Spousal maintenance (which is commonly compared to other states’ alimony) is a payment from one spouse to another to help the other spouse meet their “minimum reasonable needs” after divorce. A Texas divorce court will determine what is considered to be a spouse’s “minimum reasonable needs,” and can take many…
A court may order Texas spousal maintenance if the spouse requesting it is not able to earn enough to provide for their own minimum reasonable needs due to an incapacitating disability. The incapacitating disability may be either physical or mental. Tex. Fam. Code 8.051. A former husband recently challenged a…
Texas divorce cases can involve multiple areas of law. Contract law applies to pre-marital and post-marital agreements. Contract law may also apply to agreements the parties enter into as part of a divorce. In a recent case, a portion of a wife’s claims for contractual alimony was barred by the…
In a Texas divorce, if one spouse does not have sufficient property to provide for his or her minimum reasonable needs and is not able to earn enough income to provide for those needs and certain other circumstances are met, the court may order spousal maintenance. Tex. Fam. Code §…
In a Texas divorce, a spouse who cannot support herself or himself because of an incapacitating disability and does not have sufficient property to meet their needs may be eligible for spousal maintenance. Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 8.051. Spousal support is generally limited in time, but a court may…
In many cases, when a person seeks to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the United States, also known as a green card, they must have a sponsor who agrees to support them. If the person is moving to the United States as a spouse of or to marry a…
In a Texas divorce, the court may award spousal maintenance if the marriage lasted at least 10 years and the spouse seeking maintenance lacks sufficient property to meet his or her minimum reasonable needs and has insufficient earning capability to support herself or himself. A Texas court recently considered whether…
In a recent Texas alimony decision, an ex-husband appealed the granting of spousal maintenance to his ex-wife. The couple had married in 2005. The man sued for divorce 10 years later. The woman claimed that the formal marriage had occurred in 2005, but they had married in 1999 when she…
In a recent Texas spousal maintenance case, a husband appealed from a final divorce decree. He claimed the court made a mistake by awarding the wife $1,500 in spousal maintenance, awarding temporary spousal support of $2,500 each month, ordering him to pay $20,000 in delinquent temporary spousal support payments, failing…
I know what you’re thinking…. “I’m already married; how is it not too late?” Don’t worry; the solution is a postnup! The Texas Family Code allows for couples to enter into a postnuptial agreement (or marital property agreement), which will offer many of the same protections and advantages that a…