August 6, 2024 • 34 mins
Join family law attorneys Alex Hunt and Margaret Tucker, of Hunt Law Firm, PLLC, for an insider's look at what actually happens during a Texas #divorce or child custody temporary orders hearing. You'll hear important do's and don't's, from the eyes of experienced divorce lawyers who have successfully represented hundreds of clients in our Texas court system.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
My name is Alex Hunt.
With Hunt Law Firm, we servethe greater Houston area with
offices in Katy, sugar Land,cypress and League City, and
today I am joined by MargaretTucker, senior Associate
Attorney at Hunt Law Firm.
Welcome, thank you for havingme.
Well, let's jump right in.
(00:28):
Today we're going to talk aboutwhat is a temporary orders
hearing in a Texas divorce orfamily law case, and if anybody
watching this has been through adivorce case or a family law
case, they probably havebroached the idea of temporary
orders at some point or they'regetting ready to go through the
process right now.
(00:48):
Tell us a little bit about whata temporary orders hearing is.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is the first thing that's going to come up in
a temporary orders hearing is atime when you're going to
approach the judge the firsttime in a case.
It comes up relatively soon ina case when you file for divorce
.
That's one of the first thingswe do is set up a temporary
orders hearing.
It's usually going to be setout about a month away.
(01:14):
So when the respondent isserved in the case, the
temporary orders date is goingto come up pretty fast.
This is the moment when thejudge sees you for the first
time and the judge wantseverything to kind of say status
quo.
What have you been doing?
What has your household beendoing, what have you and your
husband been doing?
(01:34):
What have the kids been doing?
So the judge kind of wants tohold everything status quo.
You know the judge doesn't knowwhat y'all have been doing, so
this is the time to tell thejudge what's been going on.
This is the moment where youknow the judge is going to say
OK, I want to put things inplace, but we're going to hold
until we can get to final trial.
(01:54):
For me, temporary orders is themost important thing in a case.
It is the most importanthearing.
This is when the judge makessome determinations that are
going to affect the rest of yourcase.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And this isn't the time certainly you got at this a
little bit not a time to makemajor changes.
You know, if one parent was, youknow, paying all the bills,
it's not the time to say, well,now the other parent's going to
pay all the bills.
The judge is not really lookingto do that in these cases, the
judge is just looking to keepthings going, like you said,
status quo.
So before you get to atemporary orders hearing and
(02:36):
we've got this resource on ourwebsite if you're watching this
on video, we'll put this up onthe screen now.
But in a divorce case or childcustody case, on our website, if
you go to familylawyerkdcom,click on resources, we've got a
divorce checklist, we've got achild custody checklist and it
goes through the typical stepsin each of these cases and it
(02:59):
will guide you through.
And before you even get to atemporary orders hearing,
there's usually a step rightbefore that.
In Harris County and Fort BendCounty and Waller County here in
Texas, they're going to wantyou to go to mediation.
Is your preparation fortemporary orders mediation going
to be different than going totemporary orders?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, the good news about temporary orders mediation
is that the power is in yourhands.
So this is the one time beforeyou turn over the power to the
judge in a hearing that you getto control the situation.
So this is the time when youand your spouse you know each of
you are in a separate room witha third party mediator who's
going to go back and forth andyou try to reach an agreement
(03:42):
with your spouse.
Both of you know what's beengoing on at the house.
Both of you know what's beengoing on with your children and
you try to come to someagreement.
When you are empowered withyour own case, you make the best
decisions, and temporary ordersis a lot about your children.
This is the time when the judgeis going to want to know that
(04:03):
your children are taken care ofin the home, that there.
When the judge is going to wantto know that your children are
taken care of in the home, thatthere's money that is going to
be paid for child support, sothat there's money for children
to you know, get shoes for thenew school year.
There's money for you know.
Food for them, shelter for themthat's what the judge is going
to want to see.
So when you're in a mediation,you make all those decisions
(04:24):
who's going to see the childwhen, who's going to take the
child to school, whosepossession period is it, those
kinds of things.
So you empower, you'reempowered in the mediation to
make decisions for yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So mediation before temporary orders you and your
co-parent or your partnerbecause temporary orders happen
even when there's not childrensometimes taking control of your
own destiny, making anagreement, trying to come to an
amicable resolution and thenpresenting that to the court for
final approval, which 99 timesout of 100 is going to happen.
(04:59):
So let's say we go to mediation, no deal.
At our firm we always hope forthe best and we prepare for
trial if we need to go there,and we're ready to present our
clients' cases.
So let's say we're gettingready for temporary orders.
What does that preparation looklike?
What are the conversations thatwe're having with our client?
(05:22):
What do they need to know?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And this again depends on if you're talking
about property and it's just ahusband and a wife, or you're
talking about children.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So let's take that one at a time.
Let's talk about property first.
What does the court decide withregard to property in a
temporary orders hearing, andhow do we prepare for that?
What do our clients need toknow?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, it really is a determination of what you're
asking for.
What are you asking the courtto do?
If you're a husband and wifeand you've been living together
in a house, are you asking tostay in the house together?
Are you okay staying in thehouse together?
Is there any domestic violence?
Is there someone at risk inthis house?
Then we look at things like ismoney an issue?
(06:07):
Are people able to pay for thehouse?
Is the house going to go inforeclosure If one person moves
out?
Is the other one able to affordthe house?
So you start looking at how areyou going to function during
this case.
If this case is going to lastfor nine months, are you able to
survive?
You know going forward for ninemonths Financially?
(06:31):
You know economically, is yourhouse okay?
The court wants you protected.
So you know they're going to dosomething to protect the
property.
So you know they're going tomake decisions on who stays in
the house, who pays for thehouse.
That's what you're asking for.
The court will sometimes orderthe sale of the home on
(06:51):
temporary orders, but it's veryrare because they don't really
know much about your case yet.
They don't really want to makedecisions until the end.
So they're going to be lookingat how can we hold things in
place and kind of just put it ona hold until they can get to
final trial.
So the way we prepare is isthere something that you're
(07:11):
claiming against your spouse?
Are you, you know?
Are you claiming domesticviolence?
And if so, we need proof ofthat.
You know, have you made, haveyou made, calls to the police?
Have you gotten police records?
You know?
Is there any other evidence?
Is there any text messagesbetween the two of you?
Have you and your spouse madesome other agreements?
(07:32):
Have there been text messagesor emails we're looking for?
So you know, if we're talkingabout who's going to stay in the
home, who can afford it.
So we need bank records.
We need, you know, proof ofincomes.
You know.
Do you have retirement accounts?
(07:56):
Do you have bank accounts?
Do you have?
Are you getting paid?
Are you getting paid on aregular basis?
Are you able to protect theproperty if you stay there?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And I know, I know this is the case with you, this
is the case with me, this is thecase with all the attorneys at
Hunt Law Firm is we aretypically the most prepared
people in the room and ourclients are the most prepared
people in the room.
