Divorce Attorney - Dallas | Collin | Denton County

          The decision to seek a divorce is a very personal and often times painful one. In a perfect world, all differences could and would be reconciled and communication would always lead to resolution. Yet such a world doesn't exist and reality demonstrates divisive and devastating differences. It is in these times that relief is available under Texas law in the form of a divorce.

         There are many types of divorces and the differences between them are as varied as the individuals who seek them. Sometimes divorces are sought and granted without any allegations of fault and sometimes they are granted for fault related reasons. The former type of divorce is usually called an uncontested or no-fault divorce, whereas the latter is a divorce granted on the basis of fault, e.g. adultery, abandonment or insanity.

         Sometimes divorces involve disagreement on how marital property is to be divided or how debts from the marriage are to be distributed. Sometimes children are involved and issues regarding custody, visitation, child support, and designation of the children's residence take the forefront.

         Sometimes divorces are so contested that the parties can't even agree on the temporary disposition of these issues while the divorce is pending. In these cases, the court can implement temporary orders to govern possession of property, payments of debt and decisions regarding the children while the case is pending.

         And in many cases the divorce suit is so contested and the parties are so adverse to one another, discovery procedures are used by the lawyers to try to discover all pertinent information in the case, including the discovery and valuation of all property and debts of the marriage. Tools such as depositions, Requests for Production of Documents, Interrogatories and the like are used to accomplish these goals.

         Remember that at its heart, now matter how uncontested or contested, a divorce is a lawsuit. And in that lawsuit each spouse is suing the other spouse. Often times, as illustrated above, a divorce lawsuit is a marriage dissolution suit, a custody suit, a child support establishment suit, a suit to change name and a property/debt division lawsuit all rolled into one.

         The following are things that you should understand before pursuing a divorce in Texas:

1. You must be a resident of Texas for the preceding 6 months and either you/your spouse must be a resident of the county in which you seek to file for the 90 day period prior to filing.

2. Your spouse must either voluntarily make an appearance in the case by signing a Waiver of Service, by filing a response to your petition, or by signing an Agreed Decree of Divorce, or your spouse must be personally served to give them an opportunity to plead the merits of their case in order for the case to be finalized.

3. There is a 60-day waiting period before the court can grant your divorce. This is a "cooling off" period mandated by the Texas Legislature and gives both spouses time to consider all the consequences of filing for divorce and to ascertain whether or not divorce is the appropriate action to take. The waiting period also affords the parties time to seek temporary orders from the court, obtain injunctions if necessary and to use the discovery methods discussed previously if warranted in the case.

4. Once the 60-day waiting period has passed, the Court can finalize the divorce when the parties are ready. The less contested a case is, the sooner it will be final. The more contested a case is, the more likely it is that the case will extend out for an indefinite period of time.

5. Realize also that most courts require the parties to attempt to settle their case without court intervention. Thus, one should be prepared to mediate the case before trial. When successful, mediation saves time and money and allows the parties to make decisions about their divorce issues themselves rather than allowing the judge to make those decisions for them.

         Given the complexities of the myriad of Family Code provisions, community property laws, and Texas Constitution articles in the state of Texas, it is important to have representation by a lawyer who is knowledgeable, experienced, communicative and responsive to your needs. It is our goal to provide individual attention to our clients, giving them sound advice and fostering open communication while being their advocate in the family law arena. Our firm regularly represents individuals in Family Courts in Collin, Dallas, and Denton counties.