{"id":3227,"date":"2026-07-20T12:47:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/?p=3227"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:54:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:54:36","slug":"texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas custody cases are often decided under the \u201cbest interest of the child\u201d standard, which normally gives trial courts broad discretion to shape conservatorship arrangements. But that discretion is not unlimited. In cases involving family violence, the Texas Family Code places a direct restriction on what a court is allowed to order.<\/p>\n<p>Under <a href=\"https:\/\/statutes.capitol.texas.gov\/?tab=1&amp;code=FA&amp;chapter=FA.153&amp;artSec=153.004\">Texas Family Code \u00a7 153.004(b)<\/a>, a court may not appoint joint managing conservators when there is credible evidence of a history or pattern of family violence. The Austin Court of Appeals recently reinforced how strictly that rule applies in <em>H. v. N.<\/em>, holding that once the statutory finding is made, a trial court cannot rely on rehabilitation, elapsed time, or improved behavior to justify joint custody. <em>H. v. N. <\/em>(Tex. App.\u2014Austin, May 15, 2026).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Factual Background and Trial Court Proceedings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas custody cases are often decided under the \u201cbest interest of the child\u201d standard, which normally gives trial courts broad discretion to shape conservatorship arrangements. But that discretion is not unlimited. In cases involving family violence, the Texas Family Code places a direct restriction on what a court is allowed to order. Under Texas Family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; July 20, 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas custody cases are often decided under the \u201cbest interest of the child\u201d standard, which normally gives trial courts broad discretion to shape &#8212; July 20, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings &#8212; 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Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; July 20, 2026","twitter_description":"Texas custody cases are often decided under the \u201cbest interest of the child\u201d standard, which normally gives trial courts broad discretion to shape &#8212; July 20, 2026","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Francesca Blackard","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/"},"author":{"name":"Francesca Blackard","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/99f9f1e83401bfe81629c93e6c6c0cc2"},"headline":"Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings","datePublished":"2026-07-20T17:47:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/"},"wordCount":637,"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-appeals-court-confirms-statutory-bar-on-joint-managing-conservatorship-after-family-violence-findings\/","name":"Texas Appeals Court Confirms Statutory Bar on Joint Managing Conservatorship After Family Violence Findings &#8212; 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