Hiring a Fort Worth divorce lawyer can help make the process less painful. Allow the divorce lawyer to deal with the legal issues to set you up for a brighter future. Hiring a Fort Worth divorce attorney does not mean you are gearing up for conflict in your divorce. It only means you are aware you are not an expert in Texas family law, valuing property and designing custody arrangements in post-divorce families and you want professional help.
Your needs in a Dallas or Tarrant County contested divorce
Divorce is about more than just ending the marriage. It’s about arranging the future of the soon-to-be-ex-spouses and the children. The key issues to address in your marriage are:
- Financial, emotional and family stability during and after the divorce
- Custody of the children and the co-parenting relationship after divorce
- Financial support for the children
- Dividing marital property in a way that is fair and financially prudent
- Dealing with the emotional aspects of divorce and life after divorce
Experienced divorce lawyers understand the role each of these issues play in a divorce and the impact they will play in your life after.
Stability during the divorce process in Texas
While the divorce is ongoing there needs to be an arrangement to ensure the parents have access to the children and they are cared for. In a marital dissolution it is typically to seek temporary orders from the court for these purposes. This process is a substantial part of the divorce and a place where your divorce lawyer can make a huge difference in the final outcome.
Custody and the co-parenting relationship under Texas law
Your relationship with your children is important. As part of ending your marriage it is vital that you preserve access to your children. We have to consider what custodial arrangement is best for your children and your co-parenting relationship.
Your relationship with your children is a long term commitment. It’s easy to reach for the custody agreement that makes sense right now and gets the divorce finished; but your relationship with your kids is not a short term relationship. Your situation right now may be significantly different in six months or a year or five years from now. Balancing your short term needs against your long term needs reduces the likelihood that the co-parenting relationship will break down. Assessing the long term child custody needs is far more important than a quick fix.
Financial support for your children in Texas
In the end you will need to think about the financial care for your children whether you are going to receive child support or pay child support. You need to ensure fair terms are established that will adequately provide for the well-being of your children.
Child support is often a contested issue in a divorce; however, it is an important part of the financial stability of the children. In some cases it may be necessary to determine paternity before committing to a child support obligation over the children.
Dealing with assets and debts in a Texas divorce
You acquired property and debts during the divorce that are jointly owned by both spouses. Dividing this property is not just about cutting everything in half. There are meaningful ways to divide property to maximize the rights of each party and fairly divide liability for debts.
The property division cycles back into custody issues. The relationship between the property division and custody issues is a commonly ignored issue. Financial instability after the divorce can have a real problem for your relationship with your children. How will you afford child support if you’re drowning in debt? What kind of meaningful relationship will you have with your kids if you’re spending all your time working? Can assets be set aside for the benefit of the children? The more likely financial stability, the more likely custodial stability will also occur.
Dealing with the emotional aspects of a divorce
Your divorce will take an emotional toll on you and your children. It may have tough effects on your relationship with your children. These issues need to be dealt with for your own mental health and the welfare of your children. Although your divorce attorney will not take care of this need, by hiring a lawyer to care for your legal needs you can focus on your emotional needs.
Common Questions for a Fort Worth Divorce Attorney
You can handle your own divorce if you believe you have the expertise to divide assets in a meaningful way, to adequately protect your parental rights and access to your children, to maneuver the judicial process and obtain the information through the divorce necessary to make these decisions and you are willing to accept the risk of whatever happens if you are wrong. The truth is that most people do not have this expertise any more than they have the expertise to perform their own dental work, surgery, plumbing, or other work that requires a high level of expertise in a specific kind of knowledge.
The more the parties can cooperate in the divorce the higher the probability that both parties will leave the divorce in a healthy position and that is truly important when kids are involved. It is important to consider whether the agreement is fair and make sure that my client understands the implications of the agreement.
There’s no hard and fast rule about what your divorce will cost unless you have a truly uncontested, agreed divorce. For all other divorces it depends upon the complexity of the issues involved, the amount of conflict between the parties and how deep into the judicial process your divorce goes before a resolution is reached.
Under the Texas Family Code a divorce cannot be granted in less than sixty days unless domestic violence is an issue. There is no maximum time period and sometimes divorces take years to resolve. However, the average divorce usually reaches a conclusion in six to nine months. The time involved in your case will depend upon the complexity and the conflict between the parties.Under the Texas Family Code property is divided in a manner that is “just and right” applying our strange community property rules. That does not mean everything the spouses own will be added together and cut in half.
Dividing property is not just about balancing the financial value of what each party gets but also what property is actually received. For example, if you keep the house and your spouse moves into an apartment then there is no reason to divide the lawn care equipment just say to everything was divided in half. The apartment dweller has no use for a lawn mower.
Many people believe the mother always gets the kids and dad ends up being an afterthought on a few weekends. This arrangement does occur often but not because the law or judges necessarily favor mothers over fathers. Rather, this often happens because mothers are more likely to be the primary caretaker for the children during the marriage and maintaining that level of care is important for the children.
However, this does not have to be the case in your divorce. How time and rights will be divided depends upon the particular facts in your case and what agreement the parties can reach. I have helped many people obtain 50/50 custody arrangements and other custom arrangements that reflect the best interests of the children and preserves the parenting relationships.
Some people seek out attorneys who advertise as aggressive family law attorneys for various reasons. Sometimes they want to cause emotional pain to their spouse as part of the divorce. Sometimes they think taking the most hostile approach will give the best results.
Generally this approach does not create an advantage for clients. Often cases that go down this path are far more expensive than necessary and the parties end up getting a lot less beneficial result because each side digs in and focuses on how little the other side gets rather than what is best in the long term for themselves. Sometimes an assertive position is necessary in a divorce. The way the divorce process works needs crafting to your individual needs. Sometimes a divorce requires a more aggressive posture, sometimes a more cooperative approach.