June 3, 2025 • 31 mins
Wondering what actually happens during a Texas contested divorce? In this episode, attorneys Alex Hunt and Bri Holcombe pull back the curtain on the contested divorce process, walking you through each crucial step from initial consultation to final decree. From initial consultation to signing the final decree, join this discussion of the key elements, pitfalls to avoid, and challenges to be aware of.
FOLLOW ▶
Web: https://www.familylawyerkaty.com
Facebook: @huntlawtexas
Instagram: @huntlawtexas
X/Twitter: @huntlawtexas
YouTube: @huntlawtexas
This podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. The information in this podcast is not intended to and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
back to the texas family lawyer podcast.
I'm alex hunt.
I'm the managing and foundingattorney at hunt law firm and
today I am happy to be joined bybrie holcomb, associate
attorney at hunt law firm.
Welcome thank you all right,today, brie and I are going to
start a two-part series where wetalk about the process of
divorce in Texas.
(00:29):
And in the first part, today,we're going to talk a little bit
about the contested divorceprocess, all of the pieces that
go into what that looks like,and then also go over some key
terms along the way.
And in part two, which you'regoing to see in a few months,
where he's going to come backwe're going to talk about the
uncontested process, which iswhere clients come to us.
(00:49):
Everything is in completeagreement and we are simply
being the scribes and getting itdone in court.
So today we're going to startwith what you need to know about
the Texas divorce process, andit all starts with the
consultation.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
First way that we start out is by an initial
consultation.
Essentially, what that is isit's a meeting with an attorney
one of our attorneys at the homelaw firm where we go over the
facts of your case, we learn alittle bit about you, your
spouse, your children and theproperty that you may have.
We also, then, will educate youon what the law requires, what
the Texas law says aboutconservatorship, which is
(01:26):
decision making ability for yourchildren, possession and access
, child support and evenproperty division.
Within that consultation, we'llkind of learn whether this case
is contested or is ituncontested.
We'll get a feel, for maybe, ifit's contested, if it will be a
full-blown knockout, drag-outfight or if there just may be a
little hiccups that we need tofigure out along the road.
(01:48):
In that consultation we'll alsoquote you on a retainer, as
that's how our firm operates,and once we get started and we
receive both a signed legalservices agreement and a
retainer paid in full, we'll beready to begin your case and
kind of start working throughthe flow of this contested
divorce process.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So from there, the next step would be getting the
original petition for divorcedrafted and then ultimately
filed with the court.
And in order to get theinformation that we need for
that original petition, ouroffice gets that through a
divorce worksheet and itcontains, you know, full
spellings of the names, the dateof birth.
(02:27):
It includes some frequentlyasked questions that we need to
know from clients.
It also has things like birthdates, things like that
employers, and we take all ofthat information, plus the
information we learned in theconsultation, to create a
document that essentially laysout for the court what you are
seeking, the relief that you'reseeking for about your kids and
(02:48):
the relief that you're seekingon your property.
So it will lay out, with regardto your kids, who you believe
should get conservatorship orcustody, who you believe should
have the ability to make certaindecisions for your kids, also
known as the rights and theduties.
It will lay out who do youthink should be paying child
support.
It will lay out who do youbelieve should be paying for
(03:12):
health insurance and dentalinsurance and vision insurance
and one of the most importantthings is who should have
possession and access of thesekids and when.
That possession and access is alegalistically complex way of
saying who should have the kidsand when.
That possession and access is alegalistically complex way of
saying who should have the kidsand when.
The second component of anoriginal petition for divorce is
(03:32):
going to the property and it'sgoing to say in the final
disposition, whether you reachan agreement or you go to court
who should receive what propertyand who should be responsible
for paying what debt.
There are additional provisionslike, say, if you have a house
and one party isn't getting thehouse, it might have provisions
in there.
Like you know, we should sellthe house.
(03:54):
Those things are usually workedon later in the case and either
agreements are made or thecourt orders it.
But for property and for kidstuff, the original petition for
divorce is the thing thatstarts it all.
You go to the court and you sayI'm going to need a divorce and
this is what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now, it doesn't get into the specifics of who should
keep what particular accountsor anything like that, right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Correct.
It's going to lay outspecifically that you believe
that these things should besplit up out, specifically that
you believe that these thingsshould be split up.
You also might have someprovisions in there that says
hey, I've got some separateproperty because I got an
inheritance or I owned somemoney or I owned a house before
we got married and you need tolist out that there is separate
property that needs to beconfirmed or that you think that
(04:41):
you should be reimbursedbecause you spent some money
that you had before the marriage.
Those things should be laid out, but there isn't a very high
level of specificity that needsto go into the original petition
that will come a little bitlater on.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And what about grounds for divorce?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Grounds for divorce comes pretty early in the
original petition for divorce.
The most common isinsupportability, which simply
says that you know it's alsoknown as irreconcilable
differences in other states.
It's just that you thinkthere's no reasonable way that
the marriage is going to be ableto be reconciled and it's
really there's no fault here.
(05:17):
It's just we need to getdivorced and we're not going to
have any ground saying who isresponsible.
There are some at-fault grounds.
They include adultery and theyinclude cruelty.
Those things are often includedin the petition saying you're
asking the court to grant adivorce on those grounds, but
(05:38):
it's actually pretty rare thatcourts really issue decrees and
final orders based on thosegrounds.
But that is something that youwould include in there.
An additional document that youwould potentially include, but
you might not, is what's calleda temporary restraining order
and an order setting hearing ontemporary orders and temporary
(06:01):
restraining order.
Most people think restrainingorder they think, oh, they can't
.
I can't be within 50 feet of myspouse and my kids, or
something like that.
It doesn't restrain yourability to go near your spouse
or your kids.
What it does is restraincertain types of behavior.
It's telling the parties thatyou're not allowed to do things
that are, I would say, immature.
(06:21):
I call them.
Let's be adult fools.
I would say immature.
I call them, let's be adultrules.
And it lays out things like forthe kids.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
don't hide the kids Don't unenroll them from school.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Don't do childish, immature things in order to try
to gain an advantage in thedivorce.
More importantly, it's got evenmore rules about what you can
and can't do with property.
So you can't start selling awhole bunch of your husband's or
your wife's property.
You can't start taking them offof the health insurance.
(06:54):
You can't start locking themout of accounts.
You can't start changing theirpasswords on accounts.
What the court's trying to dowith a temporary restraining
order is restrain you or stopyou from doing things that are
going to upset the apple cart.
They're going to upset thestatus quo.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Retaliate against your spouse for filing for
divorce.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Exactly, or to just try to gain an upper hand.
