Tarrant County Adoption

Tarrant County Adoption Help

Growing your family officially through the adoption process should be a time for turning cartwheels and celebration. All too often, however, the adoption process becomes a heated, tenuous experience for people who want to do what is best for their children.

As a full-service Fort Worth family law firm, The Fetty Firm, P.C., assists clients throughout the Metroplex with their stepparent and grandparent adoption needs. You shouldn’t have to worry about the process. You need a Tarrant County Adoption Attorney that understands the process. You need someone with years of experience in facilitating adoptions that understands the legal process while still providing support, empathy, and the level of care that you and your family need.

Tarrant County Adoption Law Firm

The state of Texas has a very indepth, strict process for adoptions. It is a serious matter that should not be taken lighly.  This process  includes an interview, background investigation and appearance at a formal court hearing. We will be beside you during every step of the process to ensure that you know what is going on with your adoption. Never should you have to worry about the state of your adoption or case. Experience matters.

Experienced Adoption Attorney

Step-parents and grandparents  often wonder, “Do I need to hire an attorney to adopt a child in Texas?” Yes. The process in Texas can be so long and protracted with so many intricacies in the law, that having someone to guide you along can be invaluable.

First, you can’t adopt your spouse’s child or a grandchild unless the biological parent’s parental rights have been legally terminated. The burden will also be on you to prove the parent is unfit or unwilling to parent the child. An experienced family law attorney will help. Having someone right here in Tarrant County can make the process even  more manageable. So many firms advertise that they do adoptions, but they are from all over the state, or sometimes even nationwide. Get someone who knows the local processes. Get someone  that is a Tarrant County Adoption Attorney.

Second, experienced adoption lawyers know that timing is essential during the adoption process, especially if the biological parent is unwilling to relinquish parental rights. For example, say you believe the parent is abusing drugs. In Texas, you need to file to terminate parental rights as soon as you realize egregious behavior is occurring, otherwise, the state may rule you don’t have standing (the right) to file a lawsuit in your case.

The state of Texas places a high priority on doing what is in the best interest of the child. Texas doesn’t like to separate children from their parents when possible, which means the state doesn’t take adoption lightly.

If you hope to adopt a stepchild or grandchild in Texas, you’ll need to be thoroughly vetted. Background checks, family interviews and home studies all take time, so keep that in mind as you set the wheels in motion to adopt.

It will also be your responsibility to pay for any background checks or home studies the judge orders. In addition, the judge may require that an amicus or ad litem attorney is assigned to the case to help determine whether the adoption is in the best interest of the child. Again, you will be responsible for paying the amicus or ad litem attorney’s fees, as well as your family law attorney’s fees.

The Fetty Firm handles domestic, international, and private adoptions along with parental rights cases. If you are about to go forward in the adoption process, you need a Tarrant County family law attorney with extensive experience and knowledge in adoption and parental rights law. Contact Rashelle Fetty with the Fetty Firm today.

Living Trust – Pourover Will

Creating a Living Trust in Texas

If you haven’t thought about how a trust helps you pass your desires and wealth on, you could be making a critical error in your estate planning. Especially for individuals with substantial assets, protecting wealth for future generations should at the top of your priority.

Benefits of a Trust

An effective trust is carefully drafted by a qualified attorney and takes into account your specific circumstances and as well as current laws. Not having proper documentation could result in you not reaping the benefiting from the benefits of a trust.

Trusts Service

6 Reasons to Consider a Trust

Protecting Wealth with a Trust

One of the most powerful and straightforward ways to use trust is by ensuring that your heirs have timely access to your wealth. When transferring assets through a will, your estate undergoes a procedure known as probate, conducted in state courts.

This probate process can carry some unforeseen negative consequences for the administration of your estate, such as:

  • Delays – Probate proceedings can be lengthy, with some taking longer than others. Additionally, if you own property several states, probate may be required in each state.
  • Costs – The fees included in probate can be quite substantial. The fees are hefty, even in basic cases, with no conflict between beneficiaries.
  • Publicity – The probate process is public. A will becomes a public record once admitted to probate. This means that anyone who wishes to view it can do so. Such transparency can create unwanted scrutiny.

