February 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Discover the ins and outs of an uncontested (and hopefully quick!) Texas divorce in this informative video featuring Hunt Law Firm attorneys Alex Hunt and Bri Holcombe. If you're considering #divorce in Texas, it's essential to understand the process and what to expect. From the initial filing to the final decree, we'll guide you through the steps involved in an agreed Texas divorce.
Learn about the requirements for an uncontested divorce, the role of mediation, and how to navigate the court system. Whether you're looking for a speedy divorce or want to know more about the Texas divorce laws, this video provides valuable insights to help you make informed decisions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex Hunt (00:08):
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt, the managingattorney and founder at Hunt Law
Firm, and today I'm happy to bejoined by Bree Holcomb.
Welcome.
Bri Holcombe (00:19):
Thank you for having me.
Alex Hunt (00:20):
Bree is an associate attorney at Hunt Law Firm and
also our director of talentdevelopment, so today we're
going to be following up on apodcast that we did a few months
ago.
That was about the contesteddivorce process and the
different steps in Texascontested divorce by talking
about what it's like when thereis an uncontested divorce.
(00:41):
Uncontested divorce and likethe contested divorce process,
on our website there's a flowchart that says steps in an
uncontested divorce that you cango to at familylawyerkatiecom
and it lists out some key termsthat you need to know, as well
as gives you a flow chart of theentire process.
What we're going to be doing inthis podcast is just going
through and adding some detailto that, but before we do that,
(01:05):
I think we should talk a littlebit about what an uncontested
divorce is and what it is not.
Bri Holcombe (01:11):
That's a good one.
Alex Hunt (01:13):
Tell me a little bit about what an uncontested
divorce is.
Bri Holcombe (01:15):
An uncontested divorce is a divorce where there
are no issues, meaning clientsare not fighting about property,
they're not fighting aboutchildren.
They come to us and theagreement is already done and
solidified.
Oftentimes clients feel thatthey may have an uncontested
divorce but there could be oneor two issues.
That tips it over the line andfollows that contested flow and
(01:37):
it kind of mirrors some of thosethings that we talk about where
it may not be a full contesteddivorce, but a true uncontested
is there are no issues and we'rejust here to basically do the
paperwork for the client.
Alex Hunt (01:48):
Very good and so if somebody comes into our office
they'll start with an initialconsultation and if you're
watching this or you'relistening to this, you can go
back and look at last month's Ifyou're curious about how to
find the right divorce lawyer.
I had a great conversation withour senior associate attorney,
david Adams, out of our LeagueCity office.
But you'd usually start with aninitial consultation and that's
(02:12):
where the lawyer and theprospective client get to know
each other.
The prospective client tells alittle bit about the case, gives
some of the facts, the lawyerwill give some information about
what it looks like to retainthe firm, the lawyer will give
some information about what itlooks like to retain the firm
and then, after that initialmeeting, the client will retain,
will pay an initial retainer,will sign a contract and then
(02:32):
they're ready to get started.
The first part in theuncontested divorce process
would be filing the originalpetition for divorce, and an
original petition very simply isstarts a process and lays out
what it is that that person islooking for out of this divorce.
So it lays out somejurisdictional requirements.
(02:53):
It gives the official names ofthe parties, it says where they
live, it says if somebody needsto get served or not.
It'll give the name of thechild or their children, if they
have it, and then, typically inan uncontested divorce, instead
of saying what should happenwith their property, it will say
that the parties both expectthat they're going to reach an
(03:16):
agreement.
Bri Holcombe (03:32):
That changes in the future.
That petition can always bechanged.
But you start with anunderstanding that there is
going to be an agreement andthat this is going to be
something that there's nodispute about any of the terms
and the same goes for childrentoo.
We say we can reach anagreement.
What I call it is our vanillapetition.
It's just a basic outline, abasic form that says we're going
to reach an agreement on allissues and, like you said, we're
free to amend and spice it uplater on if we need to.
Alex Hunt (03:47):
Absolutely, and so once you have your original
petition that gets filed withthe court, the court will assign
a court and a cause number.
If you're in Harris County inHouston, texas, there's 10
different family courts thatyour divorce can land in, and so
the court uses a lottery.
They determine who the judge isgoing to be for your case and
they issue you a number called acause number, and all future
(04:08):
pleadings will need to use thatnumber, and everything is going
to be directed to the court thatyou land in used to from
television.
There's going to be a processserver, there's going to be
somebody that hands thempaperwork and said you've been
(04:28):
served.
Bri Holcombe (04:29):
But there's another way in an uncontested
divorce, so in an uncontesteddivorce we typically don't want
that process server to go maybemake a scene or make it be
embarrassing to one of theparties.
So we use what's called awaiver of service.
Essentially what that is isit's a document that a spouse
will sign, acknowledging thatthey received the paperwork,
they've got a copy of theoriginal petition for divorce
(04:51):
and they're choosing not to havethat process server knock on
the door and say you've beenserved.
They have to take that documentand have it notarized and then
we typically would file that ontheir behalf into the court's
record to show that they havemade an appearance.
