Published on: | by

Enforcing a child support order against a person who fails or refuses to pay can become time-consuming and expensive.  Texas family law provides multiple options for enforcing a child support order.  It also allows a person enforcing a child support order to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and costs if the court finds the other party “failed to make child support payments.” TEX. FAM. CODE § 157.167(a).

When a child support payment is not timely made, it becomes a final judgment by operation of law. TEX. FAM. CODE  § 157.261(a) In a recent case, the mother sought a writ of execution on the final judgment that arose as a result of the father’s failure to pay the child support.  The trial court found she had “a valid enforceable judgment” that was “wholly unsatisfied and subject to execution.”  The constable took possession of certain of the father’s property and held an execution sale.  Both the mother and father sought disbursement of the proceeds of the sale.

There was additional litigation related to the mother’s collection efforts.  The trial court ultimately ordered the father to pay $30,675 to the mother for attorney’s fees.  The trial court based the attorney’s fees on the attorney’s affidavit and timesheet.  The father appealed.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

Texas recognizes common law marriages. To have a common law marriage, the parties must have agreed to be married, must have lived together as spouses after that agreement, and presented themselves as married.  When most people think of common law marriages, they consider couples who were never formally married.  However, in a recent case, a man sought a Texas divorce from his ex-wife, alleging there was a common law marriage after their original divorce.

The parties married in 2000 and divorced in 2005.  They lived together until at least 2006 and had children together in 2006 and 2007. They worked together.  Although they agreed that the relationship changed in 2012, they did not agree as to what happened later.  The husband claimed they moved back in together by the end of 2013 and continued their relationship until late 2014.

The husband filed for divorce in 2015. The wife moved for summary judgment on the grounds that they were not married.  She argued they did not meet the requirements of a common law marriage. She offered affidavits the parties signed in 2013 indicating they were not married, did not live together, and had not held themselves out as married.  In her deposition, she had denied living with the husband.  She also pointed out the husband was unable identify the exact date of an agreement to be married.  She also relied on documents in which the husband indicated he was divorced and not married, including a bankruptcy petition filed under oath.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

A spouse who improperly spends large amounts of community assets without the other spouse’s knowledge or consent may receive a smaller share of the remaining community estate during a Texas divorce.  A Texas appeals court recently considered whether a property division was just and right after the trial court found the husband had committed fraud on the estate by spending money on other women.The wife filed for divorce after learning her husband had been unfaithful.  The husband testified to having affairs for the past 30 years.  He took the other women on trips and shopping sprees, paid their rent and car payments, and hired some of them and gave some of them money for their own start-ups.  He paid for these things through his business accounts, company credit cards, and petty cash from his pharmacy.

The wife hired a CPA to provide an accounting of the husband’s businesses.  The CPA rendered an opinion that more than $7 million was either missing or spent in transactions that did not benefit the community estate.

The husband rejected the amount identified by the wife’s CPA, claiming a large portion of the amount identified did not exist. His expert opined that the wife’s accountant had made conclusions based on insufficient data.  The husband’s employee testified the husband never took petty cash.  She also stated some of the transactions identified by the plaintiff’s accountant were not fraudulent because they benefited either the business or the community estate.  The trial court found the husband was not a credible witness, spoliated evidence, and committed a fraud on the community of nearly $4 million.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

In Texas divorces, it is common for the parties to agree to a property division and ask the court to approve the agreement and include it in the decree.  Once the court does so, it generally may not modify or alter the property division included in the agreement.  It may, however, still divide property that was not divided in the agreement and decree.  It is therefore important for the parties to be sure the agreement to clearly divide everything, or they may have to go back to court to address something that was omitted.  This can be difficult in some cases, however. What happens, for example, when the agreement and decree divide the net amount of a bonus, but do not address pre-tax deductions that go to one of the parties?  A recent case addressed this issue.

The divorce decree incorporated the agreement between the parties, which included a detailed division of the marital estate based on the informal agreement the parties executed at a settlement conference.  The agreement stated the husband would receive 47% of the net amount of his 2013 year-end bonus and wife would get a 53% portion of the “net amount after taxes and deductions.”    The agreement also stated the wedding and engagement ring were the wife’s separate property.

The husband’s pay stub showed he received $460,000 for his 2013 bonus, but reflected two pre-tax deductions totaling $81,000.  The deductions included $75,000 for deferred annual bonus and $6,000 for personal savings account contribution. Taxes totaled $108,711.10 and the pay stub listed $270,228.90 as the “net pay” for the bonus.  The husband paid the wife 53% of the net pay amount.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

Texas is a community property state, and property acquired during a marriage is generally distributed equitably at the time of a Texas divorce.  However, couples may enter into premarital agreements, also known as prenuptial agreements, that alter the way property will be identified and distributed if a divorce should occur.

A premarital agreement played a significant role in one recent case.  Before marriage, the couple executed a premarital agreement that identified the separate property belonging to each party and precluded the acquisition of community property during the marriage.  They had two children together.  The wife filed for divorce after seven years.