So we always have conversations, as many as possible with as
many as necessary with ourclients beforehand, to make sure
(08:21):
that they're comfortable, theyknow what to expect.
But there are certain documentsthat will help guide our
preparation.
One of those is a summary ofrelief requested.
Tell us a little bit about whatthat document is and what its
purpose is.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, the courts.
You know for the courts.
They don't even know who youare when you walk in the door
that day.
They've never seen you before,they've never heard from you
before and they have a millioncases on their docket.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And they might only give you an hour each to present
your entire story, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So whether you have kids and you're a divorce with
kids or you're a divorce in justtwo spouses, you've got one
hour to present everything thatyou need all at once.
So we try to prioritize.
You know the most importantthings that we're asking for.
So the summary of reliefrequested is telling the court
exactly what you're looking for.
(09:16):
So if you have kids, we tellthem.
You know who do we think is theprimary parent, who do we think
is the parent who's going tomake the best decisions for the
children.
You know who do we think is theprimary parent, who do we think
is the parent who's going tomake the best decisions for the
children.
You know if we're asking forsomething with a property, you
know why are we asking for thisand what exactly are we asking
for.
So we kind of just spell it outabsolutely directly to give it
(09:38):
to the court, and they like touse it.
You know very quickly in thecase.
So if you have an hour, we tryto present it very early to the
judge so that when the judge islistening to all the pieces of
evidence that we present, theyalready know what we're asking
for.
So do we meet that burden?
In a case with children, theburden is the best interest of
(10:00):
the children.
What is the best interest forthese kids?
So that's what the court'sgoing to be listening for.
So when we give them thesummary of relief requested,
they look at that and they'relistening for it.
What is going to protect thechildren the most?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Really, it's just sort of like a checklist of
sorts just to simplify theissues for the court.
Not every firm does this, butwe found that it really helps
break things down for the courtif they're only going to have an
hour and their days and theirweeks and their months are taken
up by really complex issues.
They have sometimes thousandsof cases that these judges are
(10:36):
handling all at once.
It's important to simplifythings as much as possible for
them, especially ahead of time,since you have such a limited
time scope.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And so we've gotten feedback from judges that maybe
get off the bench and that saidthat our firm does prepare very,
very well.
They know that when they have ahunt law firm attorney, that
attorney is coming.
They have all their documentsready to go.
They have everything you know.
All ducks are in a row,everything's organized.
We have exhibits ready to go.
We've already sent electronicfiles to the court and we're
(11:08):
also prepared with our ownclients, our own clients.
You know we usually have a listof questions that we're going
to ask them and it's mostly mynotes to kind of lead the client
through the questions.
But the client knows what toexpect.
So we send, send the questions,we work on the questions with
our clients.
We kind of prepare you for whatwe think the other side is
(11:29):
going to ask and we're ready togo.
There shouldn't be manysurprises that come up and if
you're very open and honest withyour attorney, there shouldn't
be a lot of surprises.
We kind of are leading thejudge through the case, we're
leading you through the.
So this is your moment to tellthe court who you are, who your
children are, what your propertyis and ask for the best result
(11:52):
possible.
So if we go in and we'reorganized and we're ready to go.
It's a great setup for ahearing.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
One of the most important documents after a
summary of relief requested at atemporary orders hearing is the
financial information statement.
We call it FIS.
Tell us a little bit about anFIS and its importance, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
An FIS is a document.
It has a lot of blanks for youto fill out.
But we start out and we aretalking about what income you
make.
So what's your gross income,what are your deductions, what
are, what's your net income?
And we look at first the incomeand then second, what are your
debts.
So you know, if you havechildren, we have a lot of debts
(12:36):
associated with children.
There may be child care, theremay be extracurricular
activities.
You know, and you know just,any spouses, any family have
food, shelter, insurance, so allthese costs add up.
So we're trying to determinewhat is your income versus what
is your debt and there may be anegative.
(12:58):
And if there's a negative, thecourt's going to look to give
you some release because theydon't want.
They want you to succeed, theydon't want you to not have any
money at the end of the day.
So the court's going to try tofigure out a way to make sure
that the case can continue onand that each party is set up
enough to continue on in thecase, and so they will try to
(13:20):
make sure that everybody hasenough to afford an apartment or
a house or something to get tothe end.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
And you and I have both had cases we even handled
cases together where there'sbeen a stay-at-home parent and
they just don't have the meanson their own.
They've maybe stayed at homefor the last 10 years with their
child and been a good at-homecaregiver for their child, and
then they get cut off.
The court's not going to allowthat to stand and it's our job
(13:50):
to go to court and to make surethat the court understands the
situation and then helpsmaintain the status quo.
The court's not going to beokay with not getting the
mortgage paid, making it so thatthey don't have enough money to
eat or pay educational expenses, things like that.
We need to make sure thatwhatever money is coming into
that community estate, that ourclient's going to be taken care
(14:13):
of, and that's an importantpiece of temporary orders
hearing for a lot of differentpeople.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I will say that's very repetitive in consults that
I have, because you have thisstay-at-home mom that has been
home for 10 years and she hasn'tbeen earning an income.
And maybe she has a degree,maybe she doesn't, but she
hasn't been using it, so shedoesn't have a job, she doesn't
have a means to go have a newjob and make income.
(14:41):
So they come in and they'revery, very worried, and so what
I tell clients at this time isuse an FIS.
I actually will send it to themand show them look, look at
your numbers.
Because the problem is is thatthey really don't know and it's
kind of a pie in the sky number.
They're just so worried aboutmoney and they're so worried
(15:03):
about am I going to be able topay for this or what's going to
happen.
If you start looking atconcrete numbers and you start
putting together, you know, okay, this is going to cost this
amount and this is going to cost, and it's more concrete, they
start to settle down a littlebit and get more comfortable
with where they are financially,you know, and especially for
their children, can they affordto put food on the table?
(15:25):
It's a big deal, and so wereally try to help calm things
down and say let's get someconcrete numbers here and then
we're going to take them to thecourt and present them to the
court and we're going to ask forrelief at that point from the
court.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So we've talked quite a bit about finances.
Another important aspect oftemporary orders is children If
you have kids involved in yourcase, if it's a child custody
case or if it's a divorceinvolving kids, and of course,
the most important thing that'sdriving the court is what's in
the best interest of thesechildren.
Tell me a little bit about someof the decisions that could
(16:01):
potentially be made in atemporary orders hearing as it
relates to kids.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Okay, At the temporary orders hearing the
judge is going to make adecision.
The judge is going to appoint aprimary on a child custody case
.
What that means is this is theperson who has the exclusive
right to designate the primaryresidence of the children.
This is the person who has theexclusive right to designate the
primary residence of thechildren.
So if you're in Harris County,most likely the court is going
(16:30):
to say the primary residence ofthe child has to be within
Harris or Harrison Contiguousand contiguous counties to
Harris.
Are any ones that touch it?