That way the court acknowledgesthat they are in the case, they
are present, they're an activeparty and the case is going to
(05:12):
continue to move through theflow, if you will, with notice
to that party, of all theproceedings and things that take
place.
Oftentimes what we do is send aletter to the spouse of a client
and we say, hey, this is awaiver of service, here's what
it does You're entering yourappearance into this case.
But if you don't do it by acertain date, we then are going
(05:32):
to proceed with having youserved, and the reason that we
do that is because the case hasto have service in order for it
to kick off.
Without that very first pieceof that flow in the service
portion, we cannot continue witha divorce process.
So we always want to ensurethat service has been
effectuated either by a waiverof service or actual service on
(05:53):
an individual.
Alex Hunt (05:55):
And sometimes it's unavoidable and it contests a
divorce to get the other sideserved.
It's certainly never pleasantgetting served.
It always comes as a surprise.
Even if you know it's coming,you never know when it's going
to be coming, and so there'sthat element that's taken out.
But it's also a cost savings,because a waiver of service is a
usually two-page documentthat's fairly routine that we
(06:17):
can draft up pretty costefficiently, and then the client
is the one that can take it totheir spouse and can ask them to
sign it, and then they'll bringit back to the attorney.
We could do it too, but ifyou're really looking to keep
costs low, that's an option thatwould lower it significantly.
(06:37):
We have the respondent haswaived service, filed a waiver
of service.
Now we need to have what theactual agreement is.
Take us from receiving theagreement to getting it
confirmed in a mediationabsolutely so.
Bri Holcombe (06:56):
oftentimes in a consultation we'll have some
sort of idea of what theagreement is.
What I typically like to do isprepare an offer letter.
An offer letter is essentiallya detailed letter that walks
through all of the terms of theagreement.
So there are things likeconservatorship, possession and
access, child support, healthinsurance and property division
contained in this offer letter.
(07:17):
When the client provides mewith their agreement, I'll
always review their agreement toensure that every single
element of the Texas Family Codeis met.
We don't want to leavesomething out.
There often may be things thatthe client's not thinking about
that we deal with on a dailybasis that I can let the client
know.
For example, you don't haveanything related to passports in
(07:37):
this agreement.
Would you like to add somethingrelated to that so that we can
hedge international travel inthe future?
Once I have prepared that offerletter, I send it to the client
for review.
They'll review the offer letter, make sure that it's good.
It contains everything thatthey want.
Then what we do is we'll sendthat offer letter over to the
spouse.
The spouse can do the samething review, ensure that
(07:58):
everything is bet.
If there's any revisions orchanges that I may have missed,
they can certainly let us knowwhen they approve of the offer
letter or we've reached anagreement on what that looks
like.
What happens is we typicallywill go to a drive by mediation.
So mediation is a process wherewe can use the Texas Family
Code's provisions for mediationin order to lock in a binding,
(08:22):
irrevocable settlement agreement.
And what happens is is when wesign an MSA a mediated
settlement agreement the termsthat we agree to are locked in.
They are final, and whathappens is the court can't go
through and change thoseagreements because two spouses
have come together and said thisis what we believe our
agreement should be and we wantto lock it in.
(08:44):
So it's a really quick process.
What we do is we send the offerletter to the mediator so they
can type it up in their form.
We hop on a Zoom it's usually15 to 20 minutes long where we
review it once more in greatdetail.
The mediator, who again is athird party that doesn't
represent either party in thesuit, reviews it and ensures
(09:06):
that this is really whateveryone wants to sign to.
Then we'll send it around fordigital signature and that
agreement is locked in.
We're entitled to judgment onit, which means that nobody can
change their mind in the future.
If one party decides that theydon't like it anymore, the
spouse that continues to like itcan still proceed with the
divorce with those terms.
Alex Hunt (09:25):
And I know after we leave here today, you have a
drive-by mediation and adrive-by mediation is something
that is not 100% necessary butit gives most of our clients
peace of mind that the otherside isn't going to back out.
And I can't tell you how manytimes we've had folks that have
come to us and have saidnobody's backing out of this.
We both know what we want,right?
(09:46):
We've had folks that have cometo us and have said there's
nobody's backing out of this.
We both know what we want,right.
No-transcript, we're backingout of the agreement.
And once one piece of theagreement starts to fall apart,
it seems like things start tounravel and the whole thing can
fall apart.
So when you have a bindingmediated settlement agreement,
it means no take backs, you'relocked in, and it actually helps
(10:07):
provide some cost savingsbecause once you have it locked
in, you know that your lawyer,when they go to the next step
when they're drafting up theagreement, is going to be
drafting up something that theyknow is going to then be.
Go to the next step whenthey're drafting up the
agreement, is going to bedrafting up something that they
know is going to then beprovided to the court, whereas
if you don't have a bindingsettlement agreement, if you're
not locked in, it's possiblethat you would tell your lawyer
(10:27):
here's the agreement, draft upthe final decree of divorce, you
give it to the other side andthen they say I didn't agree to
any of this or I don't agree tothis anymore.
