Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
custody of grandchildren
what is emergency custody? how does one get it? grounds for? my daughter lives in texas with 2 kids, bad bad marriage, tryiing to get away from the husband. she used to do drugs, he still does. he and his mom are threatening her with jail and death. she called me 2 days ago to have her kids come visit. what happens if she goes to jail or worse? do i have any rights as a grandmother? what do i do to help and make decesions for these kids?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: custody of grandchildren
I cannot tell from your question, who is going to go to jail, and/or why.
Grandparent rights are limited in Texas.
My guess is that you are out-of-state, and the children are living in Texas. My guess is also that your daughter and her husband are not divorced, and there is no current pending court order.
Assuming all that to be true. I would advise you as the client to buy plane tickets for your daughter and her kids to come and visit you. You should have an attorney in place in your county of residence to meet with you and with her immediately upon arrival.
The attorney should be consulted/retained ahead of time to determine the residency necessary to file a SAPCR, since she will not be there long enough to file for divorce (that can be filed later), to invoke the court's jurisdiction, and to get an emergency protective order.
If you cannot accomplish that, then hire her a lawyer in her Texas county to accomplish the same thing. Once it is done in a Texas court, however, it is highly unlikely she is going to be able to leave the area with the children in the future.