Family Law Blog

One of the new changes to the Texas Family Code in 2021 is that now there is a new "low-income child support guidelines" in Section 154.125. This new section only applies to lawsuits filed after September 1, 2021. The person paying child support must be earning less than $1,000 in order for the court to "presumptively apply" the new figures.

So what are the new figures? Here is a comparison of normal vs. the new low-income numbers:

As you can see, all of the numbers reduce by 5% when a wage earner is "low income". Keep in mind that the low-income threshold of $1,000 is for "net resources", which is ...

Many spouses that are facing a divorce want to keep things as amicable as possible, and they often try to do this through using the same attorney. But having the same attorney is not an option. The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct prevent one attorney from representing opposing parties to the same lawsuit. At the most basic level, a divorce is a lawsuit between the two spouses.

But, there are other options. It is possible to get a divorce without any lawyers--both spouses represent themselves, commonly called a "pro se divorce". Another option is to use what is called ...

Collaborative Family Law is a process by which the decision making process in a divorce is taken away from the Court and put into the hands of a neutral third-party, the collaborative lawyer. This is a relatively new process--The Texas Legislature enacted laws that authorize this practice in 2011.

Collaborative Family Law requires many things. To start, both spouses must sign a collaborative family law participation agreement, and the agreement must have certain provisions in it. Once the agreement is filed on record with the clerk of the Court, the legal proceedings are essentially ...

Discovery is the formal process by which documents or other evidence can be obtained from the other party in a lawsuit. The most common forms of discovery are:

Interrogatories - a set of questions direct to the other party about any matter that is relevant to your case.

Request for Production of Documents - a set of questions inquiring as to the existence, description, condition, location, and contents of documents or other tangible things.

Deposition - informal testimony taken outside of a trial, under oath, and subject to cross-examination by opposing counsel. This testimony may be ...

No, the previous parents cannot get a child back after an adoption is complete. Adoption is a legal process by which the parent-child relationship is permanently formed. Before a child is eligible to be adopted, the parental rights of the former parent must be terminated, or the former parent must be deceased.

The adoptive parent takes on all of the rights and duties of being the parent. So, once the adoption is complete, the adoptive parent can even have his/her name added to the child's birth certificate. This cannot be undone, and the former parents can not get the child back.

If you are going through a divorce or custody dispute in Texas, you will hear the term "best interest". These two words have a lot of meaning. The Texas Family Code states that "the best interest of the child shall always be the primary consideration of the court in determining the issues of conservatorship and possession of and access to the child."

In 1976, the Texas Supreme Court defined "best interest" in a well known case called Holley v. Adams. The Court made a non-exhaustive list of factors that trial courts should consider when determining what is in a child's best interest. they are:

A divorce cannot be finalized any sooner than 60 days from the date the divorce petition is filed. This is because Texas law requires parties to have a “cooling off” period between when a divorce is filed and when a divorce is finalized. Typically, these 60 days are needed for the parties to come to an agreement about the terms of the divorce.

If the divorce is complicated or contested, it may take much longer than 60 days. It is not uncommon for a divorce involving children, retirement accounts, or businesses to take 6-9 months to finalize. Sometimes, a divorce takes more than a year.

A divorce can be finalized in two ways: (1) by agreement between the parties; or (2) by a judge deciding on the terms of the divorce decree. When parties agree on all of the terms of the divorce, the judge just needs to sign the decree in order to finalize the divorce. One of the two parties will still need to go to court in order to obtain the judge’s signature. This process is typically called a “prove-up”.

When parties cannot agree on all of the terms of the divorce, the parties will have to go to Court, present evidence to the judge, and allow the judge to make a ruling on what the terms of the ...

Texas is a community property state; however, property that is obtained as an inheritance is separate property. Upon divorce, a court can only divide the community property and the court has no authority to divide separate property. So, an inheritance belongs to the spouse that received it and the other spouse can not take any part of it during the divorce.

Unfortunately, it is not always that simple. The spouse who claims that a certain property was received as an inheritance has a burden to prove this to the court by clear & convincing evidence. This can be hard, or impossible, to do in ...

In Texas, one parent typically is the “primary” caregiver, and the other parent is the secondary, or non-possessory parent. This is true even though both parents usually have the title of “joint managing conservator”. The non-possessory parent is usually obligated to pay child support to the primary caregiver.

Texas Law provides for a standard, “guideline”, amount of child support. The guideline amount of child support depends upon the number of children and the amount of income that the non-possessory parent has. The guideline amount is 20% for 1 child, 25% for 2 ...