And then you've just had yourlawyer spend three or four hours
drafting up a final decree, butit's not something you're
actually going to use and it'sjust wasted money, or you have
to go back and do a whole bunchof revisions.
Bri Holcombe (10:49):
Or you go to the contested flow of the divorce
and you're starting over almost.
Alex Hunt (10:52):
Exactly so.
Although there is some initialcost with the mediated
settlement agreement, it isactually, I think, a cost
savings and it gives you justpeace of mind to know that it's
locked in.
So I mentioned that the nextpiece of this is the drafting,
and that just means we'rewriting up the final decree of
divorce, which is also known asthe final order, and there's
(11:14):
other ancillary documents thatcome with it.
The final decree of divorce isjust the document that formally
ends the marriage, and if youhave kids, it's going to include
all of the provisions aboutconservatorship or custody,
possession and access for yourkids, child support, who has the
(11:34):
kids and when, who's picking upthe kids and where, who's
dropping them off, who's payingunreimbursed medical expenses,
who's providing health insurance.
All of that is going to be putinto painstaking detail in the
final decree of divorce.
The second component of yourdivorce is the property
(11:55):
revisions, and in there it'sgoing to have who is getting
what stuff and who is taking onwhat debts.
There might be other provisionsthat deal with things like
who's paying the taxes or are wegoing to be selling a house and
how is that going to be laidout, but everything regarding
your kids and your property isgoing to be laid out in a
(12:17):
document that will then becirculated among the parties so
they can review it.
They can make revisions to thelanguage if they have any, and
then they will eventually signoff and say this is what we
agreed to.
I'm ready for this to go overto the court, and if you.
One important key is that ifyou have a binding mediated
(12:40):
settlement agreement and thenyou get, you're circulating the
final decree of divorce, thefinal order, and you say I don't
like this provision, Well theonly way that you're going to
get that provision out of thefinal decree is if it wasn't in
the mediated settlementagreement, Because if it's in
the mediated settlementagreement, it's going in the
final decree.
(13:01):
There are some other ancillarydocuments.
There are child supportdocuments, real property
documents.
Tell me a little bit about thechild support and real property
documents.
Bri Holcombe (13:11):
So the child support documents.
It really just depends on ifthe parties have decided that a
party is paying child support.
If they are.
Typically, what we're going tofile is called an income
withholding order, which isessentially a document that is
used to withhold funds from anobligor.
That's what we call someonepaying child support from their
paycheck.
(13:32):
So this document gets signed bythe judge, it gets sent then to
an obligor's employer and itsays here's how much money we
should be withholding from thisperson's paycheck so that child
support can be received.
There's another document thataccompanies it, called a record
of support, which essentially isa document that the child
support office uses in order todetermine who's paying child
(13:53):
support, what amount, and didwithholding get issued, to
determine who's paying childsupport, what amount and did
withholding get issued.
There's also a Bureau of VitalStatistics form.
We call that a BVS form.
Essentially, what this formdoes is it just lists, you know,
the names of the people who aregetting divorced, their
birthdays, their race, theirdate of marriage, their
children's information, so thatHarris County or Fort Bend
County has some informationabout who people are for public
(14:17):
record, and with the propertydocuments, there could be a
couple of different documents weuse.
If there is a home that onespouse is keeping, we would do
what's called a deed of trustand a special warranty deed,
essentially what those documentsare.
A special warranty deed says Igive my interest in a home to my
spouse and what happens is thenthat spouse who's receiving the
(14:39):
home takes 100% ownership.
A deed of trust is alsoexecuted by the spouse retaining
the home saying I promise tocontinue making these mortgage
payments.
We could also have what's calleda quadro, a qualified domestic
relations order.
This is a document that is usedto split retirement accounts
with no penalty or taxes tospouses during a divorce.
(15:01):
So essentially, what happens isthis is another document the
judge will sign.
It then gets sent to the planadministrator, which is the
entity that holds the retirementaccounts, like a Fidelity or a
401k employer-sponsored plan.
The plan administrator thenwill receive that quadro make
the division of the retirementaccounts, again with no taxes or
(15:23):
penalties associated withsplitting and dividing that
account.
There's also a power of attorney, which is a document used to
remove one spouse's name fromthe title of a vehicle.
That's a great one to use andeven if you don't know, I'm not
sure if my spouse's name is on avehicle or not, it's a good
idea just to get one so that youhave it in the event that you
(15:43):
find the title and it does haveyour spouse on it Once the
divorce is finalized.
We don't want spouses tocontinue to have to speak with
each other if the marriage endedon bad terms.
Alex Hunt (15:53):
Absolutely.
So.
You've got the final decree ofdivorce, you've got child
support paperwork, you mighthave real property paperwork if
you have a house together orhouses, and you'll have,
potentially, retirementdocuments and then, finally, a
document for either your vehicleor both of your vehicles to
make sure that your names areoff of the titles.
(16:13):
So once you, as the lawyer,drafts those documents up, you
then send it over to your client.
They review it together.
You and the client will reviewit together.
They'll make any revisions.
They'll ask any questions.