When you're, in this veryturbulent time, married, there's
an understanding that thehusband and the wife, or the
partners, are going to be ableto come together and make
decisions that are going tobenefit both of them, and when
the marriage breaks down, itbecomes like the Wild West.
(07:32):
There's no rules anymore, andso a temporary restraining order
simply installs some rules totry to maintain order and
maintain the status quo, whilethings can be worked out on
either a temporary or apermanent basis.
That temporary restrainingorder is good for 14 days and
then it expires by operation oflaw.
(07:54):
It can be renewed for 14 moredays, but in the interim period,
in that 14 to 28 day period,there's an understanding that
there's going to be a temporaryorders hearing and when.
A temporary orders hearing andwe'll get more to that in a bit
is just going to put sometemporary rules in place about
how is everything going to workwhile we're in the pendency of
(08:15):
the divorce, while we're workingthis all out for final.
How are things going to workfor now?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And what is a standing order?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
A standing order is a temporary restraining order
that is essentially issued bythe court in all of their cases.
So it's standing because it'salways there.
And in some of those courts youmight not need to get a
specific temporary restrainingorder for your case, Because in
a standing order, or what theycall standard temporary mutual
(08:43):
injunctions, the court is sayingin every case, in every divorce
, we expect you to follow theserules.
And it's much the same of whatI just talked about for the TRO.
From there, the court willassign a court and a cause
number once you file thosethings, and then the next step
(09:03):
is that the respondent needs toget served.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So service has to be effectuated in order for a
divorce case to continue.
If you file for divorce and youdon't do anything with it, you
don't serve your spouse, thecase cannot continue and the
case cannot move.
So this is one of the mostimportant pieces of a divorce
matter is ensuring that therespondent, which is the other
party, the party that did notstart the lawsuit is served.
(09:27):
So one of the most common waysthat we serve is by a process
server.
You may have seen that inmovies, where someone you know
comes out of the bushes, knockson the door and says you've been
served.
It takes someone off guard.
That's one way that we canserve.
We can always coordinate thatservice if spouses are somewhat
amicable, to say hey, on thisdate, meet me at McDonald's,
(09:48):
we're going to serve you withthe paperwork.
One of the other options,though, that we have if spouses
are more amicable is to dowhat's called a waiver of
service.
Essentially, this is a documentthat the respondent signs
acknowledging that they receivedthe original petition for
divorce and they don't want thatprocess server to come and
knock on the door and say you'vebeen served.
(10:09):
Depending on our spouses,depending on how amicable we are
, we will kind of make adetermination on which is best
for service.
Maybe it's a more amicableroute, maybe it's process
service, service by anindividual and oftentimes we
have spouses who maybe want tostart out on the more amicable
side.
They think, well, if I can justgive my spouse the paperwork,
(10:31):
maybe that will be okay andwe'll start off on a good foot.
I'm happy to do that.
We oftentimes will send aletter that accompanies that
waiver of service saying here'swhat this is.
This is when I expect it to bedue back.
It requires notarization.
So a respondent does have to goand, you know, make some things
happen.
We can always have them come toour office and notarize that
(10:51):
document and once it's back thenwe file that with the court.
If you know, our respondent iskind of dodging and they maybe
don't want to sign but they keepsaying they are.
At that point I may pull theplug and say we're just going to
go ahead and have them servedso that this case can continue.
Once the service piece is met,then we really meet with the
client and decide where are wegoing to go from here?
(11:14):
That's where the case can kindof take a bunch of different
avenues and a bunch of differentpaths in order to get to that
very last step, which isfinalizing the divorce process.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And temporary orders would be our next step.
But that's not necessarilyhaving to happen in every single
case.
We've certainly had cases whereyou go from filing the petition
for divorce, getting the otherside served and then them saying
we really don't have a need fortemporary orders.
We're able to.
You know, either our lives areseparated enough by this point
(11:48):
that we don't need to have ajudge impose rules or we don't
need to come to a formal courtagreement on it.
But in some cases they arenecessary because you need to
have in writing the way thingsare going to work so that even
if things are working now,they're not going to break down.
So in our neck of the woods inthe Houston area, most of the
(12:09):
courts require you to go tomediation before you go to a
temporary orders hearing.
Tell us a little bit about whatthe mediation process looks
like.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So first, just so you guys are aware, a temporary
order is an order that governsduring the pendency of the
divorce.
It says who's going to be livingin the house, who's going to be
paying what bills, who hasaccess to what bank accounts,
everything related to your child, who is the primary parent,
who's paying child support,who's going to see the child
(12:39):
when and where.
In order, though, to get thoseagreements, the first stop is
oftentimes mediation.
The first stop is oftentimesmediation.
(13:06):
In the event that we settle fora temporary order, that's
wonderful.
Then what we do is we draft atemporary order that the judge
will sign in conformance with amediated settlement agreement.
That's the document that comesout of mediation.
In the event we don't settle,then we go to court and we have
a temporary orders hearing.
A temporary orders hearing,depending on what county you're
(13:27):
in, could be severely limited tomaybe one hour per side or two
hours per side, so it's reallyimportant that parties really
try and work together, becauseyour lives are so big and
there's only a very smallfraction that the court can hear
.
That's going to set the tonefor the rest of the divorce case
.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And a temporary orders hearing is essentially a
mini trial Right, and althoughyou're only getting essentially
a mini trial Right, and althoughyou're only getting an hour,
maybe two hours depending on thecourt, depending on how busy
their docket is the court'sgoing to see that very small
snippet of your life and beissuing very important decisions
on it.
So that's where I thinkmediation is particularly
(14:04):
important is to maintain somecontrol over those decisions.
Now, sometimes that's notpossible.
There's a reason that you'regetting divorced, there is a
reason that you're not able toreach agreements with the other
side Maybe they're unreasonable,whatever and sometimes you need
to go to court.
That's why they're there.
But the temporary ordersprocess for me takes on an
(14:26):
overwhelming amount ofimportance because it really
sets the stage for the rest ofthe case.
If one party gets custody ofthe kids, there is a very high
likelihood that they're going tomaintain custody at a final
trial, if everything goes okayduring the pendency of the case,
(14:47):
because the judge is going tosay in a final trial well, I
gave you temporary custody, thekids are doing well, the kids
are thriving, they're doinggreat.
Why would I change things now?
Judges are risk averse.
They don't want to upset theapple cart either, and so it's
especially important to put yourbest foot forward in a
(15:08):
temporary orders hearing and becompletely prepared going into
that.
So you go to a temporary ordershearing.
It is essentially a mini trialin front of the judge.
The judge renders a decisionFrom there.
