The court in a Texas divorce must make a just and right division of the marital estate. The estate does not have to be equally divided if there is a reasonable basis in the record for an unequal division. A former husband recently challenged, for the second time, the property…
Texas custody orders commonly include geographic restrictions limiting a parent’s ability to relocate the children outside a specified area. Regardless of whether there is a geographic restriction, a parent may seek to prevent the other parent from relocating with the children, often through modification of the custody order to either…
When a person seeks divorce from an informal marriage, they often must prove the informal marriage existed. To prove a Texas informal marriage, the party must show by the preponderance of the evidence that the couple agreed to be married, subsequently lived together in Texas as spouses, and held themselves…
In some circumstances, a court may order supervised visitation in a Texas custody case if necessary to protect the child’s health and safety. Supervised visitation allows the parent and child to maintain their relationship, while protecting he child’s safety. A father recently appealed a modification order requiring him to comply…
Trial courts are permitted to award Texas spousal maintenance in only limited circumstances. If the spouse meets the eligibility requirements for maintenance, the court must consider a number of factors to determine the nature, amount, and duration. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.052. Spousal maintenance is limited to the lesser of…
A court may retroactively modify a Texas child support order in some circumstances, but it generally may only do so as to child support obligations that accrue after the earlier of the date of service of citation or an appearance in the modification suit. Tex. Fam. Code 156.401. A father…
A trial court may not amend, modify, alter or change the substantive property division in a divorce decree after expiration of its plenary power. The court retains jurisdiction, however, to enforce or clarify the property division in the divorce decree. A former husband recently appealed a trial court’s appointment of…
Both the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution prohibit the state from depriving a person of a liberty interest without due process of law. Case law has established that parental rights are fundamental liberty interests. Due process generally requires that a person be given a meaningful…
A trial court in a Texas divorce case has discretion in how the trial is conducted, but that discretion is not unlimited. In a recent case, the appeals court determined the trial court abused its discretion by imposing time restrictions that allowed the husband more time to present the case…
Once its plenary power has expired, a trial court cannot change the substantive property division stated in a final Texas divorce decree. It does, however, retain the power to clarify or enforce that property division. A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO”) is a post-divorce enforcement order and therefore cannot change…