Where do you go from there?
Bri Holcombe (16:29):
So what I like to do is have a phone call with a
client to go through the divorcedecree.
It's not going to be a four orfive page document like the
mediated settlement agreementwill be.
If you have children, yourdivorce decree is going to be 50
plus pages long.
So I like to set a time asidean hour, hour and a half to
review in great detail thatfinal decree.
I want my client to know everysingle piece of their divorce
(16:53):
decree so that if they haveproblems in the future they know
where they could even directthose questions to and find the
answer to those questions.
There's a lot of boilerplateand legalese contained in it and
I like to try and break thatdown for the client.
Once we review and they feelconfident in signing the final
decree and any of the ancillarydocuments, we send it over to
(17:14):
their spouse ask for signatureas well.
Once we get that back, then wecan sign everything, or I can
place my signature on it and wecan then file it with the court.
When we file it with the court,we will either set it for a
signing box submission, justdepending on where we flow, or
we'll email the court directlyand ask them to sign the final
decree based off the mediatedsettlement agreement.
(17:36):
When we do that, thereoftentimes is one more piece
that has to happen, which iscalled a prove-up.
Essentially, what a prove-up isis the jurisdiction
requirements that are presentedto the court in order for the
judge to sign off on the divorce.
It says, if we do it by anaffidavit, which is a written
statement where I live, who mychildren are, what the date of
(17:57):
my marriage was, the date of myseparation that I reached a
mediated settlement agreementand I'm asking the court to
approve my agreement and grantme a divorce, we oftentimes will
do that by an affidavit,meaning that the client signs
what I have written out for them, those requirements, and then
we submit that to the court.
Some courts, though, requirethat be in person.
(18:18):
So it's a quick five-minutequestion and answer where I say
you reside in Harris County, youwere married to your spouse on
December 14th 2024.
All of those, once they're met,then the judge is entitled to
render meaning they can sign thefinal decree, as long as it is
in conformance with the mediatedsettlement agreement.
Alex Hunt (18:38):
And we're recording this in 2025.
And before 2020, it used to bethat there was really no way for
a could get out of going tocourt.
You had to go to court.
You had to have that fiveminute interaction with the
judge.
You had to say that you met thejurisdictional requirements and
that you're expecting or thatyou've adopted they want to make
(19:03):
sure that everybody's capturedin the divorce.
There was no way to avoid goingdowntown to the courthouse or
wherever your court is.
And then COVID and then thathappened and now there is the
ability to just sign thataffidavit in most courts and, as
of 2025, I would say, most ofthe courts still allow that your
(19:23):
, just your lawyer, will draftup a prove up affidavit, you'll
sign off on it, it'll besubmitted to the court and then
the judge should review it andsign off on it.
Some courts are moving back towhat we did pre 2020, where they
require you to go in person toprove it up.
But now there's a third optionwhere some are allowing either
(20:04):
by Zoom or WebEx videoconference.
They're allowing have to comein person or you have to do it
on Zoom, but moving away fromthose affidavits.
But, as of right now, most ofthe courts are allowing the
affidavit option, which is goodbecause if you could stay out of
court that's why you're doingthis uncontested, it's good to
try to stay out of court.
So the final piece of the puzzlewould be the court would sign
(20:25):
off on your final decree ofdivorce, you would receive a
certified copy of it and thenthere might be a few steps after
you receive your document inthe mail and so if you have a
retirement account, it might begetting that quadro that
qualified domestic relationsorder.
You might have to send that toyour plan administrator and wait
(20:45):
and make sure that theyactually divide it properly.
If you have motor vehicle thathas your spouse's name on it,
you might have to make a tripdown to the tax office or to the
dmv to get a new, clean copy ofyour title.
Without your spouse's name onit you might need to change your
name.
If you get divorced and you goback to your maiden name, your
(21:08):
former name, then you might needto go to the driver's license
office or the social securityoffice passport office and get
your name changed.
But in terms of getting theactual divorce signed at this
point in the process, once thejudge signed, it's a done deal
and then your lawyer, certainlyour office, would help guide you
(21:29):
through those remaining steps.
Did I miss any?
Bri Holcombe (21:31):
flow, we can always have these things teed up
and ready to go.
So on that 61st day the courtcan pronounce you officially
divorced.
So Texas has a waiting periodfrom the date that you file the
petition.
So that very first step 60 daysmust pass in order for the
(21:54):
court to officially divorce you.
Alex Hunt (21:55):
Definitely A cooling off period and Texas actually
has one of the shorter coolingoff periods.
They don't want you filing forfor divorce and getting divorced
on the same day.
Bri Holcombe (22:05):
Changing your mind .
Alex Hunt (22:06):
And then changing your mind later in the week.
So, brie, did we miss anythingelse?
I don't think.
So.
See the visual representationof what we talked about.
You can go tofamilylawyerkatiecom.
On the top of the screen you'llsee a button called resources.
(22:26):
Click on that and then you'llsee steps in an uncontested
divorce.
We also have a number of otherpractice areas where you could
see a flow chart and some of thekey terms that you need to know
from contested divorces,adoptions, name changes and
child custody cases.
