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Divorce
A divorce suit is intended to dissolve the marriage, divide any property and establish the parent-child relationship. This means that divorce is the official legal process of separating the assets you and your spouse earned during the marriage as well as setting out how child custody and support will be divided, if you have children under the age of 18.
One key aspect of our job will be to help ensure that the marital property is divided fairly, so that an unreasonable attorney or spiteful spouse does not take advantage of you.
Where To File & Seek An Attorney
In general, a suit for divorce may be filed in Texas so long as at least one of the spouses have lived in Texas for at least 6 months and has lived in the county of filing for at least 90 days (Tex Fam. Code, Section 6.301). Only one party to the suit must meet this requirement.
Example: Husband and wife separate and the wife moves out of state and the Husband remains in Travis County, Texas. Wife decides to file for divorce one year later. Wife may file in her state of residence (assuming she meets that state’s requirements) or she can file in Texas because husband has been domiciled in Texas for six months and has been a resident of Travis County for 90 days (Tex. Fam. Code, Section 6.302).
Property Classifications
Texas law provides that the court is to divide the property that came into your possession during marriage (this is called "Community Property" - defined below) in a way that is "just and right." The court will also confirm and award you property that came into your possession prior to the marriage. It is up to the Judge to determine what "just and right" means and they have wide discretion in making that determination. This does not always mean the property will be divided into equal shares.
Community Property (also called "Marital Property") includes everything you owned during the marriage: your house, bank accounts, oil and gas interests, jewelry, shares of stock, retirement benefits, even livestock and cattle. Sometimes, your spouse may try to hide or conceal his property from you, and we will need to hunt down the missing assets for you.
Separate Property includes: property owned before marriage, or acquired during the marriage as a gift, through inheritance, or as part of a personal injury settlement.
It is important to remember that all property is, by default under Texas law, Community Property UNLESS proven otherwise. An attorney can help walk you through the process of proving up your Separate Property if you need to.
Children
Children present additional issues in your divorce as, in the very beginning, both parents typically ask for "primary custody" (this is known as conservatorship in the State of Texas).
Texas has what's called a "Possession Order" that says when each parent (or sometimes a nonparent) has the right to time with a child. There are several types of possession orders in Texas:
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Standard Possession Order
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Modified Possession Orders
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Possession Orders for a Child Under Three
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Supervised Possession Orders
However, Texas law defaults to the Standard Possession Order unless there are mitigating circumstances. You can view a copy of a Standard Possession Order Here to see what conservatorship may look like for you.
There are other considerations to take into account when crafting a possession order that your attorney can help add into your Final Order, including but not limited to:
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Holiday + Vacation Possession
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Extracurricular Activities
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Long-Distance Travel
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Custody Exchanges
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Violence
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Homelessness or Jail Time (for one of the parties)
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Unique Possession Schedules
Support
Child Support in the state of Texas is governed by the Texas Child Support Guidelines as set out in the Texas Family Code. These Guidelines determine how the calculation of child support is determined. It takes into account the payee's gross wages, monthly health insurance payment for the children and how many children the payee has.
For one child, support is 20% of the payee's gross wages (minus Texas Guideline deductions) for one child and it builds (or decreases) from there the more children you have. An attorney can help you set the right amount of child support based on the Guidelines.
If you want to see a great flowchart that makes it simple, keep scrolling! The different types of divorce we've done in the past include, but is not limited to:
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Military Divorces
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Qualified Domestic Relations Orders
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Enforcing Divorce Decrees (post court)
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International Divorces
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Multi-State Divorces
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Uncontested Divorces
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Divorces with children
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Spousal maintenance or alimony
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Pre-nuptial agreement
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Post-nuptial agreement
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Family business entity implications
Whatever your circumstances, we will work to provide you with relief and support during this trying process, so that you can begin to have control of your life once again. And if that requires going to court, we will aggressively advocate for your interests.