The parties agreed to a joint managing conservatorship.  They stipulated there was a premarital agreement, and neither challenged its enforceability.  The trial court ultimately entered a final decree.    The court also confirmed certain real property was the wife’s separate property.  It also found the husband had breached the premarital agreement by raising a claim against that property and awarded attorney’s fees to the wife.  The court modified the standard possession order by not allowing overnight visits with the father on Thursdays and Sundays. The husband ultimately appealed.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

When a business is struggling, the owner often wants to put money into it to try to save it.  This can be a simple matter when both spouses have ownership in the business.  Texas divorce attorneys understand, however, that it can be complicated when the business is one spouse’s separate property.  A Texas appeals court recently addressed this issue.The wife filed for divorce nearly 14 years after the marriage.  At the time of the divorce, the wife was employed full-time.  The husband was unemployed and not seeking employment.  He stated he spent significant time dealing with a lawsuit involving his separate business.

The husband stated the business existed before the parties were married.  It ran independent businesses inside amusement parks.  Under the original arrangement, it paid the amusement park about 30% of the earnings of each location.  The wife stated that the business had done well and was profitable at that time.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

Dividing property is an important aspect of the divorce process.  Only community property is divided by the court, however.  Although property acquired during the marriage is presumed to be community property, Texas divorce attorneys know there are some exceptions.  A gift made to one spouse during the marriage is separate property.

A Texas appeals court recently reviewed whether property conveyed by the husband’s mother was properly characterized as community property.  The husband appealed the final divorce decree.  He challenged the characterization of about five acres as community property.  The court had found it was community property and awarded half of it to the wife.

At trial, the husband argued the property had been a gift from his mother and was therefore his separate property.  The wife argued the couple had begun the process of obtaining an equity loan for repairs to the property in 2013.  In November 2018, the husband’s mother signed a quitclaim deed transferring the property to her son.  The wife testified the deed had been printed from the internet, and the intent was for the husband to get the property so that they could obtain the loan and repair it.  The bank did not recognize the quitclaim deed, due to a lack of legal description of the property.  The husband’s mother then executed a general warranty deed conveying the property to both the husband and the wife.  The wife stated the warranty deed and a subsequent correction affidavit were intended to make both of them the property owners.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

In a Texas divorce, the court is required to divide the property in a “just and right” manner.  The court is not required to divide the property equally but must divide it equitably.  It may order a disproportionate division if it has a reasonable basis to do so.  There are a number of factors a trial court may consider in dividing the community estate.  Those factors include the nature of the property, income disparity, business opportunities, relative financial conditions and obligations, education, physical condition, age, fault in the break-up, the benefit the innocent spouse would have received if the marriage continued, the size of the separate estates, and a probable need for future support.

The husband in a recent case challenged the disproportionate division of property in favor of the wife.  The wife filed for divorce after finding escort and dating websites on her husband’s phone and home computer.  She ultimately requested a disproportionate division of the property, arguing the husband was at fault in the breakup, wasted community assets, gifted community assets, and committed actual or constructive fraud.

The parties had a variety of financial and investment accounts.  The wife said her husband managed her separate property investment accounts, and she did not have information about them. She also testified that he provided her with a statement purportedly identifying all of the accounts.  That statement included $60,000 in company stock of his former employer.  A 1099 indicated the husband sold 6,000 shares of the stock for $1,200 in September 2015.  He testified he was “given” 6,000 shares when he started working there, but he had to pay $1,200.  He further testified that the company required him to sell the stock back for the purchase price when he left the company.  He said he did not update the information on the statement after selling the stock.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

In Texas spousal maintenance cases, the trial court has wide discretion in dividing the estate.  The court may divide the property unequally if there is a reasonable basis to do so.  It may consider a number of factors, including the capacities and abilities of each spouse, benefits the spouse who was not at fault would have received if the marriage had continued, their relative physical conditions, and their relative financial conditions and obligations.  Although the trial court may also consider fault in causing the divorce, it does not have to do so and cannot use property division to punish the at-fault spouse.

A recent case examined whether an equal division of property and an award of spousal maintenance were proper.  The couple married in 1999 and had two children together.  During the marriage, the husband developed a substance abuse problem and was incarcerated for six years.  In 2014, he was convicted of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and was sentenced to 17 years.  The wife filed for divorce on the day of his conviction.

The husband had previously received a $900,000 settlement for personal injuries, netting him more than $400,000.  About $70,000 was used to pay household expenses and community debts, including mortgage payments and getting a car that was ultimately awarded to the wife.  At the time of the last divorce hearing, he still had more than $300,000 held in his attorney’s trust account.

Continue Reading ›

Published on: | by

In a recent Texas child custody case, a father challenged the modification of conservatorship of a former couple’s child. The modification allowed the mother to go abroad with their child. The case arose when the mother moved to modify the divorce decree, which had appointed her and her ex-husband as joint managing conservators of the child. The decree didn’t mention the child’s ability to go abroad. In her motion, the mother claimed there was a substantial change in circumstances. Specifically, the mother claimed it was in the child’s best interests to be able to go to the country of the mother’s birth (Kenya) because her grandmother had recently died, and the mother wanted to go visit and go to the memorial service.

The mother asked for temporary orders. She wanted the father to execute a written consent and other forms required for travel, and she also wanted an international travel provision to be added to the final decree.

The father asked the court to deny international travel privileges until their child had reached age 16 or the age of maturity under the Texas Family Code section 153.501. This code section states that if there’s credible evidence showing a potential risk of international kidnapping of a child by a parent, the court can take specific protective measures. Continue Reading ›

Contact Information
Park Cities/Dallas
8115 Preston Rd #270
Dallas, TX 75225
Phone: 214.692.8200Fax: 214.692.8255

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2025, McClure Law Group
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design