So again, brie, thank you verymuch.
Thank you.
If you'd like to see moreinformation about our firm, hunt
(22:49):
Law Firm, you can go tofamilylawyerkatiecom or you can
call us at 832-315-5494.
See you next time on.
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt, the managingattorney and founder at Hunt Law
Firm, and today I'm happy to bejoined by Bree Holcomb.
Welcome.
Bri Holcombe (00:19):
Thank you for having me.
Alex Hunt (00:20):
Bree is an associate attorney at Hunt Law Firm and
also our director of talentdevelopment, so today we're
going to be following up on apodcast that we did a few months
ago.
That was about the contesteddivorce process and the
different steps in Texascontested divorce by talking
about what it's like when thereis an uncontested divorce.
(00:41):
Uncontested divorce and likethe contested divorce process,
on our website there's a flowchart that says steps in an
uncontested divorce that you cango to at familylawyerkatiecom
and it lists out some key termsthat you need to know, as well
as gives you a flow chart of theentire process.
What we're going to be doing inthis podcast is just going
through and adding some detailto that, but before we do that,
(01:05):
I think we should talk a littlebit about what an uncontested
divorce is and what it is not.
Bri Holcombe (01:11):
That's a good one.
Alex Hunt (01:13):
Tell me a little bit about what an uncontested
divorce is.
Bri Holcombe (01:15):
An uncontested divorce is a divorce where there
are no issues, meaning clientsare not fighting about property,
they're not fighting aboutchildren.
They come to us and theagreement is already done and
solidified.
Oftentimes clients feel thatthey may have an uncontested
divorce but there could be oneor two issues.
That tips it over the line andfollows that contested flow and
(01:37):
it kind of mirrors some of thosethings that we talk about where
it may not be a full contesteddivorce, but a true uncontested
is there are no issues and we'rejust here to basically do the
paperwork for the client.
Alex Hunt (01:48):
Very good and so if somebody comes into our office
they'll start with an initialconsultation and if you're
watching this or you'relistening to this, you can go
back and look at last month's Ifyou're curious about how to
find the right divorce lawyer.
I had a great conversation withour senior associate attorney,
david Adams, out of our LeagueCity office.
But you'd usually start with aninitial consultation and that's
(02:12):
where the lawyer and theprospective client get to know
each other.
The prospective client tells alittle bit about the case, gives
some of the facts, the lawyerwill give some information about
what it looks like to retainthe firm, the lawyer will give
some information about what itlooks like to retain the firm
and then, after that initialmeeting, the client will retain,
will pay an initial retainer,will sign a contract and then
(02:32):
they're ready to get started.
The first part in theuncontested divorce process
would be filing the originalpetition for divorce, and an
original petition very simply isstarts a process and lays out
what it is that that person islooking for out of this divorce.
So it lays out somejurisdictional requirements.
(02:53):
It gives the official names ofthe parties, it says where they
live, it says if somebody needsto get served or not.
It'll give the name of thechild or their children, if they
have it, and then, typically inan uncontested divorce, instead
of saying what should happenwith their property, it will say
that the parties both expectthat they're going to reach an
(03:16):
agreement.
Bri Holcombe (03:32):
That changes in the future.
That petition can always bechanged.
But you start with anunderstanding that there is
going to be an agreement andthat this is going to be
something that there's nodispute about any of the terms
and the same goes for childrentoo.
We say we can reach anagreement.
What I call it is our vanillapetition.
It's just a basic outline, abasic form that says we're going
to reach an agreement on allissues and, like you said, we're
free to amend and spice it uplater on if we need to.
Alex Hunt (03:47):
Absolutely, and so once you have your original
petition that gets filed withthe court, the court will assign
a court and a cause number.
If you're in Harris County inHouston, texas, there's 10
different family courts thatyour divorce can land in, and so
the court uses a lottery.
They determine who the judge isgoing to be for your case and
they issue you a number called acause number, and all future
(04:08):
pleadings will need to use thatnumber, and everything is going
to be directed to the court thatyou land in used to from
television.
There's going to be a processserver, there's going to be
somebody that hands thempaperwork and said you've been
(04:28):
served.
Bri Holcombe (04:29):
But there's another way in an uncontested
divorce, so in an uncontesteddivorce we typically don't want
that process server to go maybemake a scene or make it be
embarrassing to one of theparties.
So we use what's called awaiver of service.
Essentially what that is isit's a document that a spouse
will sign, acknowledging thatthey received the paperwork,
they've got a copy of theoriginal petition for divorce
(04:51):
and they're choosing not to havethat process server knock on
the door and say you've beenserved.
They have to take that documentand have it notarized and then
we typically would file that ontheir behalf into the court's
record to show that they havemade an appearance.
That way the court acknowledgesthat they are in the case, they
are present, they're an activeparty and the case is going to
(05:12):
continue to move through theflow, if you will, with notice
to that party, of all theproceedings and things that take
place.
Oftentimes what we do is send aletter to the spouse of a client
and we say, hey, this is awaiver of service, here's what
it does You're entering yourappearance into this case.
