There are a wide variety of factors that can go into a “best interest” determination. The Texas Supreme Court has set forth the following factors as guidelines for courts:
These factors are not exhaustive, but they weigh heavily on a judge or jury. No matter what evidence you have for your child custody case, you must have an effective attorney who can present the evidence to the judge or jury for you to win custody of your child. It is important to find a lawyer who has experience dealing with child custody issues and is comfortable presenting evidence in a courtroom to convince a judge of who should have custody of a child.
Jurisdiction is a fancy word for "power". Jurisdiction determines whether a court can even hear a case. A court must first have personal jurisdiction (i.e. power) over the parties. Even if you and/or the other parent want a specific court to hear your child custody case, they must have both personal and subject matter jurisdiction to do so. This means that they must have the power over the parties so that the Court's order(s) will be binding and it must be in a court that can hear your type of case.
In this video, Board Certified attorney Brian D. Walters discusses how parents can determine the correct jurisdiction in which to file their case. He explains that the rules basically correspond to where the child has been living for the past six months. While this decision may be very straightforward for many families, certain situations may make determining jurisdiction a more complex process.