Well, that's a really big dealin Harris County because Harris
County is so large.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Huge area.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's a very large area.
So when you add contiguouscounties on, you're talking
about possibly a four-hour span.
So who gets appointed as theprimary is a big deal.
In my opinion, temporary ordersis the more important hearing
between the temporary ordershearing and the final trial,
because that is when the judgeis going to make the
determination At that.
The final trial, because thatis when the judge is going to
(17:04):
make the determination.
At that point in time the judgeis going to pick a primary.
And I do hear people talk andsay don't worry, it's just for
temporary.
The judge can change theirminds.
You can go to final trial andwhile you do get a second bite
at the apple if it was somethingyou didn't like at the
temporary orders hearing, ajudge has made a determination.
(17:30):
They're not very likely tochange their minds unless you
give them some overriding reasonthat they didn't hear the first
time.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, and judges aren't interested in completely
overturning the apple card andchanging things up late in the
case.
So if it's working or it seemsto be working, they're just
going to roll with it.
They are, and this was theirdecision.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you're literally telling the judge I know you
made the decision at temporaryorders, but now, on final trial,
I need you to change it.
So are they likely to do it?
Probably not.
So temporary orders is veryimportant to establish
everything.
So this is the time when youneed to tell your attorney
everything so that when youbring this evidence, you could
(18:11):
bring all the evidence you needinto the temporary orders.
I'd been involved with a kid.
Has mom been involved with akid?
You know, are there?
Is there drug usage?
Is there?
You know something else thatthe court needs to hear.
This is the time to let thecourt hear it.
This is it.
(18:31):
This is the moment that thejudge needs to hear everything.
So sometimes people want tobring tiny, minute little
details to the court.
They want the court to knowabsolutely everything.
Little details to the court.
They want the court to knowabsolutely everything.
But you'd need to decide whatis important, because we are the
ones under the parameter of anhour for each side.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So primary or exclusive right to determine the
primary residence is one rightthat the court will decide.
What are some of the otherrights and duties that the judge
is going to make adetermination on in a temporary
orders hearing?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We have a nickname for some of the other big ones.
We call them heads, eds andmeds.
The first one is medicalinvasive.
You know who has the right tomake decisions for your child in
a medical invasive typeprocedure.
This is not something that's anemergency.
If you're a conservator, thenyou're going to have the right
to make a decision in the choiceof an emergency situation.
(19:27):
But this is more of a situationwhere something pierces your
child's skin.
You know, the dentist tells youthat your child's wisdom teeth
needs to come out.
So who makes that decision?
It can either be a jointdecision, where the parties have
to do it together and they eachhave to come to an agreement.
It can be a exclusive decisionmaking, where one parent is
(19:51):
allowed to make the decision bythemselves, or it can be
independent, and that means thatboth of you can make the
decision on your own.
So the court will look, youknow, to determine for each of
these rights.
Do they give the joint rights,do they give the independent or
do they give exclusives?
One of the other big rights ispsychiatric and psychological.
(20:12):
Who consents to your childhaving a therapist?
Who consents to a child havinga psychiatrist and who consents
to a child having a psychologistAt this point, when there is a
psychiatrist involved, whoconsents if the child is asked
to be on medicine.
So who gets to say yes or no?
Again, it can be a jointdecision, it can be exclusive
(20:34):
and it can be independent.
The last one is education.
Who has the right to makeeducational decisions for your
child?
Maybe you have a child thatspecial needs.
This child may need a shadow inschool with them.
This child may need to be inspecial classes that you know
you're going to have ARDS for,and those kind of things that
(20:56):
you know are going to berecommended by the school.
Who has the right to make thosedecisions?
Again, it can be joint,independent and it can be
exclusive.
There are some other rights thatwe have, and one of them is
passports.
Who has the right to go get apassport for a child?
Again, it can be joint, it canbe exclusive or it can be
(21:17):
independent.
And so who holds the passports?
Once you get the passport, whoholds it?
Those are some of the ones thatwe talk about the most and we
decide the most.
There are some others thatdon't come up as often, you know
legal action for a child.
What if your child gets caughtdoing something they're not
(21:38):
supposed to be and you have tohire an attorney for them?
Who pays for the attorney?
Who chooses the attorney?
I've actually only had thatcome up one time, and it was a
17-year-old, but when yourchild's 17,?
This is an important decisionto make.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Or if the child is, say, in a car accident and they
need to hire a personal injurylawyer in order to recover some
funds, that's another situationthat would come up.
I would say the default tell meif you disagree would be joint
decision, decision making andunless there's some unusual
reason that the court would lookat, you know, maybe one parent
(22:15):
has been completely disengagedon educational decisions or has
made poor decisions in the pastfor educational Usually, you're
going to do joint decisionmaking, Would you agree?
Without a doubt going to dojoint decision making, would you
agree?
Without a doubt and there'salso some of these decisions are
you really can't do likeindependent, like you can't do
independent psychiatric decisionmaking.
(22:37):
And, as you said, independentis when you know whenever that
parent has the child they canmake the decisions.
Well, you can't have the childon a psychiatric medication when
they're with mom and then nothave it when they're with dad.
So there's going to have to besome sort of collaboration in
that instance or somebody needsto make the decisions
(22:59):
exclusively, and that would besomething that the court would
decide.
Child support, medical supportwhat other decisions Tell me
about that process?
What's the court going to dothere?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Once the court has decided a primary, that's the
main decision that they willmake.
As soon as they make thatdecision it's going to
springboard off some otherdecisions that they make.
The court is going to awardchild support from the
non-primary parent as soon asthey award a primary.
Child support is going to awardchild support from the
non-primary parent as soon asthey award a primary child
support is going to be awarded.
(23:32):
Texas courts are not flexiblewith child support.
They do not play around with it.
They are going to awardguideline support, are awarded
based on the number of childrenthat you have and they are going
to compute child support andthat is the way it's going to be
.
The non-primary is responsiblefor the child support and
(23:54):
medical and dental.
So medical and dental insurance.
So it's either going to be thatyou cover the mom may have
insurance and dad pays for it,or you know dad may have
insurance and he just keeps theinsurance and pays for it.
So they're going to make thedecisions on that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Okay, and then possession and access, which is
Texas's way of saying who hasthe kids and when.
Tell me about what the court'sgoing to do there, and are there
any presumptions in place?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So the court is going to follow the Texas Family Code
.
The Texas Family Code right nowis the presumption is that the
non-primary gets awarded anexpanded possession order.
These are the days that youhave the child in your
possession.
The court is likely to followthis, unless they are given a
(24:48):
reason not to so.
When you walk into court, thecourt's going to pick the
primary and the non-primary ismost likely going to be awarded
the standard possession order.
And the simplest way I describea standard possession order is
that the non-primary parent getsthe child every single Thursday
night.
They get them when the schoollets out for the day and they
(25:13):
return the child to school onFriday morning and then on first
, third and fifth weekends theyget the child from when school
lets out until Monday morning.