But if you don't do it by acertain date, we then are going
(05:32):
to proceed with having youserved, and the reason that we
do that is because the case hasto have service in order for it
to kick off.
Without that very first pieceof that flow in the service
portion, we cannot continue witha divorce process.
So we always want to ensurethat service has been
effectuated either by a waiverof service or actual service on
(05:53):
an individual.
Alex Hunt (05:55):
And sometimes it's unavoidable and it contests a
divorce to get the other sideserved.
It's certainly never pleasantgetting served.
It always comes as a surprise.
Even if you know it's coming,you never know when it's going
to be coming, and so there'sthat element that's taken out.
But it's also a cost savings,because a waiver of service is a
usually two-page documentthat's fairly routine that we
(06:17):
can draft up pretty costefficiently, and then the client
is the one that can take it totheir spouse and can ask them to
sign it, and then they'll bringit back to the attorney.
We could do it too, but ifyou're really looking to keep
costs low, that's an option thatwould lower it significantly.
(06:37):
We have the respondent haswaived service, filed a waiver
of service.
Now we need to have what theactual agreement is.
Take us from receiving theagreement to getting it
confirmed in a mediationabsolutely so.
Bri Holcombe (06:56):
oftentimes in a consultation we'll have some
sort of idea of what theagreement is.
What I typically like to do isprepare an offer letter.
An offer letter is essentiallya detailed letter that walks
through all of the terms of theagreement.
So there are things likeconservatorship, possession and
access, child support, healthinsurance and property division
contained in this offer letter.
(07:17):
When the client provides mewith their agreement, I'll
always review their agreement toensure that every single
element of the Texas Family Codeis met.
We don't want to leavesomething out.
There often may be things thatthe client's not thinking about
that we deal with on a dailybasis that I can let the client
know.
For example, you don't haveanything related to passports in
(07:37):
this agreement.
Would you like to add somethingrelated to that so that we can
hedge international travel inthe future?
Once I have prepared that offerletter, I send it to the client
for review.
They'll review the offer letter, make sure that it's good.
It contains everything thatthey want.
Then what we do is we'll sendthat offer letter over to the
spouse.
The spouse can do the samething review, ensure that
(07:58):
everything is bet.
If there's any revisions orchanges that I may have missed,
they can certainly let us knowwhen they approve of the offer
letter or we've reached anagreement on what that looks
like.
What happens is we typicallywill go to a drive by mediation.
So mediation is a process wherewe can use the Texas Family
Code's provisions for mediationin order to lock in a binding,
(08:22):
irrevocable settlement agreement.
And what happens is is when wesign an MSA a mediated
settlement agreement the termsthat we agree to are locked in.
They are final, and whathappens is the court can't go
through and change thoseagreements because two spouses
have come together and said thisis what we believe our
agreement should be and we wantto lock it in.
(08:44):
So it's a really quick process.
What we do is we send the offerletter to the mediator so they
can type it up in their form.
We hop on a Zoom it's usually15 to 20 minutes long where we
review it once more in greatdetail.
The mediator, who again is athird party that doesn't
represent either party in thesuit, reviews it and ensures
(09:06):
that this is really whateveryone wants to sign to.
Then we'll send it around fordigital signature and that
agreement is locked in.
We're entitled to judgment onit, which means that nobody can
change their mind in the future.
If one party decides that theydon't like it anymore, the
spouse that continues to like itcan still proceed with the
divorce with those terms.
Alex Hunt (09:25):
And I know after we leave here today, you have a
drive-by mediation and adrive-by mediation is something
that is not 100% necessary butit gives most of our clients
peace of mind that the otherside isn't going to back out.
And I can't tell you how manytimes we've had folks that have
come to us and have saidnobody's backing out of this.
We both know what we want,right?
(09:46):
We've had folks that have cometo us and have said there's
nobody's backing out of this.
We both know what we want,right.
No-transcript, we're backingout of the agreement.
And once one piece of theagreement starts to fall apart,
it seems like things start tounravel and the whole thing can
fall apart.
So when you have a bindingmediated settlement agreement,
it means no take backs, you'relocked in, and it actually helps
(10:07):
provide some cost savingsbecause once you have it locked
in, you know that your lawyer,when they go to the next step
when they're drafting up theagreement, is going to be
drafting up something that theyknow is going to then be.
Go to the next step whenthey're drafting up the
agreement, is going to bedrafting up something that they
know is going to then beprovided to the court, whereas
if you don't have a bindingsettlement agreement, if you're
not locked in, it's possiblethat you would tell your lawyer
(10:27):
here's the agreement, draft upthe final decree of divorce, you
give it to the other side andthen they say I didn't agree to
any of this or I don't agree tothis anymore.
And then you've just had yourlawyer spend three or four hours
drafting up a final decree, butit's not something you're
actually going to use and it'sjust wasted money, or you have
to go back and do a whole bunchof revisions.
Bri Holcombe (10:49):
Or you go to the contested flow of the divorce
and you're starting over almost.
