Lakeway Child Custody Attorney

Parents in Lakeway who are separating, or who share a child with someone they were never married to, usually want the same two answers early: where will my child live, and how much time will I actually get? The Law Office of Oprea & Weber is a boutique divorce and family law firm that handles Lakeway child custody attorney matters for families in Lakeway, Travis County, and the surrounding Central Texas counties, including custody and visitation, child support, paternity, SAPCR suits, modifications, relocation, and enforcement.

Texas does not use the word “custody” in its statutes. The law speaks of conservatorship, which covers decision-making rights and duties, and possession and access, which covers the actual schedule. A parent can be a joint managing conservator and still not have an equal split of time, because the right to designate the child’s primary residence is decided separately. Many Lakeway parents are surprised to learn that the fight is often less about the label and more about who holds that residence right and what the possession schedule looks like week to week.

The schedule picture has shifted recently. For new orders where the parents live within 50 miles of each other, the Expanded Standard Possession Order is now the default, which adds Thursday overnights and extends weekends through Monday morning. Lakeway sits close enough to the rest of Travis County that most local parents fall inside that radius, so the expanded schedule is the starting point for negotiation in many new cases.

Conservatorship, Residence, and Possession: What a Texas Court Actually Decides

When a judge or a settlement agreement sets up a custody arrangement, three separate questions get answered. The first is conservatorship: whether the parents will be joint managing conservators, which is the norm, or whether one parent should be named sole managing conservator because of safety concerns such as family violence or abuse. The second is which parent holds the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence, and whether that right comes with a geographic restriction, which matters a great deal for families who might later want to move out of the Lakeway area. The third is the possession and access schedule, including holidays, summers, and the weekly rhythm.

The governing standard throughout is the best interest of the child. Texas law favors frequent and continuing contact with both parents, but that policy does not guarantee a fifty-fifty calendar. Parents are free to agree on an equal schedule, and a court will generally approve it when it serves the child. Where parents cannot agree, the court looks at the child’s needs, each parent’s ability to provide a stable home, and any history that bears on safety.

Family violence is the factor that most changes the analysis. A conviction or deferred adjudication for a family violence offense, or an active protective order, can reshape both conservatorship and the schedule. A protective order is generally limited to two years unless the court makes specific findings, such as serious bodily injury or prior protective orders, and for an order against a parent lasting longer than two years, the Texas Supreme Court has required those findings to be made by clear and convincing evidence with the child’s best interest considered.

Why Lakeway Parents Choose Oprea & Weber for Custody Cases

The Law Office of Oprea & Weber is a boutique divorce and family law firm serving Lakeway and the rest of Travis County, along with Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop Counties and the wider Central Texas region. The firm helps parents who are divorcing, parents who were never married, and parents whose existing orders no longer fit their lives. Custody work here means building parenting plans and possession schedules that protect a child’s best interests and hold up in real life, not just on paper.

What sets the firm apart is how cases are staffed. The attorney who meets you at your first consultation personally handles your case through the final decree, and the caseload is kept intentionally manageable. You are not passed to layers of staff or junior associates. Clients get direct attorney access and explanations in plain language, and their reviews repeatedly describe the team as knowledgeable, thorough, thoughtful, and caring. One client who came to the firm through a personal referral for a custody matter described Kevin as professional and friendly, and said he helped hold the family steady through a very emotional situation.

Kevin Weber, Attorney, and Karen Oprea, Attorney, both graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. Kevin trained in complex commercial litigation and negotiation at Latham & Watkins in Manhattan, a background that translates directly into the negotiation and document work that most custody cases turn on. He also mediates family law disputes and represents clients in mediation, which gives him a practical sense of what kinds of parenting agreements last. Karen has briefed and argued cases before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas Courts of Appeals, and the New York appellate courts, which matters when a custody order raises legal questions that could be reviewed on appeal. The firm prefers cooperative, collaborative, or mediated resolution when reasonable conversation is possible, and prepares every case for trial so that a parent is never negotiating from weakness.

