Family Law

Divorce

A divorce ends the emotional, physical, and legal connection between you and your spouse. A divorce, from a legal perspective, does more than end the relationship; it handles everything you need to deal with in order to separate from your spouse, including parental rights, a parenting schedule, child support, division of assets and debts, and often other factors.

Most divorces end in a settlement agreement. The final decree of divorce will be based upon the settlement agreement that you and your spouse reach, stating which spouse receives which assets and debts, when each parent will have time with the children, how decisions about the children will be made, which spouse pays child support and how much, whether one spouse pays spousal maintenance, and where the children will live. The various factors that must be decided are complex, but an experienced family law attorney like Jason can guide you through the possible solutions to ensure that whatever decision you make, you will feel confident that you made the right choice.

And if you and your spouse cannot reach agreements on the issues in a divorce, Jason has tried dozens of divorces in Court, with very favorable outcomes for his clients. That’s why, even in cases where a settlement seems all but inevitable, he will ensure that all the litigation deadlines and procedural steps are met, so that if the settlement process fails, you will be well positioned to be successful at trial.

Child Custody and Support

When you divorce, or unmarried parents separate and have children, both parents have rights regarding possession and decision making for the children, as well as duties to the children to ensure they have the best chance at a great childhood. While the court will always strive to make a possession schedule that is in the best interest of the children, often the parents themselves know how best to structure a possession schedule to meet the needs of their family. Jason can help you craft a schedule—whether it be the statutory Standard Possession Order or a completely unique customized schedule—that best fits your family’s needs.

In some cases, such as when one parent is physically or verbally abusive, abuses substances or alcohol, or where there is a significant mental health issue, there may be a need to require supervised possession. Jason has extensive experience dealing with mental health issues due to practicing family law and in his work with the Montgomery County Veteran’s Treatment Court and is an expert in dealing with these issues in a legal context.

In addition, there must be provisions for how decisions are made regarding the children, in particular educational, non-emergency medical, and psychological/psychiatric decisions. When the parents separate, these decisions can sometimes be difficult to agree on—and often pure disagreement is a decision in itself, leaving whatever issue is being debated unaddressed. A good attorney can help you set up a framework so that these decisions are never left unaddressed, and the method for how they are resolved in a timely manner can be set up.

The child issues for separated parents can be complex, and you should seek the advice and counsel of an experienced and respected attorney like Jason to ensure that whatever setup you choose ensures that the family continues to thrive despite the separation.

Child Support

As every parent knows, raising a child can be expensive. Separation of the parents can cause even more financial strain—but the law has provisions that require financial support to flow from one parent to the other based upon their income to make sure that, while the household may only have one income, the children benefit from both parents’ income and their financial needs can be met.

Generally, child support is based upon the income of the parent paying support, as well as certain other provisions like health and dental insurance for the children. Sometimes the amount of income used to calculate support will deviate from the actual income, if the paying parent is deliberately underemployed or unemployed. Regardless of the situation, determining what the child support amounts should be will require someone who understands how the law determines the amount of support.

If you require help getting support started, or you need to adjust the support you are paying or receiving because of changes to a parent’s income, contact Jason to discuss your case.

Establishment or Denial of Parentage

Many fathers believe that if they are on a child’s birth certificate, they are legally the father of their child. That is not the law in Texas—unless you were married to the mother of the child when the child was born, a birth certificate only makes you the “presumed father” and does not confer any legal rights. From a practical standpoint, this may not cause immediate any problems—so long as the father’s relationship with the mother is positive and cooperative, this lack of legal rights may not have any practical effect. However, if that relationship breaks down, these fathers may find themselves locked out of everything to do with the child—medical decisions, the right to possession, educational decisions, etc.  Similar issues can arise with same sex parents and parents who used a surrogate.

Additionally, if you are married and your spouse becomes pregnant by another person, or you believe this to be the case, ignoring the issue could leave you at risk of being legally determined to be the father—regardless of what a DNA test may show. For some fathers, this is not a concern, as they have chosen to be the father regardless of biology, but if you would prefer not to have to support someone else’s child, you should contact an attorney like Jason to advise you on your options and represent you in your case to deny paternity of the child.

Adoption

A single parent or a couple – married or not – may wish to adopt one or more children, whether they have biological children or not. The laws governing adoptions are complex and accomplishing an adoption can take a significant amount of time and money.

If you need help adopting a child, contact Jason to discuss your options and a path to making that dream a reality.

Termination

In certain extreme cases, a parent may need to seek to terminate the parental rights of the other parent, or even their own rights. Texas law makes the termination of parental rights of a parent difficult by design, so knowing what you will need to accomplish a termination—and if it is even possible in your case—is something that only an experienced attorney can help you with. If you feel that your situation calls for termination of your rights or the rights of the other parent, contact Jason to discuss your case and the steps you would need to take to accomplish your goal.

Grandparent Possession Rights

Sometimes grandparents feel they need to step into a child’s life to protect the child from issues the parents are dealing with. Whether due to abuse, neglect, or problems with the parents—such as mental health disorders, substance abuse, and even untimely passing of a parent—there are provisions in Texas law that allow grandparents, under certain circumstances, to step in and have rights regarding the children, from occasional possession up to effectively becoming the parents themselves.

There are significant procedural barriers between grandparents and conservatorship of the children, barriers that may be all but impossible to overcome on your own. If you feel that, as a grandparent, you must take action to help your grandchildren, contact Jason to discuss the situation and get valuable advice and representation to help you accomplish your goals.

Prenuptial Agreements

You might want to get married to the love of your life, but you already own significant assets that you want to protect if the marriage eventually ends divorce, and if divorce happens, you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars to protect those assets. Or perhaps both of you are doing well financially and have excellent careers, and you want to enjoy the benefits of marriage without mixing up your income, nosiness, or assets during the marriage. Signing a prenuptial agreement can help protect those assets and define what, if anything, becomes an asset of the community estate.

Postnuptial Agreements

Postnuptial agreements are similar to prenuptial agreements, except these are signed after you marry. You might not have time or might not have thought about a prenuptial agreement and wish you had. You may already have a prenuptial agreement, but you and your spouse want to change the agreement to better fit your needs. A postnuptial agreement allows you to protect the assets you want to protect, after you’ve had time to better determine how to do so.

Enforcement

Whether you were awarded certain property in a divorce and never received it from the other party, you aren’t receiving support that the Court ordered the other parent to pay, or the other parent is interfering with your possession of your children, Texas law provides a method to hold the other parent or party accountable for their violations of the orders of the Court. If you can’t resolve these problems through discussion with the other person, call Jason to discuss the problems and what you can ask the Court to do to fix it.

Jason Kercheval helps families of all kinds as well as individuals facing a wide variety of family law issues that require resolution, not just divorce. Whether it involves paternity disputes, adoption, setting up possession schedules, obtaining or adjusting child support, termination of parental rights, enforcing existing orders that aren’t being followed, or pre- and postnuptial agreements, Jason Kercheval can provide guidance, advice, advocacy, and support.

To schedule a consultation or obtain further information regarding your family law issue, set up a consultation with Jason to find out what your rights are, and what you can do to establish, protect, or enforce them.