So the easiest way to look atit is on first, third and fifth
weeks.
Way to look at it is from onfirst, third and fifth weeks,
from when Thursday school letsout until Monday morning, and
then on the second and fourthweek they get them Thursday,
(25:34):
from when school lets out untilFriday morning.
So that is the schedule that isin place for most of the year.
The only things that will changeare holidays or spring break,
and spring break is one week andit rotates between parents, so
odds are even years.
One parent gets it one year andthen the next the other parent
(25:54):
will have it and the non-primaryalso gets 30 days during the
summer.
So the non-primary this istheir moment to kind of pick
their schedule.
They get to select their 30days, either July 1st to July
31st or they can break it upinto two different pieces and
(26:14):
you know that gives them thepower to decide what they want
to do with their vacation andthey let the primary parent know
by April 1st.
They also will rotate holidayssuch as Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
They also will rotate holidayssuch as Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
So the court wants Texas parents who are involved
with their children to be ableto share those moments with
their kids, and it's been.
My experience, and this is whatthe family law, family code
says, is that in the absence ofsomething unusual or
extraordinary, they're going tofollow the standard possession
order, or what's called anexpanded standard possession
order.
And if anybody out there, ifyou're watching this on video,
we can put on the screen aresource that we have on our
(26:56):
website at familylawyerkatiecom.
Click on the resources tab.
We have our standard possessionorder calendar.
We also have previous yearswhere you can visually see when
the custodial parent and thenon-custodial parent will have
the kids.
You might see other versions ofthis on other websites, but
(27:17):
ours is the original, the mostcomprehensive, often emulated,
never replicated.
You could find it on ourwebsite, along with plenty of
other information, blog posts,information on what possession
schedules might look like.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
We have clients come from previous years asking for
that calendar.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
So it's according to the KDISD, since we're in KDISD,
but it just helps lay it out.
It's so easy to follow andpeople love our calendar, come
back every year to ask and we'rehappy to provide it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So one question that folks might ask is do I need a
temporary orders hearing,particularly if I don't have
kids or if we're kind of gettingalong?
Do I need to have a temporaryorders hearing in my divorce or
in my custody case?
What does your analysis andwhat are your conversations with
(28:13):
the clients look like todetermine, you know, are you
recommending to the client theyshould go to a temporary orders
hearing or they should set one?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Okay, A lot of times we set a temporary orders
hearing just to get the casestarted.
You know they, when you servethe other party, they have a
time that they can wait a littlebit and respond.
But this kind of jump starts it.
Setting a hearing date is whatkind of forces everybody to move
.
Even if we went to court onthat day, the court won't hear
(28:44):
us until we have mediated.
So we have to mediate anyway.
So you know, coming to anagreement for your own case is
by far the best interest ofeveryone involved.
It keeps things calmer.
It lets you be empowered tosettle your own case.
So do you need a hearing?
Not necessarily.
(29:05):
There's a lot of times when I'mable to work with the opposing
counsel or if the other partyrepresents themselves, we can
work together to come up withsome sort of agreement.
Whether it's just for propertyor whether it's for kids and
property, we can come up withsome sort of agreement.
I do like to have an agreementin place because it makes sure
everybody's on the same page.
(29:26):
We know what to expect, we knowwhat we're looking for, we're
holding until we can get tofinal trial.
But it kind of gives everybodya perspective.
I think a lot of times we do goto temporary.
We have a temporary orders,hearing or mediation or a
settlement when children areinvolved, just so that we make
sure that both parents areseeing the kids, they're
(29:48):
spending enough time with them,child support set up.
That's when I think it's themost important If it's, you know
, a couple that doesn't have anychildren.
A lot of times we do skiptemporary orders because we're
going to get to the end soonenough, unless there's some
pressing issue that the courtneeds to deal with immediately,
(30:09):
such as a house is inforeclosure or something like
that that the court needs tohear immediately.
We're just gatheringinformation and trying to find
financials.
So if it's a divorce with nokids and we're able to get a
hold of financials, we probablyare starting discovery at this
point in time to get numbers toget you know where the money is
(30:32):
bank accounts, credit cards,debt, those kinds of things.
We're trying to come up withthat to get to final trial.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And if it doesn't need it then we won't do it.
You know we want to try to beas cost efficient as possible
for with our clients money.
If they don't need temporaryorders hearing, we're not going
to recommend that they do it.
So let's say we do temporaryorders hearing the judges.
Typically in all the countiesthat we're in now.
They typically are giving usunless we can really show good
(30:59):
cause giving us about an hourfor each side to put on their
case.
So let's say we do that.
The judge renders a decisionwhich might not come immediately
at that hearing.
Sometimes the judge will takeit under advisement.
We'll get a decision a few dayslater, maybe a week later.
What's next?
(31:20):
In order to get our temporaryorders, because we're not done
then when we get the judge'sdecision.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Right and people think that we're going to be
done once you go to court andyou say everything to the judge
and then you're just waiting forthat moment when the judge is
like, okay, here's my decision.
And, like you said, sometimesit doesn't come for a week, two
weeks, that kind of thing.
So we just have to kind ofagain hold everything.
When we get that document it'sabout one page and even if you
(31:51):
settle and you're in mediation,we have a document that is
called a mediated settlementagreement and those are usually
about five pages.
So you have these agreements ora rendition from a judge that
are very small, and we takethose documents and we turn them
into bigger temporary orders.
So it's usually going to beabout 30 pages and it lays out
(32:13):
the schedules for kids or youknow who pays child support, the
medical and dental, you knowwhat the rights and the duties
are.
It's going to lay it out in a30-page document.
So the petitioner drafts.
So whoever files, that attorneyis going to draft and that will
put in place an order andthat's when the judge signs.
(32:35):
So the important part is to getthe judge to sign the actual
order, because once that orderis signed by a judge.
It is then enforceable.
If there is any problems duringthe case and somebody's not
doing what they're supposed tobe doing they're not moving out
of a property, say, or they'renot giving the kids when they're
supposed to you can go in andenforce a court order.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But the judge has to have signed in order for that to
happen.
For whatever reason, afterthey're signed aren't working,
or if circumstances change, youcan go back and do additional
temporary orders, or you canmodify your temporary orders.
So that's one of the benefitsof temporary orders is you get
an opportunity to see what'sworking and what's not working
(33:21):
before you finalize everything,and if you need to tweak some
things, you can.
Now you don't want to berunning back to the courthouse
every few weeks Court's notgoing to like that but you can
see what works and what doesn'tfor your family, for your
finances and all that.
So we've covered a lot ofground, but I know that there's
more.
So in a future episode I'mgoing to be back with you,
(33:42):
margaret, to talk about some ofthe do's and don'ts in a Family
Law Texas temporary ordershearing.
So I'd like to thank you forjoining me.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
All right.
