Parenting When Your Ex Is Rich and You Are Not
As a practicing attorney since 1994 I have frequently seen clients have to scale back their lifestyle dramatically after the divorce. To a certain extent this is to be expected anytime you take the same amount of income and you go from one household to two. This type of situation requires a bit of belt-tightening for both parties and is very common.
Continue reading →Visitation – Birthday vs. Holiday Schedule
On my other website (morganlawlakeway.com) I recently responded to a comment which asked an interesting question – what happens under the Standard Possession Order when a child’s birthday falls on one of the designated holiday periods.
It was interesting to me that Continue reading →
What Issues Must be Resolved in a Texas Divorce?
If you need a divorce the best case scenario is that all issues be resolved by a fair agreement. Contested divorce cases and trials can be expensive, exhausting, and are often unnecessary.
People sometimes wrongly assume that their divorce will be “uncontested” because neither spouse wishes to remain married. The reality is that there are usually several other issues that must be agreed to (or decided by a judge) before a divorce can be finalized. The following is a brief outline of a few areas that Continue reading →
Relocation Cases
Here is an interesting post about relocation cases in the state of Nevada. The author is a college professor in Nevada who blogs about his divorce experience. He describes the relocation statute and how, in his opinion, it is usually applied in a way that allows the custodial parent to move the child away from the non-custodial parent.
The Nevada statute gives very specific guidance to the court making such a decision but Continue reading →
How to Break the News of Divorce to Your Kids
One of the trickiest parts of a divorce for parents is breaking the news of the separation to the kids. The issues are different depending on the ages of your children but it is always an important conversation. I wrote a very comprehensive guide to how to prepare for and handle this situation on our Lakeway divorce site, you can view the post here.
The guide covers general suggestions that apply to all situations regardless of age and has additional specific tips that are applicable to preschool age children, elementary school age children and teenagers. If you or someone close to you is in this position I really recommend you take a look at this guide for some tips on how to handle this discussion in a way that will best help your child deal with it. And if you are considering divorce and have not tried marriage counseling yet then it is worth the attempt before filing a divorce case.
A Helpful Aid for Long-Distance Access: Skype Visitation
When a couple has divorced and one or both of the parties has moved out of the area, it can make it can become extremely difficult and sometimes impossible for the non-custodial parent to have frequent access and communication with the children. With the increasing mobility of our society and the much more typical career changes that seem to be a staple of our current economic times, this situation has become a very common occurrence.
Standard Possession Order Visitation Schedule – Long Distance Access
This situation is so common in fact that the Texas Standard Possession visitation schedule (the one that is included in some form in most court orders involving child possession and access) has provisions that address both when the parents live within 100 miles of each other and also when they live further than 100 miles apart. The over and under 100 mile schedules are fairly similar to each other in most respects, with a few key differences. Continue reading →
What is a Financial Information Statement?
A Financial Information Statement is a court-required document for nearly all temporary orders hearings and final trials in Texas divorce cases. Here is a sample Financial Information Statement so you have an idea of what they look like. The names and details used are all fictional, although the facts used are relatively typical of the issues dealt with in a Texas divorce. The sample document is based on a husband who expects to move out of the residence and pay child support. In a real case both sides prepare and submit a Financial Information Statement to the court prior to a temporary orders hearing. Continue reading →
My Thoughts on Top 10 Tips for Great Divorce
I came across a thought-provoking article by Pamela Cytrynbaum on psychologytoday.com, entitled Top 10 Tips for a Great Divorce. It gives her suggestions on how to turn an amicable separation into an amicable divorce. I mostly agree with what she suggests, although I have different thoughts on a few of the issues. I encourage you to check out the article. Here are my thoughts on some of her tips that I took issue with: Continue reading →
Visitation – What is the Texas Standard Possession Order?
The Standard Possession Order (SPO) is a default visitation schedule defined by the Texas Family Code that is used in the vast majority of Texas divorce cases involving children. It is extremely detailed and lengthy and is one of the main reasons that divorce decrees in cases with children are usually 30 to 40 pages long. The Standard Possession Order statute is Texas Family Code Section 153.3101 through 153.317.
Every order has its own particular provisions, so please refer to the specifics of your own order for guidance if you have one. Also note that all of the terms are subject to alteration, either by negotiation or court order. This article is designed to give a brief overview of the statute and how its key provisions work Continue reading →
What Effect Does Adultery Have on a Texas Divorce Case
This post will discuss the legal and practical implications of extramarital affairs on a Texas divorce case.
Adultery is a Statutory Grounds for Divorce in Texas
The Texas Family Code has long held that adultery is a grounds for divorce. See Section 6.003 of the Texas Family Code. Its use as a grounds for divorce has become far less significant since Texas became a no-fault divorce state many years ago. Nonetheless, it is frequently pled as a grounds for divorce and a judge can find that the grounds for divorce was adultery, not the much more commonly used Continue reading →