We would typically go and dodiscovery.
Discovery comprises severalthings.
Number one for your propertyissues, you're going to create
(15:31):
what's called an inventory andappraisement, and an inventory
and appraisement is just aspreadsheet of your assets and
your liabilities, both yours andyour spouse's, your separate
property and your communityproperty.
Everything that you have thatthe court will need to make a
decision on in terms of propertywill go into that spreadsheet.
(15:52):
It's then signed under penaltyof perjury, it's sworn before a
notary and then it's provided toboth the court and to the other
side your spouse and theirlawyer.
The second document that wouldbe provided to the court is a
financial information statement.
It's very similar, but insteadof assets and debts, it's going
(16:13):
to lay out your income and yourexpenses.
That's going to help the court,in a temporary orders hearing
or in a final trial, figure outwhat child support is going to
be and who should pay some ofthese bills?
Who's going to have the ability, based on their income, to pay
the mortgage note moving forwardafter this divorce is done,
(16:35):
before temporary orders?
Who's going to have the abilityto pay for the cable bill and
car insurance?
Who can pay for all of thosethings?
So the court needs to know allof that information in order to
make an informed decision.
Next are a list of writtendiscovery tools that attorneys
have at their disposal.
(16:56):
These are requests fordisclosure.
They are requests fordisclosure are basically a list
of pre-packaged questions thatthe Texas rules of civil
procedure lay out that each sideneeds to answer in every case.
So, example the names of theparties, who else might need to
(17:19):
be a party to this case?
What are the basic defenses andthings that you're seeking?
You know these are just thingsthat you can't object to.
They're questions that you'regoing to have to answer Fairly
routine.
The next two are, for me,probably the most important
pieces of discovery that we cando in a case.
(17:39):
The first one isinterrogatories, which is a
fancy legal term for questions.
These are written questionsthat the other side needs to
answer under oath, sworn, beforea notary, and those questions
can be anything regarding theproperty, regarding the kids,
regarding anything within themarriage, about who committed
(18:01):
adultery, about who took thekids to the doctor's appointment
.
Really, anything goes.
There's a very broad scope ofwhat you can include in these
questions, but they're veryimportant because you're getting
sworn answers, you're lockingthe other side into their story
and then you can then use thoseanswers to go and investigate
something new if you need to.
And then probably the mostimportant written discovery tool
(18:24):
that we have at our disposal asattorneys a written request for
production of documents.
And on the property front,we're asking for things like
bank statements, title documents, deeds, anything that can show
us where the money has gone,what types of assets you have
and what types of debts you have.
(18:44):
But you can also ask foranything related to children.
You can ask for doctor'srecords, you can ask for school
records, you can ask forcommunications with the teachers
, you can ask for medicalrecords.
All these things can be askedfor in requests for production
of documents, and the other sidehas an obligation unless they
(19:06):
have a valid objection whichultimately will be up to the
judge to determine if it's avalid objection they have an
obligation to provide this tothe other side, whether it shows
something bad or not, they'vegot to turn it over, and the
same thing goes for our clientsas well.
There's one other importantdiscovery tool that we use and
(19:28):
it's called a deposition tool.
That we use and it's called adeposition, and this is
typically saved for clients thathave the funds to pursue it.
They want the Cadillac plan ofrepresentation.
They written a deposition issimply interviewing another
party or a witness under oath,with a court reporter or
(19:51):
videographer present and they'vegot to answer your questions
and it kind of feels like acourtroom, but it's not.
There's no judge there,objections are still made and
that record is created and thenpreserved and can be used in
court.
This is a really high level wayof locking people into their
story so they can't wiggle outof it later when they're in
(20:13):
court, of getting as muchinformation as you can,
particularly from the otherparty and from third party
witnesses.
And then, third, figuring outother pathways that you need to
start looking down in terms ofdiscovery.
What else do I need to go andlook at?
What other banks do I need tosubpo at?
What other banks do I need tosubpoena?
What other teachers do I needto talk to?
(20:35):
So that comprises all of thedifferent discovery rules, and
you know there's a few minorones that we'll use from time to
time.
Those are the big ones, though,and once you're completed with
the discovery process, youusually get a scheduling order,
and it's time for final trial.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So a scheduling order is essentially the judge saying
this is your trial date.
The case has been pending for Xnumber of months or X number of
years and now we're ready to goahead and proceed and wrap this
up.
So what happens next, once wetypically get that scheduling
order, is we're on the downwardslope.
We want to get everything readyfor that final mediation.
(21:11):
The court requires us to go tomediation before we can go to
final trial.
The court wants us to try andresolve our issues amongst
ourselves so that they don'thave to because, again, our
lives are so big and they onlysee such a small fraction.
So what your attorney istypically doing is preparing
that inventory and appraisement.
Like you mentioned.
(21:31):
We're getting the informationfrom the request for production.
In order to finalize thatinventory, swear and sign to it
so that we can go into mediationwith a plan, we prepare what's
called a confidential memo thatlays out to the mediator what it
is we're asking for.
That mediator has to keep thatmemo a secret until we say
otherwise.
(21:51):
The mediator will review ourmemo, see where we're at.
She'll also hopefully get amemo from the other side.
Maybe there are some thingsthat we're all in an agreement
on.
But the issues that we stillhave left and are still
conflicting we'll have a full-onmediation over.
We'll use the inventory inorder to effectuate our property
division.
We'll use the financialinformation sheet in order to
(22:14):
say, you know, if we havesomeone who they say that they
can afford a marital residence,if we're looking at what they
actually make and they cannotafford that, we'll use those
things in order to help persuadethe parties to try and settle.
try and settle In the event wereach an agreement in mediation
(22:34):
for a final order.
That's almost done, we're aboutdone and we're about to
finalize the case.
In the event that we don'tsettle, we go to trial and the
court decides what our issuesare.
So either way, you have aresolution, either by reaching
an agreement or by the judgetelling us what we're doing.
You could also buy for K, whichmeans that maybe we go to
mediation and we settle.
On our property issues, we canfigure out.
(22:55):
You know who gets the house,who gets what bank accounts, but
when it comes to our childrenwe might not be able to see eye
to eye.
So we can allow the judge justto try that one particular issue
.
We've had cases where we're inan agreement on everything
except for the amount of childsupport someone pays.
We can take that one specificissue to the judge.
So it doesn't have to be theCadillac plan where we have a
(23:18):
full-on trial about every singleissue.
In the event that we either, youknow, reach a mediated
settlement agreement or thejudge gives us a rendition, the
next step is to draft the finaldecree of divorce, which is the
document that officially willdivorce us In the event that we
went to trial and the court hadto hear our case.