Custody Disputes That Bring Lakeway Parents to Court

• Initial Custody in a Divorce: When married parents divorce, conservatorship, the primary residence designation, possession, and child support are all decided in the decree. Texas requires at least one spouse to have lived in the state for six months and in the filing county for 90 days, and the court cannot grant the divorce until the 60th day after filing, though temporary orders on children can be put in place while the case is pending.
• Paternity and SAPCR Suits: Unmarried parents resolve custody through a Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship. Legal fatherhood must be established first, by acknowledgment of paternity or by court adjudication, and a signed acknowledgment can be rescinded within 60 days of signing.
• Challenging a Presumed or Acknowledged Father: When a child already has a presumed father, a suit to adjudicate parentage generally must be filed before the child’s fourth birthday, subject to narrow exceptions such as misrepresentation or the parents not having lived together or had relations around the time of conception. A signed acknowledgment can be challenged after the rescission window only for fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.
• Modification of Existing Orders: Changing conservatorship or possession requires a material and substantial change in circumstances and a finding that the change serves the child. Specific grounds include a child aged 12 or older telling the judge in chambers which parent they prefer to set their residence, or the primary-residence parent voluntarily giving up primary care for at least six months.
• Relocation Disputes: A residence restriction in the order can keep the child in a defined area. Moving from Lakeway to another city or state can require a court’s permission or a modification, and these disputes can become contested quickly.
• Enforcement: When a parent withholds possession, ignores the schedule, or fails to follow the order, the other parent can ask the court to enforce it rather than simply taking matters into their own hands.
• Non-Parent Custody and Possession: Stepparents and other non-parents face narrower standing than before. Texas now looks to whether the person has had exclusive care, control, and possession of the child, replacing the older six-month care standard.
• Cases Involving Family Violence: Protective orders, criminal history, and safety concerns can lead to restricted or supervised possession and, in some cases, sole managing conservatorship.

Practical Steps for a Lakeway Parent Facing a Custody Case

The most useful thing to do first is to stop making informal arrangements that are hard to undo. Keep the child’s routine as stable as you can, avoid moving the child without a written agreement or court order, and do not withhold a child from the other parent out of anger, because a judge notices who has been supporting the child’s relationship with both parents. Start a simple calendar of who has the child on which days and who handles school, medical appointments, and activities. Courts care about what has actually been happening, and a contemporaneous record is far more persuasive than memory.

Gather the documents that will matter: any existing orders, school and pediatric records, your income information, and any messages that show how the parents have been communicating. If there is a safety concern, whether family violence or substance abuse, tell your attorney early so protective measures and temporary orders can be sought quickly. If the other parent has already filed, note the deadline stated on the citation and do not ignore it; a respondent who does not answer in time can be defaulted, and the court may then rule on the filing parent’s requests alone.

Most Lakeway families are in Travis County, where family cases are heard in the district courts, including the 200th, 201st, 250th, 261st, 345th, 353rd, 419th, 455th, and 459th, along with associate courts and the Title IV-D child support courts. Contested hearings and trials in Travis County family courts are held in person at the county’s civil and family courts facility in Austin unless the parties agree otherwise or the judge says differently. Families who live just outside the county may instead be in Williamson County, where the district courts sit in Georgetown, in Hays County, where they sit in San Marcos, or in Bastrop County, where the district courts sit in Bastrop, and the proper county depends on where the child has lived and where the parties reside. Travis County also publishes a standing order for family law cases that governs conduct while a case is pending, and your attorney will review it with you at the outset.

Plan on temporary orders early. While the case is pending, a judge can set who the child lives with, a temporary possession schedule, and temporary support, and those early arrangements often become the baseline the final outcome is measured against. The common mistakes are treating temporary orders casually, posting about the dispute on social media, and speaking disparagingly about the other parent in front of the child. Each can cost credibility with the court.

How Child Support and Modification Fit Into a Custody Case

Custody and child support are decided together, and the schedule you agree to can affect the financial picture. Texas guidelines set child support as a percentage of the paying parent’s net monthly resources: 20 percent for one child, 25 percent for two, 30 percent for three, 35 percent for four, 40 percent for five, and not less than the five-child percentage for six or more. These percentages apply only up to a cap on net resources, which the state adjusts periodically, and lower presumptive percentages apply when the paying parent’s net resources fall below a low-income threshold. Net resources include all wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services, such as commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses.

Orders are not permanent. Child support can be modified if three years have passed since the order was made or last changed and the monthly amount differs from the guideline amount by 20 percent or $100, or on a material and substantial change in circumstances with no minimum waiting period. If the parents originally agreed to an amount that departed from the guidelines, the court may modify only on a material and substantial change since the order. Incarceration for more than 180 days is treated as such a change.

Changing primary residence is more tightly controlled. If a suit to change the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence is filed within one year of the order, the filer must attach an affidavit alleging that the child’s present environment may endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair emotional development, that the parent holding the right is seeking or consenting to the change and it serves the child, or that the parent voluntarily relinquished primary care for at least six months and the change serves the child. Certain offenses against a child can remove both the one-year restriction and the usual change-in-circumstances burden. Parents with older orders who want the Expanded Standard Possession Order generally need to file a modification, since the new default applies to new orders.

