Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

A Premarital Agreement is generally drated to provide for property considerations. While they sometimes also contain provisions for, what I will call, "child related issues", those provisions can be, and generally are not binding upon the Court. Look at it this way, the Agreement is between two persons, and the Court is not a party to or a participant in the Agreement. The Texas Legislature has provided in the Texas Family Code that once a Court acquires jurisdiction over a child, that the jurisdiction will last until the child turns 18 and/or graduates from high school. While a Court loses jurisdiction to change the property provisions contained in a divorce decree, 30 days after the decree is entered (If no steps are timely made to appeal), it does not lose jurisdiction over each child involved in those cases until a child attains age 18 and/or high school graduation. As I tell clients, the Courthouse doors will remain open to both parties seeking to change the provisions of the child related issues (custody, visitation,child support) until jurisdiction is lost for each child. So in regards to your question, no parties can usurp the Court's authority to do what it considers the be in the "best interest of the children". So whether the provisions of your agreement "hold up in Court" depends not on the fact that it was part of the agreement, but rather because that is what the Court felt to be in the best interest of the child. I would also add, since it involves a closely related matter, almost all visitation provisions in most decrees contain language allowing the parties to vary from the visitation schedule set forth in the decree, so long as both parties mutually agree to the variance. If and when that mutual agreement no longer exists the provisions of the decree will be controlling and enforceable. I am a board certified specialist in the field of family law, practicing in the general Houston area. If I can be of any further assistance to you, please contact me dircetly.