(23:39):
The court is going to pronounceus divorced on the date that
they provide the rendition.
But if we reach a mediatedsettlement agreement, the court
will divorce us on the date thatwe either prove up our
agreement or the date that theysign the decree through a
prove-up affidavit.
It really is just going todepend on what court we land in.
But we oftentimes know thatonce a mediated settlement
agreement is reached, or once wego to trial, we are on the
(24:02):
downward slope to getting thedivorce tied up.
And then it just comes with,you know, tying the bow on top
and getting everything packagedup nicely to finalize.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And you mentioned prove up.
So that's, if there's acomplete agreement on everything
, you're going before the court,tell me what your options are
for prove ups and what that is.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So a prove up is essentially us telling the court
that we meet the jurisdictionrequirements for the parties to
get divorced.
They lived in Texas for thelast six months.
They lived in the specificcounty that the divorce is being
heard in for the last 90 days.
They lived in the specificcounty that the divorce is being
heard in for the last 90 daysprior to filing for divorce.
It lists, you know, who ourchildren are.
If we've reached an agreement,how our divorce is going to be
(24:40):
granted, whether on a faultground or insupportability,
meaning a no-fault divorce.
What a proof-up does is itallows the court to say okay, I
have heard the jurisdictionrequirements, I'm checking the
box that you guys have meteverything that's needed in
order to get divorced.
That can be done through anin-person testimony in court,
(25:00):
meaning we go down to thecourthouse and have a
five-minute chat where I askthose basic questions you have a
child who's four years old,right?
You are married to your husband, correct?
Yes, hopefully, though, if wereach an agreement, we don't
have to go to court.
There are a lot of courts thatallow what's called a prove-up
affidavit, which is essentiallya document that I draft stating
(25:24):
I've lived in Texas for the lastsix months.
I've lived in the county for thelast 90 days prior to filing
and when I say I, I mean theclient, because they're
ultimately going to sign thatdocument swearing to those facts
, the final decree of divorce,the document that officially
will divorce you, gets filedalongside that prove-up
affidavit or it gets filed afterthat oral testimony.
(25:47):
Given the rise of technology,we can also do a prove-up via
Zoom, meaning you could log onfor the comfort of your own home
in order to make that happenwithout ever stepping foot in
the courtroom.
Just because you have acontested divorce doesn't mean
that you might go to court allthe time.
It could be that your contesteddivorce settles in mediation
(26:08):
for both temporary and finalorders, and you never have to
see what the inside of acourtroom looks like.
So, kind of at the beginning,when I said there's a bunch of
different paths, there are manyways to kind of get to this
final ending point and landingspot.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
There are and this is a very high-level view and
there's a lot of differentoptions that we haven't really
talked about.
For example, there might bedifferent court hearings
throughout this process.
Say, for example, in betweenthe temporary orders hearing and
the final trial, you might havea motion to compel hearing,
which is compelling the otherside to turn over some of those
(26:41):
documents that you asked for,and a hearing is essentially
just a meeting with the judge,asking the judge to do something
.
Both the attorneys are present,the parties can be present, and
usually are, and then the judgeis going to make a decision.
So there's a lot of differentlittle hearings that can pop up.
Thankfully, a lot of them canbe done on Zoom now that it
(27:04):
makes it a lot more convenientfor parties so they don't have
to go all the way down to thecourthouse.
After the agreed final decreeof divorce is signed, though,
there are and there may be, someadditional documents and some
additional steps that need to bedone.
Can you just give us a veryhigh level view of some of those
things that might need to bedone after the final divorce
(27:25):
decree?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So, depending on whether you have kids or
property is going to depend whatdocuments you need.
So if we have children andsomeone's paying child support,
we're going to have what'scalled an income withholding
order, which is essentially adocument that the judge signs
withholding an obligor, anindividual who's paying child
support, the child support fromtheir paycheck.
(27:46):
So this is a document that getssent to the employer so that
child support can be withheldfrom a paycheck and sent to an
obligee, the parent receivingchild support.
There might also be a Bureau ofVital Statistics form, which is
essentially a document for thecourts and the county really to
gather demographic informationabout parties.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Which the client will probably never see.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right, the clients.
I don't think we ever even sendit to them, but that's why
filling out that worksheet is soimportant.
Otherwise sometimes we mighthave to ask them you know, where
was your place of marriage?
Maybe, something that they don'trecall.
And there's also additionalchild support documents that,
again, clients typically don'tever see a record of support,
which just is an informationalthat goes to the child support
(28:28):
office in order for them to haveinformation on who's paying
child support.
When we have property and thatproperty needs to be effectuated
or split, there's a couple ofdifferent tools that we use.
First is going to be realproperty documents which, if we
are selling a home or one personis keeping a home, that might
need to be executed.
For example, one is a specialwarranty deed and a deed of
(28:51):
trust.
A special warranty deed saysI'm keeping this home, so a
spouse signs over their interestin that home to another, while
a deed of trust is a promise tothe spouse who's not keeping the
home that the mortgage is goingto continue to be paid.
We also have what's called aquadro, a qualified domestic
relations order, which is adocument that will essentially
(29:15):
transfer your retirement to yourspouse with no penalties or no
fees.
That account gets split by aplan administrator with a
judgeigned quadro qualifieddomestic relations order.
You also may have vehicles thatare titled in two parties' names
.
We'll execute what's calledpowers of attorney in order to
take a person's name off of atitle and that happens through
(29:37):
the DMV with a signed finaldecree of divorce and a copy of
that title.
And if you want your name to bechanged and you've got a name
change order in that finaldecree of divorce, you'll use
that to go to the socialsecurity office, the passport
office, the DMV, in order tomake those changes.
Your final decree of divorce isessentially the sword that you
(29:58):
come out of this divorce processwith.
It's going to be used to change, you know, utilities, names,
take someone off of the healthinsurance because this final
decree says this marriage is nolonger effectuated and it's no
longer valid and so we're ableto do these things now that when
you're married you're not ableto.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Absolutely Well.
That was an excellent highlevel view of what a contested
divorce looks like.
We talked about a lot of thesedifferent terms.
If some folks out there mightbe more visual learners, we have
a representation of what thisTexas divorce process looks like
.
We have a flowchart on ourwebsite.
It's at familylawyerkatiecom.
(30:37):
On the top of the page you'regoing to see a button called
Resources and from there you'llbe able to see steps in a
contested divorce, and you'llnot only see the flow chart,
you'll also see a number on theback, a number of key terms that
are important for you in yourdivorce journey.
So, brie, did we miss anything?
