Divorces can be filed once you have lived for 90 days in the county and 6 months in Texas.  Prior orders involving children in other states or counties affect jurisdiction of the court.

Divorces must be on file for more than 60 days before they can be finalized even if the parties have an agreement.  There are Texas family district court forms (no children divorce) available for do it yourself divorce.

Especially in cases involving children, real estate, or retirement plans, you are wise to have an attorney handle the divorce.  The Texas Family Code has many requirements about children, support, visitation, health insurance and the rights, powers and duties of parents.  These include whether or not the child?s domicile will be restricted to particular counties or areas which may affect the ability of a parent to move with the child at a later date.  These are very important to get  right the first time and avoid the expense of going back to Court.

Division of retirement plans requires a separate QDRO order or the employer may not be able to divide the plan.  Then an attorney must be hired to deal with this problem at a later date.

Child support, visitation, and other child issues must be very specific to be enforceable by contempt.  Poorly drawn or thought out paternity or decree orders may cause big problems later when problems arise and the Court can not help you quickly.

The Attorney General provides free assistance in filing paternity and other child support cases.  Alleged fathers may want to request a DNA test to be sure of paternity or have an attorney represent them on issues of child support or child visitation.  The Attorney General as well as the Travis County Domestic Relations Office may act to enforce Orders by contempt or to collect child support judgments by garnishment of bank accounts and tax refunds.  Some of these acts can be stopped or limited with good legal representation.

How We Can Help

We will institute or defend divorce actions, paternity, and modification of support or visitation as well as handle enforcement of decrees and other family law court orders.