Frequently Asked Questions

A: The attorneys at our all-female law firm understand the ways in which abuse and family violence impact divorce and custody matters, as well as your mental health and safety. They are experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate, and along with our friendly legal staff, will guide you along every step of the way.

A: Schedule an appointment to consult with one of our attorneys as soon as possible. Bring all papers you were served with to your consultation. If you delay, you could miss an important deadline. If you miss a deadline, your spouse may be able to divorce you without your participation and get from the judge whatever your spouse asks for if no one is there to represent your interests in the case.

A: Technically, you can represent yourself in a divorce. However, if you get a divorce without legal help, you may be risking property, money, rights as a parent, and visitation with your child. You may not know the proper paperwork to transfer assets or to set up child support. Our family attorneys specialize in divorce cases and can help protect your rights and marital assets.

Many people start filling family law forms on their own, believing it can be handled more simply without an attorney. This is a very risky step and there is no attorney or legal professional that would advise you to attempt this on your own. Not only can the paperwork be exceedingly complex, but it is extremely easy to take advantage of someone pursuing a legal matter without any legal experience. It can be easy to overlook thousands or millions of dollars’ worth of assets just because you were not made fully aware of how much your property is worth. We understand you want to resolve these matters as quickly as possible, and as your legal counsel, that will be our goal as well! Resolving these conflicts peacefully ends up better for all parties involved. Hiring an attorney is not an aggressive move, but a necessary one to protect your interests.

A: This depends entirely on your situation. In Texas, there is a statutory waiting period of 60 days from the date the divorce case is filed with the court. The earliest a divorce could be finalized is 61 days from the date of filing for divorce, but a divorce can potentially be finalized sooner if your case qualifies for the domestic violence exception. However, most cases take several months up to a year depending on the number of contested issues and especially if children are involved. Some take years. Other factors that determine how long it will take include the willingness of the parties to negotiate, the size and complexity of the estate, and the court’s availability to set a final trial if you cannot settle. Some larger counties may not have time for a final trial for several months. Discovery and the request for a jury trial can also delay the final trial. Keeping open communication with your attorney will help facilitate a more expeditious resolution.

A: There will be no early-withdrawal fee, but income taxes will apply. Seek advice from a tax professional to determine what your tax consequences may be.

A: Come to an agreement with your spouse. If you and your spouse can come to an agreement on the issues in your divorce, you do the process faster. This is much easier said than done. Making concessions may shorten the time it takes to get a divorce, but you may also have to give up things that matter to you in the process. Our attorneys can help you focus and decide which fights to fight, and which arguments to concede on.

A: Then the judge will decide. The Texas Family Code says, “In a decree of divorce or annulment, the court shall order a division of the estate of the parties in a manner that the court deems just and right, having due regard for the rights of each party and any children of the marriage.” Judges have a wide range of discretion on what constitutes as "just and right." It is rarely a clean 50/50 split down the middle. Consult with an attorney today to help you come to a creative settlement that both spouses can live with to avoid letting the judge decide the terms of your divorce!

A: There is a misconception that if you cohabitate with a partner for x amount of time, you are common law married. In Texas, there is no such time limit for when a common law marriage is created. In Texas, a common law marriage occurs when 3 factors are met: 1) the parties agree to be married, 2) the parties cohabitate, and 3) the parties hold themselves out to others as being married. Whether or not those three factors are satisfied can be hotly contested depending upon if you are claiming a common law marriage or defending against a claim of one. It is important to speak to an experienced attorney who can analyze your unique circumstances and offer legal analysis regarding whether a court would find that you are in a common law marriage.

A: Yes, the process for filing divorce based on a common law marriage is essentially the same as a divorce based on a formal marriage. The major difference is that you may have to establish that you are in fact common law married if that fact is contested.

A: In Texas, absent an exception, you must be married for 10 years or more in order to be eligible for spousal support, though that fact alone does not automatically entitle you to spousal support. Things like a person's work history, educational history, physical ability to work, and disability of you or your child all factor into whether a court is likely to order spousal support, how much that spousal support may be, and for how long you could receive spousal support. If you are a victim of domestic violence from your spouse, you may qualify for spousal support even if you have not been married for the minimum of 10 years.

A: There is no way to know unless your lawyer offers a flat rate for their services. Most family law attorneys, however, bill by the hour. The total cost will depend on your lawyer’s hourly billing rate, the complexity of your case, each party’s willingness to negotiate, and everything each side does in the case. You are billed for the time it takes the attorney and support staff to bring your case to a conclusion. The more time they spend on the case, the more it will cost. The more fighting you do with your opposing party, the more the firm will work on your case, and the more expensive your case will be. If your relationship with the opposing party is particularly unfriendly, they may do things that drive the cost up. If you think your spouse is hiding assets, more time, energy, and expense will need to go into finding those assets. If your child has a disability that requires special care, doctors or other experts may need to testify. Each of these things can make the cost skyrocket. Similarly, if you call or email your attorney several times a day, each of those communications may be billed and will make the cost go up.