Control the Distribution of Your Assets

Texas Estate Planning

Texas Family Law firm

Trusts establish possible ways to transfer assets. Such as:

  • Distributions for specific purposes – Ability to stipulate that the trustees shall make money available to children or grandchildren only for college tuition or maybe future health care expenses.
  • Age-based terminations – The assets in a trust can also be distributed to heirs at periodic intervals. For example, 30% at the age of 40, 30% at the age of 50, and so on.

Building Your Legacy

The purpose of a trust is to help people realize a vision for their assets. With that being said, you should guide the discussion with your attorney with the goals you have for your estate. Overall, trusts can definitely help build your legacy the way you want it. Contact The Fetty Firm today at (214) 546-5746, for more information on our estate planning services.

Colleyville TX best divorce lawyers near me

Child Support Modification Tarrant County

Modify Child Support in Texas

In certain instances, it will be necessary to attempt to modify court orders pertaining to child support. Court orders can at times be unfair or unworkable from the start. Also, the circumstances that the court order was based on can change. Some of the circumstantial changes include children growing older, a change in financial standing, or a change in living arrangements. Whenever you are dealing with this type of case, your best bet is to acquire the services of an experienced attorney in family law cases. Rashelle Fetty has the experience and know-how to provide guidance and representation during the process.

Texas Law firm to modify support orders

Attorney for child support orders

Child Support Modifications

In Texas, child support orders can be modified if at least one of the conditions below is met.

  • It has been more than three years since establishing the order or the last order modification
  • The amount of the order differs by from the amount that the guidelines set by 20% or $100
  • A substantial and material change occurs since the last child support order

A material and substantial change applies if one of the following situations are true:

  • There are changes in the income of the parents that don’t have custody
  • Additional children become the legal responsibility of the non-custodial parent
  • There are changes in the child’s medical insurance coverage
  • If the child starts to live with a different parent

Fortunately, the Fetty Firm and its sole and experienced attorney, Rashelle Fetty, can elaborate on all the stipulations and also help you submit a review request to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Additionally:

Experienced Law Firm for court order modifications

Consultation for modifying child support orders

  • Child support orders can only be modified through an in-person hearing (Child Support Review Process) or a hearing
  • Any type of informal agreements between the parents stated outside of the Review hearing, or court hearing do not change the original court order

Above all, it is important to note that this is only an overview of these types of cases. If you wish to learn more, make sure to give us a quick call. You can reach us by calling (214) 546-5746. Furthermore, you can learn more about child support modifications by clicking here.

Tarrant County Mediation

Tarrant County Mediator for Divorce

Rashelle Fetty is who you need as a mediator.

Finding an experienced mediator is important. Finding an experienced family law mediator that is also board certified is INTEGRAL in helping solve your unique family law problems. Trust Rashelle Fetty to help you with your Tarrant County Mediation issues.

What Is Mediation?

Mediation is a confidential process used to resolve conflicts in an amicable manner. An impartial mediator directs the process and facilitates the communication between the parties in an effort to explore solutions and obtain a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Rashelle Fetty can also provide remote solutions for your mediation needs.  Get the family law mediation help that you need from The Fetty Firm, P.C.

Mediation Objectives

The objective of mediation is for parties in conflict to participate in good faith in a dialogue regarding their dispute, to present their points of view and to explore options for settlement in an effort to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of their dispute.

What Happens in Mediation?

The mediator welcomes the participants and explains the mediation process, the mediator’s role in the process and the rules of mediation. The participants present the issues they want to resolve, explore their interests and options and look for a mutual resolution. If the parties reach an agreement and sign it, this agreement may have the validity of a contract.

Allow The Fetty Firm, P.C. to guide your divorce mediation so that you can get effective problem solving with less stress and tension. Rashelle Fetty will strive to make your mediation experience the best possible so that all parties can possibly reach a decision.

 

Colleyville TX Probate

Tarrant County Adoption

There may come a time in your life where you will need a quality adoption attorney. If you are currently in search of adoption consultation, then you are more than likely looking into adopting. Adoption is a great way to start a family. It gives an otherwise under-privileged child the chance to grow and thrive in a loving, safe home. In addition to being quite lengthy, the adoption process is also very complex. In most cases, the best way to go through the process is with the services of an experienced and capable adoption attorney.