Alex Hunt (10:52):
Exactly so.
Although there is some initialcost with the mediated
settlement agreement, it isactually, I think, a cost
savings and it gives you justpeace of mind to know that it's
locked in.
So I mentioned that the nextpiece of this is the drafting,
and that just means we'rewriting up the final decree of
divorce, which is also known asthe final order, and there's
(11:14):
other ancillary documents thatcome with it.
The final decree of divorce isjust the document that formally
ends the marriage, and if youhave kids, it's going to include
all of the provisions aboutconservatorship or custody,
possession and access for yourkids, child support, who has the
(11:34):
kids and when, who's picking upthe kids and where, who's
dropping them off, who's payingunreimbursed medical expenses,
who's providing health insurance.
All of that is going to be putinto painstaking detail in the
final decree of divorce.
The second component of yourdivorce is the property
(11:55):
revisions, and in there it'sgoing to have who is getting
what stuff and who is taking onwhat debts.
There might be other provisionsthat deal with things like
who's paying the taxes or are wegoing to be selling a house and
how is that going to be laidout, but everything regarding
your kids and your property isgoing to be laid out in a
(12:17):
document that will then becirculated among the parties so
they can review it.
They can make revisions to thelanguage if they have any, and
then they will eventually signoff and say this is what we
agreed to.
I'm ready for this to go overto the court, and if you.
One important key is that ifyou have a binding mediated
(12:40):
settlement agreement and thenyou get, you're circulating the
final decree of divorce, thefinal order, and you say I don't
like this provision, Well theonly way that you're going to
get that provision out of thefinal decree is if it wasn't in
the mediated settlementagreement, Because if it's in
the mediated settlementagreement, it's going in the
final decree.
(13:01):
There are some other ancillarydocuments.
There are child supportdocuments, real property
documents.
Tell me a little bit about thechild support and real property
documents.
Bri Holcombe (13:11):
So the child support documents.
It really just depends on ifthe parties have decided that a
party is paying child support.
If they are.
Typically, what we're going tofile is called an income
withholding order, which isessentially a document that is
used to withhold funds from anobligor.
That's what we call someonepaying child support from their
paycheck.
(13:32):
So this document gets signed bythe judge, it gets sent then to
an obligor's employer and itsays here's how much money we
should be withholding from thisperson's paycheck so that child
support can be received.
There's another document thataccompanies it, called a record
of support, which essentially isa document that the child
support office uses in order todetermine who's paying child
(13:53):
support, what amount, and didwithholding get issued, to
determine who's paying childsupport, what amount and did
withholding get issued.
There's also a Bureau of VitalStatistics form.
We call that a BVS form.
Essentially, what this formdoes is it just lists, you know,
the names of the people who aregetting divorced, their
birthdays, their race, theirdate of marriage, their
children's information, so thatHarris County or Fort Bend
County has some informationabout who people are for public
(14:17):
record, and with the propertydocuments, there could be a
couple of different documents weuse.
If there is a home that onespouse is keeping, we would do
what's called a deed of trustand a special warranty deed,
essentially what those documentsare.
A special warranty deed says Igive my interest in a home to my
spouse and what happens is thenthat spouse who's receiving the
(14:39):
home takes 100% ownership.
A deed of trust is alsoexecuted by the spouse retaining
the home saying I promise tocontinue making these mortgage
payments.
We could also have what's calleda quadro, a qualified domestic
relations order.
This is a document that is usedto split retirement accounts
with no penalty or taxes tospouses during a divorce.
(15:01):
So essentially, what happens isthis is another document the
judge will sign.
It then gets sent to the planadministrator, which is the
entity that holds the retirementaccounts, like a Fidelity or a
401k employer-sponsored plan.
The plan administrator thenwill receive that quadro make
the division of the retirementaccounts, again with no taxes or
(15:23):
penalties associated withsplitting and dividing that
account.
There's also a power of attorney, which is a document used to
remove one spouse's name fromthe title of a vehicle.
That's a great one to use andeven if you don't know, I'm not
sure if my spouse's name is on avehicle or not, it's a good
idea just to get one so that youhave it in the event that you
(15:43):
find the title and it does haveyour spouse on it Once the
divorce is finalized.
We don't want spouses tocontinue to have to speak with
each other if the marriage endedon bad terms.
Alex Hunt (15:53):
Absolutely.
So.
You've got the final decree ofdivorce, you've got child
support paperwork, you mighthave real property paperwork if
you have a house together orhouses, and you'll have,
potentially, retirementdocuments and then, finally, a
document for either your vehicleor both of your vehicles to
make sure that your names areoff of the titles.
(16:13):
So once you, as the lawyer,drafts those documents up, you
then send it over to your client.
They review it together.
You and the client will reviewit together.
They'll make any revisions.
They'll ask any questions.
Where do you go from there?
Bri Holcombe (16:29):
So what I like to do is have a phone call with a
client to go through the divorcedecree.
It's not going to be a four orfive page document like the
mediated settlement agreementwill be.
If you have children, yourdivorce decree is going to be 50
plus pages long.