If you would like any moreinformation on temporary orders
or on our firm, on law firm, youcan visit our website at
familylawyerkatiecom to get allthe information that you might
need.
To get all the information thatyou might need.
I'll be back with Margaret soonand until then, take care.
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
My name is Alex Hunt.
With Hunt Law Firm, we servethe greater Houston area with
offices in Katy, sugar Land,cypress and League City, and
today I am joined by MargaretTucker, senior Associate
Attorney at Hunt Law Firm.
Welcome, thank you for havingme.
Well, let's jump right in.
(00:28):
Today we're going to talk aboutwhat is a temporary orders
hearing in a Texas divorce orfamily law case, and if anybody
watching this has been through adivorce case or a family law
case, they probably havebroached the idea of temporary
orders at some point or they'regetting ready to go through the
process right now.
(00:48):
Tell us a little bit about whata temporary orders hearing is.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is the first thing that's going to come up in
a temporary orders hearing is atime when you're going to
approach the judge the firsttime in a case.
It comes up relatively soon ina case when you file for divorce
.
That's one of the first thingswe do is set up a temporary
orders hearing.
It's usually going to be setout about a month away.
(01:14):
So when the respondent isserved in the case, the
temporary orders date is goingto come up pretty fast.
This is the moment when thejudge sees you for the first
time and the judge wantseverything to kind of say status
quo.
What have you been doing?
What has your household beendoing, what have you and your
husband been doing?
(01:34):
What have the kids been doing?
So the judge kind of wants tohold everything status quo.
You know the judge doesn't knowwhat y'all have been doing, so
this is the time to tell thejudge what's been going on.
This is the moment where youknow the judge is going to say
OK, I want to put things inplace, but we're going to hold
until we can get to final trial.
(01:54):
For me, temporary orders is themost important thing in a case.
It is the most importanthearing.
This is when the judge makessome determinations that are
going to affect the rest of yourcase.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And this isn't the time certainly you got at this a
little bit not a time to makemajor changes.
You know, if one parent was, youknow, paying all the bills,
it's not the time to say, well,now the other parent's going to
pay all the bills.
The judge is not really lookingto do that in these cases, the
judge is just looking to keepthings going, like you said,
status quo.
So before you get to atemporary orders hearing and
(02:36):
we've got this resource on ourwebsite if you're watching this
on video, we'll put this up onthe screen now.
But in a divorce case or childcustody case, on our website, if
you go to familylawyerkdcom,click on resources, we've got a
divorce checklist, we've got achild custody checklist and it
goes through the typical stepsin each of these cases and it
(02:59):
will guide you through.
And before you even get to atemporary orders hearing,
there's usually a step rightbefore that.
In Harris County and Fort BendCounty and Waller County here in
Texas, they're going to wantyou to go to mediation.
Is your preparation fortemporary orders mediation going
to be different than going totemporary orders?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, the good news about temporary orders mediation
is that the power is in yourhands.
So this is the one time beforeyou turn over the power to the
judge in a hearing that you getto control the situation.
So this is the time when youand your spouse you know each of
you are in a separate room witha third party mediator who's
going to go back and forth andyou try to reach an agreement
(03:42):
with your spouse.
Both of you know what's beengoing on at the house.
Both of you know what's beengoing on with your children and
you try to come to someagreement.
When you are empowered withyour own case, you make the best
decisions, and temporary ordersis a lot about your children.
This is the time when the judgeis going to want to know that
(04:03):
your children are taken care ofin the home, that there.
When the judge is going to wantto know that your children are
taken care of in the home, thatthere's money that is going to
be paid for child support, sothat there's money for children
to you know, get shoes for thenew school year.
There's money for you know.
Food for them, shelter for themthat's what the judge is going
to want to see.
So when you're in a mediation,you make all those decisions
(04:24):
who's going to see the childwhen, who's going to take the
child to school, whosepossession period is it, those
kinds of things.
So you empower, you'reempowered in the mediation to
make decisions for yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So mediation before temporary orders you and your
co-parent or your partnerbecause temporary orders happen
even when there's not childrensometimes taking control of your
own destiny, making anagreement, trying to come to an
amicable resolution and thenpresenting that to the court for
final approval, which 99 timesout of 100 is going to happen.
(04:59):
So let's say we go to mediation, no deal.
At our firm we always hope forthe best and we prepare for
trial if we need to go there,and we're ready to present our
clients' cases.
So let's say we're gettingready for temporary orders.
What does that preparation looklike?
What are the conversations thatwe're having with our client?
(05:22):
What do they need to know?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And this again depends on if you're talking
about property and it's just ahusband and a wife, or you're
talking about children.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So let's take that one at a time.
Let's talk about property first.
What does the court decide withregard to property in a
temporary orders hearing, andhow do we prepare for that?
What do our clients need toknow?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, it really is a determination of what you're
asking for.
What are you asking the courtto do?
If you're a husband and wifeand you've been living together
in a house, are you asking tostay in the house together?
Are you okay staying in thehouse together?
Is there any domestic violence?
Is there someone at risk inthis house?
Then we look at things like ismoney an issue?
(06:07):
Are people able to pay for thehouse?
Is the house going to go inforeclosure If one person moves
out?
Is the other one able to affordthe house?
So you start looking at how areyou going to function during
this case.
If this case is going to lastfor nine months, are you able to
survive?
You know going forward for ninemonths Financially?
(06:31):
You know economically, is yourhouse okay?
The court wants you protected.
So you know they're going to dosomething to protect the
property.
So you know they're going tomake decisions on who stays in
the house, who pays for thehouse.
That's what you're asking for.
The court will sometimes orderthe sale of the home on
(06:51):
temporary orders, but it's veryrare because they don't really
know much about your case yet.
They don't really want to makedecisions until the end.
So they're going to be lookingat how can we hold things in
place and kind of just put it ona hold until they can get to
final trial.
So the way we prepare is isthere something that you're
(07:11):
claiming against your spouse?
Are you, you know?
Are you claiming domesticviolence?
And if so, we need proof ofthat.
You know, have you made, haveyou made, calls to the police?
Have you gotten police records?
You know?
Is there any other evidence?
Is there any text messagesbetween the two of you?
Have you and your spouse madesome other agreements?
(07:32):
Have there been text messagesor emails we're looking for?
So you know, if we're talkingabout who's going to stay in the
home, who can afford it.
So we need bank records.
We need, you know, proof ofincomes.
You know.
Do you have retirement accounts?
(07:56):
Do you have bank accounts?
Do you have?
Are you getting paid?
Are you getting paid on aregular basis?
Are you able to protect theproperty if you stay there?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And I know, I know this is the case with you, this
is the case with me, this is thecase with all the attorneys at
Hunt Law Firm is we aretypically the most prepared
people in the room and ourclients are the most prepared
people in the room.
So we always have conversations, as many as possible with as
many as necessary with ourclients beforehand, to make sure
(08:21):
that they're comfortable, theyknow what to expect.
