In the event that both parents cannot determine a mutual plan for
child custody in Dallas, the court will make the decision. Depending on the age of the child, the court will often weigh the wishes of the child when making its decision. However, in all child custody cases, custody is determined by what is in the "best interest" of the child. The court also takes into consideration that either overruling or granting the child's wishes could be against the child's best interest. The determination depends greatly on the child's age and maturity.
Custody is generally thought of as either Sole Managing Conservatorship or Joint Managing Conservatorship. Unless proved otherwise, courts will presume joint managing conservatorship.
Sole managing conservatorship means that one parent has the majority of the legal rights regarding the children and makes the majority of the substantive parental decisions.
In most, though not all cases, the child will reside with one parent while the other parent will have specified periods of access.
Joint Managing Conservatorship means that both parents share the children's substantive parental decisions. Despite popular belief, "joint custody" does not mean the child spends half of the time with one parent and the other half with the other parent. In fact, joint custody has little to do with the actual time either parent spends with their children. Instead, it relates to the legal issues associated with raising children. In some cases, the most important legal right is the establishment of domicile, or the determination of where the child will physically live.
Over the past several years, domicile restrictions have become more and more popular. That is, though one parent may have the right to establish the residence of the children, that residence must be located within a certain geographic boundary. That boundary can be a school district, city, county, state or even country. Most often, the children's residence is limited to a county or group of counties. However, every case does not necessarily require a domicile restriction. Some courts even refuse to grant such restricts except in extreme cases.
