Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Re: minor child in possession of a cell phone

Theoretically it would be possible to obtain a court order to allow your son to have access to the cell phone when he is away from home in case of a medical emergency.

If you feel very strongly about your son having the phone in order to deal with a medical emergency related to his asthma, perhaps you can have the child's physician write a prescription for him to keep the phone as a matter of medical necessity.

That being said, this is the kind of matter that the courts are generally not very keen on getting involved in, and they would rather see the parents work it out themselves.

This is one of those difficult and sad things that can sometimes arise between two divorced parents who each care very much for their child but disagree as to handle a particular parenting issue.

Just sitting down over a cup of coffee to talk and by acknowledging each other's good motives you may be able to reach an an agreement you can both live with. You might also wish to find a parenting coordinator, counselor, or mediator and sit down and discuss the cell phone issue and see if you can come to a compromise.

One last suggestion: there are phones for children that allow them to place calls only to the parents or 911, that you can purchase. I believe one brand is called the Firefly. In my opinion it's not a very good phone, but it may allow you to reach a middle ground with your ex.

Best wishes to you.