But there are certain documentsthat will help guide our
preparation.
One of those is a summary ofrelief requested.
Tell us a little bit about whatthat document is and what its
purpose is.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, the courts.
You know for the courts.
They don't even know who youare when you walk in the door
that day.
They've never seen you before,they've never heard from you
before and they have a millioncases on their docket.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And they might only give you an hour each to present
your entire story, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So whether you have kids and you're a divorce with
kids or you're a divorce in justtwo spouses, you've got one
hour to present everything thatyou need all at once.
So we try to prioritize.
You know the most importantthings that we're asking for.
So the summary of reliefrequested is telling the court
exactly what you're looking for.
(09:16):
So if you have kids, we tellthem.
You know who do we think is theprimary parent, who do we think
is the parent who's going tomake the best decisions for the
children.
You know who do we think is theprimary parent, who do we think
is the parent who's going tomake the best decisions for the
children.
You know if we're asking forsomething with a property, you
know why are we asking for thisand what exactly are we asking
for.
So we kind of just spell it outabsolutely directly to give it
(09:38):
to the court, and they like touse it.
You know very quickly in thecase.
So if you have an hour, we tryto present it very early to the
judge so that when the judge islistening to all the pieces of
evidence that we present, theyalready know what we're asking
for.
So do we meet that burden?
In a case with children, theburden is the best interest of
(10:00):
the children.
What is the best interest forthese kids?
So that's what the court'sgoing to be listening for.
So when we give them thesummary of relief requested,
they look at that and they'relistening for it.
What is going to protect thechildren the most?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Really, it's just sort of like a checklist of
sorts just to simplify theissues for the court.
Not every firm does this, butwe found that it really helps
break things down for the courtif they're only going to have an
hour and their days and theirweeks and their months are taken
up by really complex issues.
They have sometimes thousandsof cases that these judges are
(10:36):
handling all at once.
It's important to simplifythings as much as possible for
them, especially ahead of time,since you have such a limited
time scope.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And so we've gotten feedback from judges that maybe
get off the bench and that saidthat our firm does prepare very,
very well.
They know that when they have ahunt law firm attorney, that
attorney is coming.
They have all their documentsready to go.
They have everything you know.
All ducks are in a row,everything's organized.
We have exhibits ready to go.
We've already sent electronicfiles to the court and we're
(11:08):
also prepared with our ownclients, our own clients.
You know we usually have a listof questions that we're going
to ask them and it's mostly mynotes to kind of lead the client
through the questions.
But the client knows what toexpect.
So we send, send the questions,we work on the questions with
our clients.
We kind of prepare you for whatwe think the other side is
(11:29):
going to ask and we're ready togo.
There shouldn't be manysurprises that come up and if
you're very open and honest withyour attorney, there shouldn't
be a lot of surprises.
We kind of are leading thejudge through the case, we're
leading you through the.
So this is your moment to tellthe court who you are, who your
children are, what your propertyis and ask for the best result
(11:52):
possible.
So if we go in and we'reorganized and we're ready to go.
It's a great setup for ahearing.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
One of the most important documents after a
summary of relief requested at atemporary orders hearing is the
financial information statement.
We call it FIS.
Tell us a little bit about anFIS and its importance, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
An FIS is a document.
It has a lot of blanks for youto fill out.
But we start out and we aretalking about what income you
make.
So what's your gross income,what are your deductions, what
are, what's your net income?
And we look at first the incomeand then second, what are your
debts.
So you know, if you havechildren, we have a lot of debts
(12:36):
associated with children.
There may be child care, theremay be extracurricular
activities.
You know, and you know just,any spouses, any family have
food, shelter, insurance, so allthese costs add up.
So we're trying to determinewhat is your income versus what
is your debt and there may be anegative.
(12:58):
And if there's a negative, thecourt's going to look to give
you some release because theydon't want.
They want you to succeed, theydon't want you to not have any
money at the end of the day.
So the court's going to try tofigure out a way to make sure
that the case can continue onand that each party is set up
enough to continue on in thecase, and so they will try to
(13:20):
make sure that everybody hasenough to afford an apartment or
a house or something to get tothe end.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
And you and I have both had cases we even handled
cases together where there'sbeen a stay-at-home parent and
they just don't have the meanson their own.
They've maybe stayed at homefor the last 10 years with their
child and been a good at-homecaregiver for their child, and
then they get cut off.
The court's not going to allowthat to stand and it's our job
(13:50):
to go to court and to make surethat the court understands the
situation and then helpsmaintain the status quo.
The court's not going to beokay with not getting the
mortgage paid, making it so thatthey don't have enough money to
eat or pay educational expenses, things like that.
We need to make sure thatwhatever money is coming into
that community estate, that ourclient's going to be taken care
(14:13):
of, and that's an importantpiece of temporary orders
hearing for a lot of differentpeople.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I will say that's very repetitive in consults that
I have, because you have thisstay-at-home mom that has been
home for 10 years and she hasn'tbeen earning an income.
And maybe she has a degree,maybe she doesn't, but she
hasn't been using it, so shedoesn't have a job, she doesn't
have a means to go have a newjob and make income.
(14:41):
So they come in and they'revery, very worried, and so what
I tell clients at this time isuse an FIS.
I actually will send it to themand show them look, look at
your numbers.
Because the problem is is thatthey really don't know and it's
kind of a pie in the sky number.
They're just so worried aboutmoney and they're so worried
(15:03):
about am I going to be able topay for this or what's going to
happen.
If you start looking atconcrete numbers and you start
putting together, you know, okay, this is going to cost this
amount and this is going to cost, and it's more concrete, they
start to settle down a littlebit and get more comfortable
with where they are financially,you know, and especially for
their children, can they affordto put food on the table?
(15:25):
It's a big deal, and so wereally try to help calm things
down and say let's get someconcrete numbers here and then
we're going to take them to thecourt and present them to the
court and we're going to ask forrelief at that point from the
court.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So we've talked quite a bit about finances.
Another important aspect oftemporary orders is children If
you have kids involved in yourcase, if it's a child custody
case or if it's a divorceinvolving kids, and of course,
the most important thing that'sdriving the court is what's in
the best interest of thesechildren.
Tell me a little bit about someof the decisions that could
(16:01):
potentially be made in atemporary orders hearing as it
relates to kids.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Okay, At the temporary orders hearing the
judge is going to make adecision.
The judge is going to appoint aprimary on a child custody case
.
What that means is this is theperson who has the exclusive
right to designate the primaryresidence of the children.
This is the person who has theexclusive right to designate the
primary residence of thechildren.
So if you're in Harris County,most likely the court is going
(16:30):
to say the primary residence ofthe child has to be within
Harris or Harrison Contiguousand contiguous counties to
Harris.
Are any ones that touch it?
Well, that's a really big dealin Harris County because Harris
County is so large.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Huge area.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's a very large area.
So when you add contiguouscounties on, you're talking
about possibly a four-hour span.
