Family Law Blog

Discovery is the formal process by which documents or other evidence can be obtained from the other party in a lawsuit. The most common forms of discovery are:

Interrogatories - a set of questions direct to the other party about any matter that is relevant to your case.

Request for Production of Documents - a set of questions inquiring as to the existence, description, condition, location, and contents of documents or other tangible things.

Deposition - informal testimony taken outside of a trial, under oath, and subject to cross-examination by opposing counsel. This testimony may be ...

No, the previous parents cannot get a child back after an adoption is complete. Adoption is a legal process by which the parent-child relationship is permanently formed. Before a child is eligible to be adopted, the parental rights of the former parent must be terminated, or the former parent must be deceased.

The adoptive parent takes on all of the rights and duties of being the parent. So, once the adoption is complete, the adoptive parent can even have his/her name added to the child's birth certificate. This cannot be undone, and the former parents can not get the child back.

A divorce cannot be finalized any sooner than 60 days from the date the divorce petition is filed. This is because Texas law requires parties to have a “cooling off” period between when a divorce is filed and when a divorce is finalized. Typically, these 60 days are needed for the parties to come to an agreement about the terms of the divorce.

If the divorce is complicated or contested, it may take much longer than 60 days. It is not uncommon for a divorce involving children, retirement accounts, or businesses to take 6-9 months to finalize. Sometimes, a divorce takes more than a year.

A divorce can be finalized in two ways: (1) by agreement between the parties; or (2) by a judge deciding on the terms of the divorce decree. When parties agree on all of the terms of the divorce, the judge just needs to sign the decree in order to finalize the divorce. One of the two parties will still need to go to court in order to obtain the judge’s signature. This process is typically called a “prove-up”.

When parties cannot agree on all of the terms of the divorce, the parties will have to go to Court, present evidence to the judge, and allow the judge to make a ruling on what the terms of the ...

Texas is a community property state; however, property that is obtained as an inheritance is separate property. Upon divorce, a court can only divide the community property and the court has no authority to divide separate property. So, an inheritance belongs to the spouse that received it and the other spouse can not take any part of it during the divorce.

Unfortunately, it is not always that simple. The spouse who claims that a certain property was received as an inheritance has a burden to prove this to the court by clear & convincing evidence. This can be hard, or impossible, to do in ...

In Texas, one parent typically is the “primary” caregiver, and the other parent is the secondary, or non-possessory parent. This is true even though both parents usually have the title of “joint managing conservator”. The non-possessory parent is usually obligated to pay child support to the primary caregiver.

Texas Law provides for a standard, “guideline”, amount of child support. The guideline amount of child support depends upon the number of children and the amount of income that the non-possessory parent has. The guideline amount is 20% for 1 child, 25% for 2 ...