A: Be organized and concise. Understand that each time the attorney uses time to work on your case, you will be billed for the time. The time used is rounded up to and billed by quarter of the hour. Having good organizational skills and gathering and organizing documents quickly by the requested deadlines will help your attorney not have to remind you to send the required information and in turn, that will keep your costs down. On the other hand, calling or emailing frequently is one of the fastest ways to drive your costs up and is not an efficient use of your attorneys' time. Instead, if they are not time-sensitive, let your questions accumulate. Emailing or calling with a list of questions or discussion topics instead of one to use up the full quarter of the hour at a time will be more efficient and less costly.

A: Having court documents personally served on an opposing party must be done before you can move forward with your case. If you do not know where the opposing party lives or works, a court must approve of serving them via an alternative method. Some other methods of service are by text message, email, or even social media. In the most extreme cases, serving a party by publication in a local newspaper may be available as a last resort. Our attorneys can help you file the right motion to get the opposing party served appropriately under the law.

A: First, parental rights* must be established. Once paternity is established you can file to establish child custody. There are two ways for unmarried fathers to establish paternity in Texas:

1. Timely sign a legal document called an Acknowledgment of Paternity and file it with the state of Texas to establish your paternity within the statutory deadlines, or
2. Get a court order. If your parentage is contested, the judge may require you to take a DNA test with the child. The judge will have to make a legal finding that you are the child’s parent and rule to adjudicate your parentage which legally establishes your paternity.

*Please note that signing a birth certificate does not establish parental rights in Texas.

Can I Withhold My Child From the Other Parent’s Court-Ordered Periods of Possession If the Other Parent Should Be Paying Court-Ordered Child Support and Is Not Doing So?

A: No. In Texas, matters of conservatorship and possession and access are separate from child support related issues. A party failing to pay court-ordered child support still has a right to court ordered periods of visitation with the child.

A: In Texas, potential punishments can range from up to 6 months in jail per violation, a fine of up to $500.00 per violation, or both.

A: It could be a number of reasons. There may be a waiting period for your case, lack of availability of the courts for a court date, uncooperative opposing parties, lengthy discovery, extensive legal research and writing, waiting for a judge to rule, or any myriad of reasons. Speak to your lawyer about your specific concerns to get feedback on the timeline for your case.

A: Discovery is the process by which either side collects information from the other side. This can be in many different forms, such as a deposition, written questions, or a request to produce documents. The information requested should be related to any claims or defenses that either party has. So, for example, if you want to prove that a piece of property is separate property, your attorney may ask you for certain information so that you can prove it. The other side may also request that information so that they can know how to defend against your claim or show that you have not proved it. This is a normal part of the litigation process and does not mean that the case cannot or will not settle. In fact, discovery may sometimes help the case settle because both sides see what the other side is holding.

A: This is part of the discovery process. Both sides are entitled to request information from the other side. Texas does not allow trial by ambush. You will rarely see “gotcha” moments because one side did not know about a piece of evidence. Your lawyer will request information from the other side, and you will want them to answer those questions and produce those documents. Similarly, the other side will request information from you, and they will want you to answer those questions and produce those documents.

If one side does not respond to the discovery request, the other side may ask the court to compel them to respond. This means that, if you do not respond, the court will order you to respond, then if you still do not respond, you may be sanctioned or fined. Sanctions may include you being prohibited from using that requested evidence that you did not produce. That means that even if it could help you prove something, the judge will not let you use it because you did not produce it to the other side when they requested it.

A: Texas requires that parents support their children. This is in the child’s best interest. A 50/50 parenting schedule with the children does not abolish this duty. Usually, if a parent is not willing to pay “net support,” that parent is trying to avoid child support, not trying to have equal possession. Net support means that the higher earning parent will help equalize costs for the child. Child support is support for the child, not support for the other parent.

A: If you have not filed for divorce yet, likely the answer is no - but you would need a legal analysis of your specific facts. If you have been awarded the temporary exclusive use of the marital residence by a judge, you likely can change the locks. But read the order carefully. Does it prohibit you from changing locks or doing any repairs that could exclude changing the locks? Another factor could be if you have a prenuptial agreement that dictates rules about locking a spouse out or not. Consult with your attorney to review all relevant legal documents and advise before acting.