So who gets appointed as theprimary is a big deal.
In my opinion, temporary ordersis the more important hearing
between the temporary ordershearing and the final trial,
because that is when the judgeis going to make the
determination At that.
The final trial, because thatis when the judge is going to
(17:04):
make the determination.
At that point in time the judgeis going to pick a primary.
And I do hear people talk andsay don't worry, it's just for
temporary.
The judge can change theirminds.
You can go to final trial andwhile you do get a second bite
at the apple if it was somethingyou didn't like at the
temporary orders hearing, ajudge has made a determination.
(17:30):
They're not very likely tochange their minds unless you
give them some overriding reasonthat they didn't hear the first
time.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, and judges aren't interested in completely
overturning the apple card andchanging things up late in the
case.
So if it's working or it seemsto be working, they're just
going to roll with it.
They are, and this was theirdecision.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you're literally telling the judge I know you
made the decision at temporaryorders, but now, on final trial,
I need you to change it.
So are they likely to do it?
Probably not.
So temporary orders is veryimportant to establish
everything.
So this is the time when youneed to tell your attorney
everything so that when youbring this evidence, you could
(18:11):
bring all the evidence you needinto the temporary orders.
I'd been involved with a kid.
Has mom been involved with akid?
You know, are there?
Is there drug usage?
Is there?
You know something else thatthe court needs to hear.
This is the time to let thecourt hear it.
This is it.
(18:31):
This is the moment that thejudge needs to hear everything.
So sometimes people want tobring tiny, minute little
details to the court.
They want the court to knowabsolutely everything.
Little details to the court.
They want the court to knowabsolutely everything.
But you'd need to decide whatis important, because we are the
ones under the parameter of anhour for each side.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So primary or exclusive right to determine the
primary residence is one rightthat the court will decide.
What are some of the otherrights and duties that the judge
is going to make adetermination on in a temporary
orders hearing?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We have a nickname for some of the other big ones.
We call them heads, eds andmeds.
The first one is medicalinvasive.
You know who has the right tomake decisions for your child in
a medical invasive typeprocedure.
This is not something that's anemergency.
If you're a conservator, thenyou're going to have the right
to make a decision in the choiceof an emergency situation.
(19:27):
But this is more of a situationwhere something pierces your
child's skin.
You know, the dentist tells youthat your child's wisdom teeth
needs to come out.
So who makes that decision?
It can either be a jointdecision, where the parties have
to do it together and they eachhave to come to an agreement.
It can be a exclusive decisionmaking, where one parent is
(19:51):
allowed to make the decision bythemselves, or it can be
independent, and that means thatboth of you can make the
decision on your own.
So the court will look, youknow, to determine for each of
these rights.
Do they give the joint rights,do they give the independent or
do they give exclusives?
One of the other big rights ispsychiatric and psychological.
(20:12):
Who consents to your childhaving a therapist?
Who consents to a child havinga psychiatrist and who consents
to a child having a psychologistAt this point, when there is a
psychiatrist involved, whoconsents if the child is asked
to be on medicine.
So who gets to say yes or no?
Again, it can be a jointdecision, it can be exclusive
(20:34):
and it can be independent.
The last one is education.
Who has the right to makeeducational decisions for your
child?
Maybe you have a child thatspecial needs.
This child may need a shadow inschool with them.
This child may need to be inspecial classes that you know
you're going to have ARDS for,and those kind of things that
(20:56):
you know are going to berecommended by the school.
Who has the right to make thosedecisions?
Again, it can be joint,independent and it can be
exclusive.
There are some other rights thatwe have, and one of them is
passports.
Who has the right to go get apassport for a child?
Again, it can be joint, it canbe exclusive or it can be
(21:17):
independent.
And so who holds the passports?
Once you get the passport, whoholds it?
Those are some of the ones thatwe talk about the most and we
decide the most.
There are some others thatdon't come up as often, you know
legal action for a child.
What if your child gets caughtdoing something they're not
(21:38):
supposed to be and you have tohire an attorney for them?
Who pays for the attorney?
Who chooses the attorney?
I've actually only had thatcome up one time, and it was a
17-year-old, but when yourchild's 17,?
This is an important decisionto make.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Or if the child is, say, in a car accident and they
need to hire a personal injurylawyer in order to recover some
funds, that's another situationthat would come up.
I would say the default tell meif you disagree would be joint
decision, decision making andunless there's some unusual
reason that the court would lookat, you know, maybe one parent
(22:15):
has been completely disengagedon educational decisions or has
made poor decisions in the pastfor educational Usually, you're
going to do joint decisionmaking, Would you agree?
Without a doubt going to dojoint decision making, would you
agree?
Without a doubt and there'salso some of these decisions are
you really can't do likeindependent, like you can't do
independent psychiatric decisionmaking.
(22:37):
And, as you said, independentis when you know whenever that
parent has the child they canmake the decisions.
Well, you can't have the childon a psychiatric medication when
they're with mom and then nothave it when they're with dad.
So there's going to have to besome sort of collaboration in
that instance or somebody needsto make the decisions
(22:59):
exclusively, and that would besomething that the court would
decide.
Child support, medical supportwhat other decisions Tell me
about that process?
What's the court going to dothere?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Once the court has decided a primary, that's the
main decision that they willmake.
As soon as they make thatdecision it's going to
springboard off some otherdecisions that they make.
The court is going to awardchild support from the
non-primary parent as soon asthey award a primary.
Child support is going to awardchild support from the
non-primary parent as soon asthey award a primary child
support is going to be awarded.
(23:32):
Texas courts are not flexiblewith child support.
They do not play around with it.
They are going to awardguideline support, are awarded
based on the number of childrenthat you have and they are going
to compute child support andthat is the way it's going to be
.
The non-primary is responsiblefor the child support and
(23:54):
medical and dental.
So medical and dental insurance.
So it's either going to be thatyou cover the mom may have
insurance and dad pays for it,or you know dad may have
insurance and he just keeps theinsurance and pays for it.
So they're going to make thedecisions on that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Okay, and then possession and access, which is
Texas's way of saying who hasthe kids and when.
Tell me about what the court'sgoing to do there, and are there
any presumptions in place?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So the court is going to follow the Texas Family Code
.
The Texas Family Code right nowis the presumption is that the
non-primary gets awarded anexpanded possession order.
These are the days that youhave the child in your
possession.
The court is likely to followthis, unless they are given a
(24:48):
reason not to so.
When you walk into court, thecourt's going to pick the
primary and the non-primary ismost likely going to be awarded
the standard possession order.
And the simplest way I describea standard possession order is
that the non-primary parent getsthe child every single Thursday
night.
They get them when the schoollets out for the day and they
(25:13):
return the child to school onFriday morning and then on first
, third and fifth weekends theyget the child from when school
lets out until Monday morning.
So the easiest way to look atit is on first, third and fifth
weeks.
