Archive for January, 2018

Texas Family Law Attorney Talks About Divorce and Your Children’s Education

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018

When a divorcing couple has children, a significant portion of the time and effort that they put into their divorce gets spent discussing and making decisions about the kids. In addition to creating a parenting schedule and determining whether and how much child support will get paid, parents must make decisions about decisions. Raising kids involves many decisions, from choices about health care and extracurricular activities to decisions about religion and education. While it might seem like discussing decision making for the areas mentioned above and any others that apply to your family is a bit much to deal with during the already complicated process of divorce, making decisions about who will decide what, and when can save both parents and kids from additional stress and conflict later on.

Your children’s education from birth until adulthood involves many choices. Will they go to preschool or not? Public school, private school, or home school, and in what city or town? What will you do if any of your children require an IEP or other specialized assistance as they pursue their education? Who will guide the children’s’ decision making about their educational futures? Who, if anyone, will help them pay for college or other educational opportunities that cost money. These are just a few of the choices that parents and kids often face on the topic of education. If parents include guidelines for making these decisions in their divorce decree, the family will have a clear set of instructions for how to proceed as they go along.

It is essential that each divorcing couple decides during their divorce how they plan to handle all of the decision making that goes along with parenting. A divorcing couple can determine that one parent will make all of the major decisions for the kids, they can divide decision making by topic, or, as is often the case, they can choose to make decisions about the kids together. Your family law attorney can help you decide what is likely to work well for you and your former spouse regarding decision making during and after your divorce.

Much of the time, parents follow their agreed-upon plans for making significant decisions for their kids without issue until their children become adults and take on responsibility for making their own decisions. Sometimes, though, parents arrive at an impasse when they’re faced with a major decision involving one or more of their children. If you encounter a conflict, it is crucial that both you and your former spouse put some effort into resolving it because you and your child’s other parent are the people who are best qualified to make decisions for your children, not a judge. Sometimes remembering that is all it takes to get discussions moving in a more productive direction. Unfortunately, parents are sometimes unable to reach an agreement and do need to reach out to their attorneys for help. Fortunately, attorneys are often able to help former spouses agree on decisions without going to court.

If you have questions about your Texas divorce, call (903) 753-7499 today to schedule a consultation with Texas Family Law Attorney Alex Tyra. You can also visit our web page anytime to submit an online contact form.

 

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Talks About Employment-Related Consequences of Convictions

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018

It should come as no surprise that if you have anything on your criminal record, you will experience some consequences related to those crimes. Unfortunately, what many people do not know until they have one or more convictions on their records is that the effects of criminal convictions can extend far beyond fines and jail time into just about every area of a person’s life, for many years after the conviction occurred.

While we would like to think that people who commit crimes experience punishment, and then choose to live their lives as upstanding citizens after having learned from their mistakes could do that without running into additional detriment from their earlier misdeeds, it is unfortunately not true. The effects of a criminal conviction can follow an individual far into the future and jeopardize things that they have worked very hard to accomplish.

For example, a man who started a successful locksmith business over thirty years ago is now being denied an operating license because he had participated in crime while he was a teenager. The man, whose company has served over a hundred thousand customers and has garnered excellent reviews from the Better Business Bureau and other business ranking agencies, did not commit any other crimes after he drove the getaway car for his roommates after they broke into someone’s house. Not only did he not commit any more crimes, he got punished for his role in the break-in – he spent five years on probation and also paid restitution.

What’s more, after the Texas DPS started regulating locksmithing and other professions, the man was able to get a locksmith license based upon the length of time since his conviction and his good behavior since that single mistake. He maintained that license until last year when he got a notice that said that his license would not get renewed because of the past conviction. It is unclear why the license wasn’t renewed after getting renewed for many years despite the conviction, and it could be because of a technical glitch or some other error. He’s currently pursuing reinstatement of his license, but he is already experiencing negative consequences of being unlicensed – he’s been unable to work as a locksmith for over six months, he has lost his BBB accreditation because he’s not licensed, and more.

Unfortunately, the locksmith isn’t the only person whose past mistake is causing him present-day harm. Over two hundred Texas laws that relate to employment bar people with past convictions from certain types of work. Those laws send a message that rehabilitation and reform don’t happen, that crime is a permanent barrier to many kinds of employment. That is not a message that it would be helpful for society to believe, nor is it a message that will prove useful in deterring crime.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Defending the Accused

If your criminal record prevents you from pursuing the work that you want to do, a Texas Criminal Defense Attorney might be able to help you. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or contact us through our website by using our online contact form.