Adoption Law Services

Adoption Legal Consultation

Rashelle Fetty is the sole attorney at The Fetty Firm P.C. She has vast experience in helping clients through the very complex adoption process. With Rashelle’s extensive knowledge of Texas Family Law, you’ll receive the most experienced and skilled legal services around. Additionally, thanks to the small size of our firm, we can provide personal and attentive consultation that is unmatched by the bigger and less personal law firms. Call us today to learn more about our services and why we are a leading firm in North Texas

 Expert Adoption Legal Consultation

This list above is a number of the services we can provide regarding the adoption process. The adoption process requires lots of paperwork and consists of stringent rules and procedures. Furthermore, any missteps along the way could possibly result in adoption being declared invalid. To avoid this painful and heartbreaking conclusion, contact The Fetty Firm P.C. today. We make pay close attention to detail, and we go the extra mile to ensure our client avoids any roadblocks.

Contact us and learn more about our services. You can get in touch with us by calling (214) 546-5746 or clicking here. Moreover, if you want to learn more about our Adoption Legal Consultation, click here.

General Overview of Living Wills

Living Will vs. Medical Power of Attorney

It’s important that you make arrangements for medical care before you really need it. However, there are a few ways that you can go about this. Two of the most common options are the living will and the medical power of attorney. Which one is better? We’ll explain each option in more detail to kelp you pick the best plan.

Family law firm

Your family will thank you for your careful planning.

What is a Medical Power of Attorney?

A medical power of attorney designated a person to act on your behalf. If you become incapacitated, this is the person who will make all of your healthcare decisions, including surgeries, medicines, and even termination of life. This privilege doesn’t kick in until you become incapacitated and are unable to make the decisions yourself.

You and your medical power of attorney should have the same wishes regarding your healthcare. You both will have your best interests at heart, but you both may have different ideas of what that means.

Colleyville TX Family Attorney Near Me

Have you prepared for your future?

What is a Living Will?

A living will provides instructions for end-of-life care. This document goes into effect if you enter a totally vegetative state and addresses concerns such as resuscitation and life support. A living will make it easier for your loved ones to make the most difficult decisions. That because you’ll actually be the one giving that call.

Why Not Both?

A living will outline your wishes when you are in a severe medical state. Up until the point where there is practically no hope of recovery, someone else will be responsible for your medical decisions. If you don’t appoint a medical power of attorney, the hospital staff might make those decisions. In that case, it’s never certain which decisions will be made. Even if this doesn’t concern you much, your family may have additional peace of mind if you appoint someone special to make those decisions. However, when it comes to deciding whether to terminate your life, you can spare your loved ones lots of grief with a living will. As you can see, having both ensures that you receive the care that you want, up to the very end.

The Fetty Firm can help you prepare and legalize both your medical power of attorney and your living will. Call us today at (214) 546-5746 to learn how to get started with drafting these documents. You can also click here to contact us online, and click here to learn more about living wills.

Living Trust – Pourover Will

Creating a Living Trust in Texas

If you haven’t thought about how a trust helps you pass your desires and wealth on, you could be making a critical error in your estate planning. Especially for individuals with substantial assets, protecting wealth for future generations should at the top of your priority.

Benefits of a Trust

An effective trust is carefully drafted by a qualified attorney and takes into account your specific circumstances and as well as current laws. Not having proper documentation could result in you not reaping the benefiting from the benefits of a trust.

Trusts Service

6 Reasons to Consider a Trust

Protecting Wealth with a Trust

One of the most powerful and straightforward ways to use trust is by ensuring that your heirs have timely access to your wealth. When transferring assets through a will, your estate undergoes a procedure known as probate, conducted in state courts.

This probate process can carry some unforeseen negative consequences for the administration of your estate, such as:

  • Delays – Probate proceedings can be lengthy, with some taking longer than others. Additionally, if you own property several states, probate may be required in each state.
  • Costs – The fees included in probate can be quite substantial. The fees are hefty, even in basic cases, with no conflict between beneficiaries.
  • Publicity – The probate process is public. A will becomes a public record once admitted to probate. This means that anyone who wishes to view it can do so. Such transparency can create unwanted scrutiny.

Control the Distribution of Your Assets

Texas Estate Planning

Texas Family Law firm

Trusts establish possible ways to transfer assets. Such as:

  • Distributions for specific purposes – Ability to stipulate that the trustees shall make money available to children or grandchildren only for college tuition or maybe future health care expenses.
  • Age-based terminations – The assets in a trust can also be distributed to heirs at periodic intervals. For example, 30% at the age of 40, 30% at the age of 50, and so on.