Way to look at it is from onfirst, third and fifth weeks,
from when Thursday school letsout until Monday morning, and
then on the second and fourthweek they get them Thursday,
(25:34):
from when school lets out untilFriday morning.
So that is the schedule that isin place for most of the year.
The only things that will changeare holidays or spring break,
and spring break is one week andit rotates between parents, so
odds are even years.
One parent gets it one year andthen the next the other parent
(25:54):
will have it and the non-primaryalso gets 30 days during the
summer.
So the non-primary this istheir moment to kind of pick
their schedule.
They get to select their 30days, either July 1st to July
31st or they can break it upinto two different pieces and
(26:14):
you know that gives them thepower to decide what they want
to do with their vacation andthey let the primary parent know
by April 1st.
They also will rotate holidayssuch as Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
They also will rotate holidayssuch as Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
So the court wants Texas parents who are involved
with their children to be ableto share those moments with
their kids, and it's been.
My experience, and this is whatthe family law, family code
says, is that in the absence ofsomething unusual or
extraordinary, they're going tofollow the standard possession
order, or what's called anexpanded standard possession
order.
And if anybody out there, ifyou're watching this on video,
we can put on the screen aresource that we have on our
(26:56):
website at familylawyerkatiecom.
Click on the resources tab.
We have our standard possessionorder calendar.
We also have previous yearswhere you can visually see when
the custodial parent and thenon-custodial parent will have
the kids.
You might see other versions ofthis on other websites, but
(27:17):
ours is the original, the mostcomprehensive, often emulated,
never replicated.
You could find it on ourwebsite, along with plenty of
other information, blog posts,information on what possession
schedules might look like.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
We have clients come from previous years asking for
that calendar.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
So it's according to the KDISD, since we're in KDISD,
but it just helps lay it out.
It's so easy to follow andpeople love our calendar, come
back every year to ask and we'rehappy to provide it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So one question that folks might ask is do I need a
temporary orders hearing,particularly if I don't have
kids or if we're kind of gettingalong?
Do I need to have a temporaryorders hearing in my divorce or
in my custody case?
What does your analysis andwhat are your conversations with
(28:13):
the clients look like todetermine, you know, are you
recommending to the client theyshould go to a temporary orders
hearing or they should set one?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Okay, A lot of times we set a temporary orders
hearing just to get the casestarted.
You know they, when you servethe other party, they have a
time that they can wait a littlebit and respond.
But this kind of jump starts it.
Setting a hearing date is whatkind of forces everybody to move
.
Even if we went to court onthat day, the court won't hear
(28:44):
us until we have mediated.
So we have to mediate anyway.
So you know, coming to anagreement for your own case is
by far the best interest ofeveryone involved.
It keeps things calmer.
It lets you be empowered tosettle your own case.
So do you need a hearing?
Not necessarily.
(29:05):
There's a lot of times when I'mable to work with the opposing
counsel or if the other partyrepresents themselves, we can
work together to come up withsome sort of agreement.
Whether it's just for propertyor whether it's for kids and
property, we can come up withsome sort of agreement.
I do like to have an agreementin place because it makes sure
everybody's on the same page.
(29:26):
We know what to expect, we knowwhat we're looking for, we're
holding until we can get tofinal trial.
But it kind of gives everybodya perspective.
I think a lot of times we do goto temporary.
We have a temporary orders,hearing or mediation or a
settlement when children areinvolved, just so that we make
sure that both parents areseeing the kids, they're
(29:48):
spending enough time with them,child support set up.
That's when I think it's themost important If it's, you know
, a couple that doesn't have anychildren.
A lot of times we do skiptemporary orders because we're
going to get to the end soonenough, unless there's some
pressing issue that the courtneeds to deal with immediately,
(30:09):
such as a house is inforeclosure or something like
that that the court needs tohear immediately.
We're just gatheringinformation and trying to find
financials.
So if it's a divorce with nokids and we're able to get a
hold of financials, we probablyare starting discovery at this
point in time to get numbers toget you know where the money is
(30:32):
bank accounts, credit cards,debt, those kinds of things.
We're trying to come up withthat to get to final trial.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And if it doesn't need it then we won't do it.
You know we want to try to beas cost efficient as possible
for with our clients money.
If they don't need temporaryorders hearing, we're not going
to recommend that they do it.
So let's say we do temporaryorders hearing the judges.
Typically in all the countiesthat we're in now.
They typically are giving usunless we can really show good
(30:59):
cause giving us about an hourfor each side to put on their
case.
So let's say we do that.
The judge renders a decisionwhich might not come immediately
at that hearing.
Sometimes the judge will takeit under advisement.
We'll get a decision a few dayslater, maybe a week later.
What's next?
(31:20):
In order to get our temporaryorders, because we're not done
then when we get the judge'sdecision.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Right and people think that we're going to be
done once you go to court andyou say everything to the judge
and then you're just waiting forthat moment when the judge is
like, okay, here's my decision.
And, like you said, sometimesit doesn't come for a week, two
weeks, that kind of thing.
So we just have to kind ofagain hold everything.
When we get that document it'sabout one page and even if you
(31:51):
settle and you're in mediation,we have a document that is
called a mediated settlementagreement and those are usually
about five pages.
So you have these agreements ora rendition from a judge that
are very small, and we takethose documents and we turn them
into bigger temporary orders.
So it's usually going to beabout 30 pages and it lays out
(32:13):
the schedules for kids or youknow who pays child support, the
medical and dental, you knowwhat the rights and the duties
are.
It's going to lay it out in a30-page document.
So the petitioner drafts.
So whoever files, that attorneyis going to draft and that will
put in place an order andthat's when the judge signs.
(32:35):
So the important part is to getthe judge to sign the actual
order, because once that orderis signed by a judge.
It is then enforceable.
If there is any problems duringthe case and somebody's not
doing what they're supposed tobe doing they're not moving out
of a property, say, or they'renot giving the kids when they're
supposed to you can go in andenforce a court order.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But the judge has to have signed in order for that to
happen.
For whatever reason, afterthey're signed aren't working,
or if circumstances change, youcan go back and do additional
temporary orders, or you canmodify your temporary orders.
So that's one of the benefitsof temporary orders is you get
an opportunity to see what'sworking and what's not working
(33:21):
before you finalize everything,and if you need to tweak some
things, you can.
Now you don't want to berunning back to the courthouse
every few weeks Court's notgoing to like that but you can
see what works and what doesn'tfor your family, for your
finances and all that.
So we've covered a lot ofground, but I know that there's
more.
So in a future episode I'mgoing to be back with you,
(33:42):
margaret, to talk about some ofthe do's and don'ts in a Family
Law Texas temporary ordershearing.
So I'd like to thank you forjoining me.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
All right.
If you would like any moreinformation on temporary orders
or on our firm, on law firm, youcan visit our website at
familylawyerkatiecom to get allthe information that you might
need.
To get all the information thatyou might need.
I'll be back with Margaret soonand until then, take care.
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