(30:57):
I don't think so.
Well, thanks so much forjoining, thank you.
I'm Alex Hunt.
This is the Texas Family LawyerPodcast.
If you're looking for Hunt LawFirm, you can visit us at
familylawyerkdcom.
If you're looking to call us,you can call us at 832-315-5494.
We'll see you next time.
back to the texas family lawyer podcast.
I'm alex hunt.
I'm the managing and foundingattorney at hunt law firm and
today I am happy to be joined bybrie holcomb, associate
attorney at hunt law firm.
Welcome thank you all right,today, brie and I are going to
start a two-part series where wetalk about the process of
divorce in Texas.
(00:29):
And in the first part, today,we're going to talk a little bit
about the contested divorceprocess, all of the pieces that
go into what that looks like,and then also go over some key
terms along the way.
And in part two, which you'regoing to see in a few months,
where he's going to come backwe're going to talk about the
uncontested process, which iswhere clients come to us.
(00:49):
Everything is in completeagreement and we are simply
being the scribes and getting itdone in court.
So today we're going to startwith what you need to know about
the Texas divorce process, andit all starts with the
consultation.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
First way that we start out is by an initial
consultation.
Essentially, what that is isit's a meeting with an attorney
one of our attorneys at the homelaw firm where we go over the
facts of your case, we learn alittle bit about you, your
spouse, your children and theproperty that you may have.
We also, then, will educate youon what the law requires, what
the Texas law says aboutconservatorship, which is
(01:26):
decision making ability for yourchildren, possession and access
, child support and evenproperty division.
Within that consultation, we'llkind of learn whether this case
is contested or is ituncontested.
We'll get a feel, for maybe, ifit's contested, if it will be a
full-blown knockout, drag-outfight or if there just may be a
little hiccups that we need tofigure out along the road.
(01:48):
In that consultation we'll alsoquote you on a retainer, as
that's how our firm operates,and once we get started and we
receive both a signed legalservices agreement and a
retainer paid in full, we'll beready to begin your case and
kind of start working throughthe flow of this contested
divorce process.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So from there, the next step would be getting the
original petition for divorcedrafted and then ultimately
filed with the court.
And in order to get theinformation that we need for
that original petition, ouroffice gets that through a
divorce worksheet and itcontains, you know, full
spellings of the names, the dateof birth.
(02:27):
It includes some frequentlyasked questions that we need to
know from clients.
It also has things like birthdates, things like that
employers, and we take all ofthat information, plus the
information we learned in theconsultation, to create a
document that essentially laysout for the court what you are
seeking, the relief that you'reseeking for about your kids and
(02:48):
the relief that you're seekingon your property.
So it will lay out, with regardto your kids, who you believe
should get conservatorship orcustody, who you believe should
have the ability to make certaindecisions for your kids, also
known as the rights and theduties.
It will lay out who do youthink should be paying child
support.
It will lay out who do youbelieve should be paying for
(03:12):
health insurance and dentalinsurance and vision insurance
and one of the most importantthings is who should have
possession and access of thesekids and when.
That possession and access is alegalistically complex way of
saying who should have the kidsand when.
That possession and access is alegalistically complex way of
saying who should have the kidsand when.
The second component of anoriginal petition for divorce is
(03:32):
going to the property and it'sgoing to say in the final
disposition, whether you reachan agreement or you go to court
who should receive what propertyand who should be responsible
for paying what debt.
There are additional provisionslike, say, if you have a house
and one party isn't getting thehouse, it might have provisions
in there.
Like you know, we should sellthe house.
(03:54):
Those things are usually workedon later in the case and either
agreements are made or thecourt orders it.
But for property and for kidstuff, the original petition for
divorce is the thing thatstarts it all.
You go to the court and you sayI'm going to need a divorce and
this is what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now, it doesn't get into the specifics of who should
keep what particular accountsor anything like that, right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Correct.
It's going to lay outspecifically that you believe
that these things should besplit up out, specifically that
you believe that these thingsshould be split up.
You also might have someprovisions in there that says
hey, I've got some separateproperty because I got an
inheritance or I owned somemoney or I owned a house before
we got married and you need tolist out that there is separate
property that needs to beconfirmed or that you think that
(04:41):
you should be reimbursedbecause you spent some money
that you had before the marriage.
Those things should be laid out, but there isn't a very high
level of specificity that needsto go into the original petition
that will come a little bitlater on.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And what about grounds for divorce?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Grounds for divorce comes pretty early in the
original petition for divorce.
The most common isinsupportability, which simply
says that you know it's alsoknown as irreconcilable
differences in other states.
It's just that you thinkthere's no reasonable way that
the marriage is going to be ableto be reconciled and it's
really there's no fault here.
(05:17):
It's just we need to getdivorced and we're not going to
have any ground saying who isresponsible.
There are some at-fault grounds.
They include adultery and theyinclude cruelty.
Those things are often includedin the petition saying you're
asking the court to grant adivorce on those grounds, but
(05:38):
it's actually pretty rare thatcourts really issue decrees and
final orders based on thosegrounds.
But that is something that youwould include in there.
An additional document that youwould potentially include, but
you might not, is what's calleda temporary restraining order
and an order setting hearing ontemporary orders and temporary
(06:01):
restraining order.
Most people think restrainingorder they think, oh, they can't
.
I can't be within 50 feet of myspouse and my kids, or
something like that.
It doesn't restrain yourability to go near your spouse
or your kids.
What it does is restraincertain types of behavior.
It's telling the parties thatyou're not allowed to do things
that are, I would say, immature.
(06:21):
I call them.
Let's be adult fools.
I would say immature.
I call them, let's be adultrules.
And it lays out things like forthe kids.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
don't hide the kids Don't unenroll them from school.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Don't do childish, immature things in order to try
to gain an advantage in thedivorce.
More importantly, it's got evenmore rules about what you can
and can't do with property.
So you can't start selling awhole bunch of your husband's or
your wife's property.
You can't start taking them offof the health insurance.
(06:54):
You can't start locking themout of accounts.
You can't start changing theirpasswords on accounts.
What the court's trying to dowith a temporary restraining
order is restrain you or stopyou from doing things that are
going to upset the apple cart.
They're going to upset thestatus quo.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Retaliate against your spouse for filing for
divorce.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Exactly, or to just try to gain an upper hand.
When you're, in this veryturbulent time, married, there's
an understanding that thehusband and the wife, or the
partners, are going to be ableto come together and make
decisions that are going tobenefit both of them, and when
the marriage breaks down, itbecomes like the Wild West.