Building Your Legacy

The purpose of a trust is to help people realize a vision for their assets. With that being said, you should guide the discussion with your attorney with the goals you have for your estate. Overall, trusts can definitely help build your legacy the way you want it. Contact The Fetty Firm today at (214) 546-5746, for more information on our estate planning services.

Tarrant County Mediation for Family Law

Tarrant County Mediator

What Is Mediation?

Mediation is a confidential process used to resolve conflicts in an amicable manner. Think of it as specialized problem solving.

A neutral mediator directs the process and facilitates the discussion between the parties with a goal to explore solutions and obtain a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Mediation Objectives

The objective of mediation is for parties in conflict to participate in good faith in a dialogue regarding their dispute, to present their points of view and to explore options for settlement in an effort to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of their dispute.

What Happens in Mediation?

The mediator welcomes the participants and explains the mediation process, the mediator’s role in the process and the rules of mediation. The participants present the issues they want to resolve, explore their interests and options and look for a mutual resolution. If the parties reach an agreement and sign it, this agreement may have the validity of a contract.

Allow The Fetty Firm, P.C. to guide your divorce mediation so that you can get effective problem solving with less stress and tension. Rashelle Fetty will strive to make your mediation experience the best possible so that all parties can possibly reach a decision.

Best Mediator in Tarrant County

Tarrant County Mediator for Divorce

Finding an experienced mediator is important. Finding an experienced family law mediator that is also board certified is INTEGRAL in helping solve your unique family law problems. Trust Rashelle Fetty to help you with your Tarrant County Mediation issues.

What Is Mediation?

Mediation is a confidential process used to resolve conflicts in an amicable manner. An impartial mediator directs the process and facilitates the communication between the parties in an effort to explore solutions and obtain a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Rashelle Fetty can also provide remote solutions for your mediation needs.  Get the family law mediation help that you need from The Fetty Firm, P.C.

Mediation Objectives

The objective of mediation is for parties in conflict to participate in good faith in a dialogue regarding their dispute, to present their points of view and to explore options for settlement in an effort to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of their dispute.

What Happens in Mediation?

The mediator welcomes the participants and explains the mediation process, the mediator’s role in the process and the rules of mediation. The participants present the issues they want to resolve, explore their interests and options and look for a mutual resolution. If the parties reach an agreement and sign it, this agreement may have the validity of a contract.

Allow The Fetty Firm, P.C. to guide your divorce mediation so that you can get effective problem solving with less stress and tension. Rashelle Fetty will strive to make your mediation experience the best possible so that all parties can possibly reach a decision.

 

Divorce Mediation in Texas

Divorce Mediation in Texas

Family mediation” means the mediation of disputes in actions for divorce, annulment, establishment of paternity, child custody or visitation, or child or spousal support.

Mediation programs can be very beneficial to people who are divorcing as well as to those who have long been divorced but who find themselves in a dispute in their post-divorce relationship. Not only can it save money but it promotes positive dispute resolution rather than adversarial procedures. That being so, it is well worth investigating by any couple facing divorce, a child custody fight, a visitation dispute or other interpersonal conflict.

Mediation is a process that may help you resolve your case so you can have an uncontested divorce. Mediation is particularly useful in situations involving children, since it is in the interests of the children that their parents “get along” even if they will no longer live together as husband and wife. In the State of Texas, all cases that involve contested custody or visitation matters are referred to mandatory mediation, provided the parties are represented by an attorney and there is no allegation of domestic abuse.

Mediation attempts to change disputes from “win-lose” to “win-win.” Mediation is a non-adversarial process of helping people come to agreement on issues like parenting arrangements, support of children and spouses and division of real and personal property. Mediation occurs when a neutral third-party, who has training in dispute resolution, assists you and your spouse and helps you resolve the issues that are causing conflict and to make cooperative, informed decisions.

Having an experienced Mediator is important. Allow Rashelle Fetty, Board Certified in Family Law, to guide your mediation needs. Let Rashelle Fetty take you from a “win-lose” situation to a “win-win.”

Attorney Fetty specializes in  remaining neutral while helping you problem solve. Pro se divorces can definitely benefit from having an experienced attorney be the mediator. The years of experience that Rashelle Fetty can provide will allow you to problem solve most of your issues effectively.

Contact us for a consultation today!