Chacon v. Chacon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Generally speaking, the purpose of a social study is to interview the litigants and those individuals with knowledge of relevant facts, such as extended family members, neighbors, scout leaders, teachers, baby sitters, day-care providers, doctors, sports coaches, and other individuals who have had the opportunity to observe the parenting abilities of the litigants, the relationship between the child and the parents, the living arrangements at both households, and the plans each litigant has adopted for the day-to-day caretaking of the child. It is designed to be comparative in nature. ... The Family Code does not detail the individuals to be interviewed nor the issues to be covered by the report for the simple reason that the relevant facts to be developed will largely depend on the disputed issues and the theory or theories which will be litigated. [Footnote omitted.] Further, because the trial court has great discretion in determining the overriding best interest of the child, the Legislature has deferred the development of appropriate standards and criteria to either the appropriate state agency or to the court itself.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Taylor v. Texas Department of Protective & Regulatory Services