(07:32):
There's no rules anymore, andso a temporary restraining order
simply installs some rules totry to maintain order and
maintain the status quo, whilethings can be worked out on
either a temporary or apermanent basis.
That temporary restrainingorder is good for 14 days and
then it expires by operation oflaw.
(07:54):
It can be renewed for 14 moredays, but in the interim period,
in that 14 to 28 day period,there's an understanding that
there's going to be a temporaryorders hearing and when.
A temporary orders hearing andwe'll get more to that in a bit
is just going to put sometemporary rules in place about
how is everything going to workwhile we're in the pendency of
(08:15):
the divorce, while we're workingthis all out for final.
How are things going to workfor now?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And what is a standing order?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
A standing order is a temporary restraining order
that is essentially issued bythe court in all of their cases.
So it's standing because it'salways there.
And in some of those courts youmight not need to get a
specific temporary restrainingorder for your case, Because in
a standing order, or what theycall standard temporary mutual
(08:43):
injunctions, the court is sayingin every case, in every divorce
, we expect you to follow theserules.
And it's much the same of whatI just talked about for the TRO.
From there, the court willassign a court and a cause
number once you file thosethings, and then the next step
(09:03):
is that the respondent needs toget served.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So service has to be effectuated in order for a
divorce case to continue.
If you file for divorce and youdon't do anything with it, you
don't serve your spouse, thecase cannot continue and the
case cannot move.
So this is one of the mostimportant pieces of a divorce
matter is ensuring that therespondent, which is the other
party, the party that did notstart the lawsuit is served.
(09:27):
So one of the most common waysthat we serve is by a process
server.
You may have seen that inmovies, where someone you know
comes out of the bushes, knockson the door and says you've been
served.
It takes someone off guard.
That's one way that we canserve.
We can always coordinate thatservice if spouses are somewhat
amicable, to say hey, on thisdate, meet me at McDonald's,
(09:48):
we're going to serve you withthe paperwork.
One of the other options,though, that we have if spouses
are more amicable is to dowhat's called a waiver of
service.
Essentially, this is a documentthat the respondent signs
acknowledging that they receivedthe original petition for
divorce and they don't want thatprocess server to come and
knock on the door and say you'vebeen served.
(10:09):
Depending on our spouses,depending on how amicable we are
, we will kind of make adetermination on which is best
for service.
Maybe it's a more amicableroute, maybe it's process
service, service by anindividual and oftentimes we
have spouses who maybe want tostart out on the more amicable
side.
They think, well, if I can justgive my spouse the paperwork,
(10:31):
maybe that will be okay andwe'll start off on a good foot.
I'm happy to do that.
We oftentimes will send aletter that accompanies that
waiver of service saying here'swhat this is.
This is when I expect it to bedue back.
It requires notarization.
So a respondent does have to goand, you know, make some things
happen.
We can always have them come toour office and notarize that
(10:51):
document and once it's back thenwe file that with the court.
If you know, our respondent iskind of dodging and they maybe
don't want to sign but they keepsaying they are.
At that point I may pull theplug and say we're just going to
go ahead and have them servedso that this case can continue.
Once the service piece is met,then we really meet with the
client and decide where are wegoing to go from here?
(11:14):
That's where the case can kindof take a bunch of different
avenues and a bunch of differentpaths in order to get to that
very last step, which isfinalizing the divorce process.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And temporary orders would be our next step.
But that's not necessarilyhaving to happen in every single
case.
We've certainly had cases whereyou go from filing the petition
for divorce, getting the otherside served and then them saying
we really don't have a need fortemporary orders.
We're able to.
You know, either our lives areseparated enough by this point
(11:48):
that we don't need to have ajudge impose rules or we don't
need to come to a formal courtagreement on it.
But in some cases they arenecessary because you need to
have in writing the way thingsare going to work so that even
if things are working now,they're not going to break down.
So in our neck of the woods inthe Houston area, most of the
(12:09):
courts require you to go tomediation before you go to a
temporary orders hearing.
Tell us a little bit about whatthe mediation process looks
like.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So first, just so you guys are aware, a temporary
order is an order that governsduring the pendency of the
divorce.
It says who's going to be livingin the house, who's going to be
paying what bills, who hasaccess to what bank accounts,
everything related to your child, who is the primary parent,
who's paying child support,who's going to see the child
(12:39):
when and where.
In order, though, to get thoseagreements, the first stop is
oftentimes mediation.
The first stop is oftentimesmediation.
(13:06):
In the event that we settle fora temporary order, that's
wonderful.
Then what we do is we draft atemporary order that the judge
will sign in conformance with amediated settlement agreement.
That's the document that comesout of mediation.
In the event we don't settle,then we go to court and we have
a temporary orders hearing.
A temporary orders hearing,depending on what county you're
(13:27):
in, could be severely limited tomaybe one hour per side or two
hours per side, so it's reallyimportant that parties really
try and work together, becauseyour lives are so big and
there's only a very smallfraction that the court can hear
.
That's going to set the tonefor the rest of the divorce case
.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And a temporary orders hearing is essentially a
mini trial Right, and althoughyou're only getting essentially
a mini trial Right, and althoughyou're only getting an hour,
maybe two hours depending on thecourt, depending on how busy
their docket is the court'sgoing to see that very small
snippet of your life and beissuing very important decisions
on it.
So that's where I thinkmediation is particularly
(14:04):
important is to maintain somecontrol over those decisions.
Now, sometimes that's notpossible.
There's a reason that you'regetting divorced, there is a
reason that you're not able toreach agreements with the other
side Maybe they're unreasonable,whatever and sometimes you need
to go to court.
That's why they're there.
But the temporary ordersprocess for me takes on an
(14:26):
overwhelming amount ofimportance because it really
sets the stage for the rest ofthe case.
If one party gets custody ofthe kids, there is a very high
likelihood that they're going tomaintain custody at a final
trial, if everything goes okayduring the pendency of the case,
(14:47):
because the judge is going tosay in a final trial well, I
gave you temporary custody, thekids are doing well, the kids
are thriving, they're doinggreat.
Why would I change things now?
Judges are risk averse.
They don't want to upset theapple cart either, and so it's
especially important to put yourbest foot forward in a
(15:08):
temporary orders hearing and becompletely prepared going into
that.
So you go to a temporary ordershearing.
It is essentially a mini trialin front of the judge.
The judge renders a decisionFrom there.
We would typically go and dodiscovery.
Discovery comprises severalthings.
Number one for your propertyissues, you're going to create
(15:31):
what's called an inventory andappraisement, and an inventory
and appraisement is just aspreadsheet of your assets and
your liabilities, both yours andyour spouse's, your separate
property and your communityproperty.
