Houston Fathers’ Rights Lawyer
A board certified family law attorney in Texas helping fathers assert custody, possession, and parenting time.
When parents do not live together, children benefit from real, consistent time with both parents. Yet fathers too often end up seeing their children less than they should after a divorce, or when the parents were never married, and custody, parenting time, and child support arrangements can feel stacked against them. As a Houston fathers’ rights lawyer, I work to correct that and to help Texas fathers establish and protect their relationship with their children.
I am board certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a credential held by roughly 800 of the more than 110,000 attorneys licensed in Texas. Before I became an attorney, I was a teacher, so I pay close attention to what actually serves a child, which matters in custody work where the legal standard is the best interest of the child.
Fathers’ Rights Legal Issues We Handle
In Texas, you cannot enforce your rights as a father without a court order. That does not mean you have no rights to see your children, but you do need to go through the court and follow a court-approved schedule, which Texas calls a possession and access schedule. That is where I come in. On fathers’ rights and child custody matters, I help fathers assert their rights on issues including:
- Establishing paternity
- Paternity fraud (paying support for a child who is not biologically yours)
- Child support and accounting of how support is spent
- Fair parenting time and obstruction of parenting time
- Decision-making authority over religion, healthcare, education, and other parenting matters
- Modifications of child support, custody, and visitation orders
- Adoption without consent
In Texas, courts apply a Standard Possession Order when setting parenting time, and they use a statutory formula to calculate child support under Texas Family Code Chapter 154. Within that framework, fathers can feel boxed in by a presumption that mothers will hold primary custody. Part of my job as a Texas fathers’ rights attorney is to make sure the court sees you as the involved, capable parent you are, rather than defaulting to that assumption.
Staying involved in your child’s life matters. Shared parenting is good for children, and children with engaged fathers tend to do better emotionally and academically. The phrase “fathers’ rights” gets used loosely, but for the fathers I represent, custody for dads is not a slogan, it is their actual relationship with their kids. I approach these matters with settlement in mind where that serves the family, and I am prepared to litigate when it does not.
Talk With a Fathers’ Rights Attorney in Houston
If you are a father working to protect your time with your children, you can schedule a consultation with the Law Office of Maria Lowry. A consultation is a paid, one-on-one working session in which you will get a clear read on where you stand and what your options are. I can help you assert, challenge, and meet a father’s obligations regarding custody, parenting time, and child support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do fathers have equal rights to custody in Texas?
Texas law does not favor mothers or fathers. Courts decide conservatorship and parenting time based on the best interest of the child, and Texas presumes that both parents being named joint managing conservators is in the child’s interest in most cases. In practice, fathers sometimes still face an assumption that the mother will be the primary parent, which is part of what a fathers’ rights attorney works to address with evidence about the father’s actual role.
What does a fathers’ rights attorney in Texas actually do?
A fathers’ rights attorney helps a father establish or enforce his legal relationship with his child: confirming paternity, securing a workable possession and access schedule, addressing interference with parenting time, and handling child support fairly. I am board certified in family law and represent fathers throughout the Houston area and the surrounding counties.
Can I get custody of my child as a father if I was never married to the mother?
Yes, but you generally need to establish paternity first, because an unmarried father does not automatically have legal rights until paternity is legally recognized. Once paternity is established, you can seek conservatorship and a possession and access schedule. This is a common starting point in fathers’ rights cases.
Can a father reduce or change a child support order?
Child support orders can be modified when circumstances change materially, such as a significant change in income or in the parenting arrangement. I handle support modifications as part of my custody work, and calculating Texas child support follows a statutory formula that a modification has to work within.