So I like to set a time asidean hour, hour and a half to
review in great detail thatfinal decree.
I want my client to know everysingle piece of their divorce
(16:53):
decree so that if they haveproblems in the future they know
where they could even directthose questions to and find the
answer to those questions.
There's a lot of boilerplateand legalese contained in it and
I like to try and break thatdown for the client.
Once we review and they feelconfident in signing the final
decree and any of the ancillarydocuments, we send it over to
(17:14):
their spouse ask for signatureas well.
Once we get that back, then wecan sign everything, or I can
place my signature on it and wecan then file it with the court.
When we file it with the court,we will either set it for a
signing box submission, justdepending on where we flow, or
we'll email the court directlyand ask them to sign the final
decree based off the mediatedsettlement agreement.
(17:36):
When we do that, thereoftentimes is one more piece
that has to happen, which iscalled a prove-up.
Essentially, what a prove-up isis the jurisdiction
requirements that are presentedto the court in order for the
judge to sign off on the divorce.
It says, if we do it by anaffidavit, which is a written
statement where I live, who mychildren are, what the date of
(17:57):
my marriage was, the date of myseparation that I reached a
mediated settlement agreementand I'm asking the court to
approve my agreement and grantme a divorce, we oftentimes will
do that by an affidavit,meaning that the client signs
what I have written out for them, those requirements, and then
we submit that to the court.
Some courts, though, requirethat be in person.
(18:18):
So it's a quick five-minutequestion and answer where I say
you reside in Harris County, youwere married to your spouse on
December 14th 2024.
All of those, once they're met,then the judge is entitled to
render meaning they can sign thefinal decree, as long as it is
in conformance with the mediatedsettlement agreement.
Alex Hunt (18:38):
And we're recording this in 2025.
And before 2020, it used to bethat there was really no way for
a could get out of going tocourt.
You had to go to court.
You had to have that fiveminute interaction with the
judge.
You had to say that you met thejurisdictional requirements and
that you're expecting or thatyou've adopted they want to make
(19:03):
sure that everybody's capturedin the divorce.
There was no way to avoid goingdowntown to the courthouse or
wherever your court is.
And then COVID and then thathappened and now there is the
ability to just sign thataffidavit in most courts and, as
of 2025, I would say, most ofthe courts still allow that your
(19:23):
, just your lawyer, will draftup a prove up affidavit, you'll
sign off on it, it'll besubmitted to the court and then
the judge should review it andsign off on it.
Some courts are moving back towhat we did pre 2020, where they
require you to go in person toprove it up.
But now there's a third optionwhere some are allowing either
(20:04):
by Zoom or WebEx videoconference.
They're allowing have to comein person or you have to do it
on Zoom, but moving away fromthose affidavits.
But, as of right now, most ofthe courts are allowing the
affidavit option, which is goodbecause if you could stay out of
court that's why you're doingthis uncontested, it's good to
try to stay out of court.
So the final piece of the puzzlewould be the court would sign
(20:25):
off on your final decree ofdivorce, you would receive a
certified copy of it and thenthere might be a few steps after
you receive your document inthe mail and so if you have a
retirement account, it might begetting that quadro that
qualified domestic relationsorder.
You might have to send that toyour plan administrator and wait
(20:45):
and make sure that theyactually divide it properly.
If you have motor vehicle thathas your spouse's name on it,
you might have to make a tripdown to the tax office or to the
dmv to get a new, clean copy ofyour title.
Without your spouse's name onit you might need to change your
name.
If you get divorced and you goback to your maiden name, your
(21:08):
former name, then you might needto go to the driver's license
office or the social securityoffice passport office and get
your name changed.
But in terms of getting theactual divorce signed at this
point in the process, once thejudge signed, it's a done deal
and then your lawyer, certainlyour office, would help guide you
(21:29):
through those remaining steps.
Did I miss any?
Bri Holcombe (21:31):
flow, we can always have these things teed up
and ready to go.
So on that 61st day the courtcan pronounce you officially
divorced.
So Texas has a waiting periodfrom the date that you file the
petition.
So that very first step 60 daysmust pass in order for the
(21:54):
court to officially divorce you.
Alex Hunt (21:55):
Definitely A cooling off period and Texas actually
has one of the shorter coolingoff periods.
They don't want you filing forfor divorce and getting divorced
on the same day.
Bri Holcombe (22:05):
Changing your mind .
Alex Hunt (22:06):
And then changing your mind later in the week.
So, brie, did we miss anythingelse?
I don't think.
So.
See the visual representationof what we talked about.
You can go tofamilylawyerkatiecom.
On the top of the screen you'llsee a button called resources.
(22:26):
Click on that and then you'llsee steps in an uncontested
divorce.
We also have a number of otherpractice areas where you could
see a flow chart and some of thekey terms that you need to know
from contested divorces,adoptions, name changes and
child custody cases.
So again, brie, thank you verymuch.
Thank you.
If you'd like to see moreinformation about our firm, hunt
(22:49):
Law Firm, you can go tofamilylawyerkatiecom or you can
call us at 832-315-5494.
See you next time on.
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