Everything that you have thatthe court will need to make a
decision on in terms of propertywill go into that spreadsheet.
(15:52):
It's then signed under penaltyof perjury, it's sworn before a
notary and then it's provided toboth the court and to the other
side your spouse and theirlawyer.
The second document that wouldbe provided to the court is a
financial information statement.
It's very similar, but insteadof assets and debts, it's going
(16:13):
to lay out your income and yourexpenses.
That's going to help the court,in a temporary orders hearing
or in a final trial, figure outwhat child support is going to
be and who should pay some ofthese bills?
Who's going to have the ability, based on their income, to pay
the mortgage note moving forwardafter this divorce is done,
(16:35):
before temporary orders?
Who's going to have the abilityto pay for the cable bill and
car insurance?
Who can pay for all of thosethings?
So the court needs to know allof that information in order to
make an informed decision.
Next are a list of writtendiscovery tools that attorneys
have at their disposal.
(16:56):
These are requests fordisclosure.
They are requests fordisclosure are basically a list
of pre-packaged questions thatthe Texas rules of civil
procedure lay out that each sideneeds to answer in every case.
So, example the names of theparties, who else might need to
(17:19):
be a party to this case?
What are the basic defenses andthings that you're seeking?
You know these are just thingsthat you can't object to.
They're questions that you'regoing to have to answer Fairly
routine.
The next two are, for me,probably the most important
pieces of discovery that we cando in a case.
(17:39):
The first one isinterrogatories, which is a
fancy legal term for questions.
These are written questionsthat the other side needs to
answer under oath, sworn, beforea notary, and those questions
can be anything regarding theproperty, regarding the kids,
regarding anything within themarriage, about who committed
(18:01):
adultery, about who took thekids to the doctor's appointment
.
Really, anything goes.
There's a very broad scope ofwhat you can include in these
questions, but they're veryimportant because you're getting
sworn answers, you're lockingthe other side into their story
and then you can then use thoseanswers to go and investigate
something new if you need to.
And then probably the mostimportant written discovery tool
(18:24):
that we have at our disposal asattorneys a written request for
production of documents.
And on the property front,we're asking for things like
bank statements, title documents, deeds, anything that can show
us where the money has gone,what types of assets you have
and what types of debts you have.
(18:44):
But you can also ask foranything related to children.
You can ask for doctor'srecords, you can ask for school
records, you can ask forcommunications with the teachers
, you can ask for medicalrecords.
All these things can be askedfor in requests for production
of documents, and the other sidehas an obligation unless they
(19:06):
have a valid objection whichultimately will be up to the
judge to determine if it's avalid objection they have an
obligation to provide this tothe other side, whether it shows
something bad or not, they'vegot to turn it over, and the
same thing goes for our clientsas well.
There's one other importantdiscovery tool that we use and
(19:28):
it's called a deposition tool.
That we use and it's called adeposition, and this is
typically saved for clients thathave the funds to pursue it.
They want the Cadillac plan ofrepresentation.
They written a deposition issimply interviewing another
party or a witness under oath,with a court reporter or
(19:51):
videographer present and they'vegot to answer your questions
and it kind of feels like acourtroom, but it's not.
There's no judge there,objections are still made and
that record is created and thenpreserved and can be used in
court.
This is a really high level wayof locking people into their
story so they can't wiggle outof it later when they're in
(20:13):
court, of getting as muchinformation as you can,
particularly from the otherparty and from third party
witnesses.
And then, third, figuring outother pathways that you need to
start looking down in terms ofdiscovery.
What else do I need to go andlook at?
What other banks do I need tosubpo at?
What other banks do I need tosubpoena?
What other teachers do I needto talk to?
(20:35):
So that comprises all of thedifferent discovery rules, and
you know there's a few minorones that we'll use from time to
time.
Those are the big ones, though,and once you're completed with
the discovery process, youusually get a scheduling order,
and it's time for final trial.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So a scheduling order is essentially the judge saying
this is your trial date.
The case has been pending for Xnumber of months or X number of
years and now we're ready to goahead and proceed and wrap this
up.
So what happens next, once wetypically get that scheduling
order, is we're on the downwardslope.
We want to get everything readyfor that final mediation.
(21:11):
The court requires us to go tomediation before we can go to
final trial.
The court wants us to try andresolve our issues amongst
ourselves so that they don'thave to because, again, our
lives are so big and they onlysee such a small fraction.
So what your attorney istypically doing is preparing
that inventory and appraisement.
Like you mentioned.
(21:31):
We're getting the informationfrom the request for production.
In order to finalize thatinventory, swear and sign to it
so that we can go into mediationwith a plan, we prepare what's
called a confidential memo thatlays out to the mediator what it
is we're asking for.
That mediator has to keep thatmemo a secret until we say
otherwise.
(21:51):
The mediator will review ourmemo, see where we're at.
She'll also hopefully get amemo from the other side.
Maybe there are some thingsthat we're all in an agreement
on.
But the issues that we stillhave left and are still
conflicting we'll have a full-onmediation over.
We'll use the inventory inorder to effectuate our property
division.
We'll use the financialinformation sheet in order to
(22:14):
say, you know, if we havesomeone who they say that they
can afford a marital residence,if we're looking at what they
actually make and they cannotafford that, we'll use those
things in order to help persuadethe parties to try and settle.
try and settle In the event wereach an agreement in mediation
(22:34):
for a final order.
That's almost done, we're aboutdone and we're about to
finalize the case.
In the event that we don'tsettle, we go to trial and the
court decides what our issuesare.
So either way, you have aresolution, either by reaching
an agreement or by the judgetelling us what we're doing.
You could also buy for K, whichmeans that maybe we go to
mediation and we settle.
On our property issues, we canfigure out.
(22:55):
You know who gets the house,who gets what bank accounts, but
when it comes to our childrenwe might not be able to see eye
to eye.
So we can allow the judge justto try that one particular issue
.
We've had cases where we're inan agreement on everything
except for the amount of childsupport someone pays.
We can take that one specificissue to the judge.
So it doesn't have to be theCadillac plan where we have a
(23:18):
full-on trial about every singleissue.
In the event that we either, youknow, reach a mediated
settlement agreement or thejudge gives us a rendition, the
next step is to draft the finaldecree of divorce, which is the
document that officially willdivorce us In the event that we
went to trial and the court hadto hear our case.
(23:39):
The court is going to pronounceus divorced on the date that
they provide the rendition.
But if we reach a mediatedsettlement agreement, the court
will divorce us on the date thatwe either prove up our
agreement or the date that theysign the decree through a
prove-up affidavit.
