to us at all. The parents are not helping with any expenses. What is the best type of process we should go through and at what costs? I have heard $2500 to get custody. Are they any self help services I can research?


Asked on 1/31/14, 1:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kevin Henderson Kevin Henderson Attorney at Law

I've seen this lots of times. CPS places a child under a "Plan of Service" agreement and then kind of disappears. It really leaves care givers in limbo.

I suggest you talk with a family law attorney in your area about a Suit Affecting Parent-Child Relationship. Filing this suit can get you temporary conservatorship of the child (so you can try to add her to your insurance) and then permanent conservatorship when the time for the parents to respond to the suit has passed or they have signed an agreed order. These kinds of orders can provide not only for conservatorship of the child but also for child support and visitation.

I am not aware of self help resources for this kind of thing and you really don't want to try doing it yourself anyway.

I suppose you could just call CPS and tell them you are going to give the child back to her parents if you don't get some help. I've never been able to get a client to try that approach and I'm not really recommending it - it's just kind of interesting to think about.

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Answered on 2/01/14, 2:50 pm


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