Texas Divorce Process Timeline

After your petition for divorce has been filed, Texas law requires a 60-day waiting period in order for the divorce to be finalized, even if it is uncontested. During this time, you or your spouse may file temporary orders to create parameters of conduct during the divorce process. After their establishment, the parties may engage in discovery. This means obtaining oral testimony and information via written requests, as well as relevant documents and information on issues including the parties’ tax information, witnesses, legal theories, finances, personal property or real estate.

We will help you secure and analyze documents and information that will help your case if you wish to address issues such as alimony, child custody, child support or fault. We will also help send formal requests that will provide additional evidence to help better present your claim.

In a divorce proceeding, one of the most common issues is to address the identification and division of community property.We will guide you through this process and help you reach an agreement so that there are no uncertainties about what liabilities and assets belong to whom. We will also help you sort through reimbursement issues which can arise, for example, when community resources are used to improve a separate property asset or vice versa.

If you and your spouse have children together, our family law firm can help you address important issues for developing a successful parenting plan including custody, visitation, child support, medical support, daycare or school-related issues, extracurricular activities, restrictions, and other custody-related issues that apply to your unique case.

The formal negotiation process between two parties in an attempt to reach a mutual agreement is known as divorce mediation. It may occur at the beginning of the case, before the discovery is finished or closer to the trial date after the discovery phase has ended. In some cases, a court may require mediation before a temporary orders hearing while others require mediation before the final trial. Contact us today to learn more about the settlement options available to you.

After the divorce decree is submitted to the court and the judge enters a decree of divorce, Texas law states neither spouse can remarry for 31 days. The exception to this rule is that the couple that just received the divorce may remarry each other without this waiting requirement.

If a party wants to remarry sooner than 31 days after the decree was signed by the court, their attorney may ask the court to waive the waiting requirement so long as “good cause” is shown. Good cause can be shown in different situations, including military obligations or a showing that financial expenditures for a wedding date within the waiting period have already been incurred.