Lakeway Child Custody Questions Parents Ask

Is custody in Texas always split 50/50?

No. Texas law favors frequent and continuing contact with both parents, but it does not require an equal split. Many orders follow a standard possession schedule, now the expanded version for new orders when parents live within 50 miles of each other, while the parent with the primary residence right keeps the child most nights. Parents can agree to an equal schedule, and courts approve it when it serves the child.

What is the difference between conservatorship and possession?

Conservatorship covers legal rights and duties such as making decisions about education, medical care, and the child’s residence. Possession and access is the actual schedule of when each parent has the child. A parent can share decision-making as a joint managing conservator and still have a limited schedule.

Do I need to be married to seek custody?

No. Unmarried parents can establish parentage and resolve custody, visitation, and support through a SAPCR suit. Legal fatherhood must be established first, by a signed acknowledgment of paternity or a court adjudication.

Can a child choose which parent to live with?

Not on their own. A child aged 12 or older can tell the judge in chambers which parent they prefer to hold the primary residence right, and that preference is one ground for seeking modification. It is a factor the court considers rather than a decision the child makes.

How long does a custody case take in Travis County?

It depends on whether the parents agree. An agreed case can be finished soon after the required waiting period if it is part of a divorce, while contested cases involving evaluations, discovery, and trial can take many months. The court’s calendar also affects timing.

What if the other parent will not follow the possession order?

You can ask the court to enforce the order. Keep records of each missed exchange, any messages about it, and any costs you incurred. Self-help, such as withholding the child in return, can backfire and should be avoided.

Can I move out of Lakeway with my child?

It depends on what the current order says. Many orders restrict the child’s residence to a defined geographic area. If you want to move outside it, you will need the other parent’s agreement or a court modification.

My child’s father signed an acknowledgment of paternity. Can it be undone?

It can be rescinded within 60 days of signing. After that, a signatory can challenge it only for fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact, and a non-signatory generally has four years from the effective date to start a proceeding.

Can a stepparent or grandparent seek custody or visitation?

Non-parent standing is narrow. Texas recently tightened the rules for people such as stepparents, so the focus is on whether the person has had exclusive care, control, and possession of the child. These cases are fact-specific and worth discussing with an attorney before anything is filed.

How does a protective order affect custody?

It can significantly change the schedule and even conservatorship. A protective order generally lasts up to two years, with longer terms possible if the court finds serious bodily injury or prior protective orders, and an order tied to a divorce can run until two years after the decree is signed. An order lasting more than two years against a parent requires findings by clear and convincing evidence.

Is mediation a good option for custody disputes?

Often, yes. A neutral mediator helps parents work through disagreements and reach a settlement, which is usually faster, less expensive, and less stressful than trial. Kevin Weber both mediates and represents clients in mediation, so he understands how to structure agreements that last.

Will changing jobs or working irregular hours hurt my custody case?

Not by itself. A court looks at whether you can provide a stable home and meet the child’s needs. Many Lakeway parents work flexible, remote, or travel-heavy schedules, and a realistic possession schedule can be built around them.

Serving Custody Clients From Lakeway and Across Central Texas

For families in Lakeway, Oprea & Weber handles custody and visitation matters throughout Travis County, including nearby Bee Cave, Rollingwood, West Lake Hills, Austin, Pflugerville, Manor, Del Valle, Jonestown, Volente, Briarcliff, Point Venture, and Lago Vista. The firm also represents parents in Williamson County communities such as Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, Georgetown, Hutto, Taylor, and Liberty Hill, in Hays County communities such as Dripping Springs, Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, and Wimberley, and in Bastrop County communities such as Bastrop, Elgin, Smithville, and Cedar Creek.

Across Central Texas, whether a case begins as a divorce, a paternity filing, or a request to change an existing order, the same approach applies: a direct attorney, a plan built around what matters most to your family, and readiness for court if cooperation is not possible.

Speak With a Lakeway Child Custody Lawyer at Oprea & Weber

If you need a Lakeway child custody lawyer who will personally handle your case from the first consultation through the final order, the attorneys at Oprea & Weber are ready to talk. Whether you are starting a new case, responding to one that has been filed, or trying to change an order that no longer works, we will walk through your options in plain language and build a strategy around your child and your goals.

Call to schedule a consultation. Decisions about conservatorship, residence, and possession shape your family for years, and getting them right the first time is far easier than trying to repair them later.