It really is just going todepend on what court we land in.
But we oftentimes know thatonce a mediated settlement
agreement is reached, or once wego to trial, we are on the
(24:02):
downward slope to getting thedivorce tied up.
And then it just comes with,you know, tying the bow on top
and getting everything packagedup nicely to finalize.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And you mentioned prove up.
So that's, if there's acomplete agreement on everything
, you're going before the court,tell me what your options are
for prove ups and what that is.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So a prove up is essentially us telling the court
that we meet the jurisdictionrequirements for the parties to
get divorced.
They lived in Texas for thelast six months.
They lived in the specificcounty that the divorce is being
heard in for the last 90 days.
They lived in the specificcounty that the divorce is being
heard in for the last 90 daysprior to filing for divorce.
It lists, you know, who ourchildren are.
If we've reached an agreement,how our divorce is going to be
(24:40):
granted, whether on a faultground or insupportability,
meaning a no-fault divorce.
What a proof-up does is itallows the court to say okay, I
have heard the jurisdictionrequirements, I'm checking the
box that you guys have meteverything that's needed in
order to get divorced.
That can be done through anin-person testimony in court,
(25:00):
meaning we go down to thecourthouse and have a
five-minute chat where I askthose basic questions you have a
child who's four years old,right?
You are married to your husband, correct?
Yes, hopefully, though, if wereach an agreement, we don't
have to go to court.
There are a lot of courts thatallow what's called a prove-up
affidavit, which is essentiallya document that I draft stating
(25:24):
I've lived in Texas for the lastsix months.
I've lived in the county for thelast 90 days prior to filing
and when I say I, I mean theclient, because they're
ultimately going to sign thatdocument swearing to those facts
, the final decree of divorce,the document that officially
will divorce you, gets filedalongside that prove-up
affidavit or it gets filed afterthat oral testimony.
(25:47):
Given the rise of technology,we can also do a prove-up via
Zoom, meaning you could log onfor the comfort of your own home
in order to make that happenwithout ever stepping foot in
the courtroom.
Just because you have acontested divorce doesn't mean
that you might go to court allthe time.
It could be that your contesteddivorce settles in mediation
(26:08):
for both temporary and finalorders, and you never have to
see what the inside of acourtroom looks like.
So, kind of at the beginning,when I said there's a bunch of
different paths, there are manyways to kind of get to this
final ending point and landingspot.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
There are and this is a very high-level view and
there's a lot of differentoptions that we haven't really
talked about.
For example, there might bedifferent court hearings
throughout this process.
Say, for example, in betweenthe temporary orders hearing and
the final trial, you might havea motion to compel hearing,
which is compelling the otherside to turn over some of those
(26:41):
documents that you asked for,and a hearing is essentially
just a meeting with the judge,asking the judge to do something
.
Both the attorneys are present,the parties can be present, and
usually are, and then the judgeis going to make a decision.
So there's a lot of differentlittle hearings that can pop up.
Thankfully, a lot of them canbe done on Zoom now that it
(27:04):
makes it a lot more convenientfor parties so they don't have
to go all the way down to thecourthouse.
After the agreed final decreeof divorce is signed, though,
there are and there may be, someadditional documents and some
additional steps that need to bedone.
Can you just give us a veryhigh level view of some of those
things that might need to bedone after the final divorce
(27:25):
decree?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So, depending on whether you have kids or
property is going to depend whatdocuments you need.
So if we have children andsomeone's paying child support,
we're going to have what'scalled an income withholding
order, which is essentially adocument that the judge signs
withholding an obligor, anindividual who's paying child
support, the child support fromtheir paycheck.
(27:46):
So this is a document that getssent to the employer so that
child support can be withheldfrom a paycheck and sent to an
obligee, the parent receivingchild support.
There might also be a Bureau ofVital Statistics form, which is
essentially a document for thecourts and the county really to
gather demographic informationabout parties.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Which the client will probably never see.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right, the clients.
I don't think we ever even sendit to them, but that's why
filling out that worksheet is soimportant.
Otherwise sometimes we mighthave to ask them you know, where
was your place of marriage?
Maybe, something that they don'trecall.
And there's also additionalchild support documents that,
again, clients typically don'tever see a record of support,
which just is an informationalthat goes to the child support
(28:28):
office in order for them to haveinformation on who's paying
child support.
When we have property and thatproperty needs to be effectuated
or split, there's a couple ofdifferent tools that we use.
First is going to be realproperty documents which, if we
are selling a home or one personis keeping a home, that might
need to be executed.
For example, one is a specialwarranty deed and a deed of
(28:51):
trust.
A special warranty deed saysI'm keeping this home, so a
spouse signs over their interestin that home to another, while
a deed of trust is a promise tothe spouse who's not keeping the
home that the mortgage is goingto continue to be paid.
We also have what's called aquadro, a qualified domestic
relations order, which is adocument that will essentially
(29:15):
transfer your retirement to yourspouse with no penalties or no
fees.
That account gets split by aplan administrator with a
judgeigned quadro qualifieddomestic relations order.
You also may have vehicles thatare titled in two parties' names
.
We'll execute what's calledpowers of attorney in order to
take a person's name off of atitle and that happens through
(29:37):
the DMV with a signed finaldecree of divorce and a copy of
that title.
And if you want your name to bechanged and you've got a name
change order in that finaldecree of divorce, you'll use
that to go to the socialsecurity office, the passport
office, the DMV, in order tomake those changes.
Your final decree of divorce isessentially the sword that you
(29:58):
come out of this divorce processwith.
It's going to be used to change, you know, utilities, names,
take someone off of the healthinsurance because this final
decree says this marriage is nolonger effectuated and it's no
longer valid and so we're ableto do these things now that when
you're married you're not ableto.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Absolutely Well.
That was an excellent highlevel view of what a contested
divorce looks like.
We talked about a lot of thesedifferent terms.
If some folks out there mightbe more visual learners, we have
a representation of what thisTexas divorce process looks like
.
We have a flowchart on ourwebsite.
It's at familylawyerkatiecom.
(30:37):
On the top of the page you'regoing to see a button called
Resources and from there you'llbe able to see steps in a
contested divorce, and you'llnot only see the flow chart,
you'll also see a number on theback, a number of key terms that
are important for you in yourdivorce journey.
So, brie, did we miss anything?
(30:57):
I don't think so.
Well, thanks so much forjoining, thank you.
I'm Alex Hunt.
This is the Texas Family LawyerPodcast.
If you're looking for Hunt LawFirm, you can visit us at
familylawyerkdcom.
If you're looking to call us,you can call us at 832-315-5494.
We'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.