In any Texas divorce case, the division of marital property and debt is an important topic. Certainly, working for the entirety of your adult life towards a goal to become financially independent, in a position to care for your loved ones, or just to be in a position where you can give generously to those around you is an important and admirable goal. With that said, your goals may come crashing down when you come face to face with a divorce. What’s worse in the context of a divorce is not knowing certain pieces of information about the case. For instance, how is marital property treated in Texas? What factors go into how marital property is divided and what special considerations are there for military families?
In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, I would like to discuss with you these factors. Considering the sheer volume of information available on the Internet about Community property in Texas I do not want to overwhelm you with facts and figures and legal jargon. Rather, I am going to do my best to provide you with basic information that should be able to assist you in getting a better idea about what you may be in store for when it comes to dividing up your community a state. For as long as people have been getting a divorce in Texas, Community property has been an important subject. Let’s walk through the subject matter that will be most important to your case to gain a better understanding of this important subject.
What property is in play for your Texas divorce?
It is less important to know textbook pieces of information on Community property law. If you are very interested you can search through the Texas family code, appellate case decisions, and a host of larvae articles that can provide you with the basics of information on this subject. However, I think it is probably more relevant for you to learn about the practical application of the law to be better prepared for your divorce. I have found that people Mikey tend to become a lot more clear-headed and com about divorce when they learn what may be in store for them on a practical level.
the important thing about Community property is identifying the property that you own. We are not talking about theoretical property ownership or case studies to help you learn more about the law as it pertains to other people. Rather, we are talking about what it means to get a divorce in Texas based on the property that you and your spouse owned. In brief, Community property is any property that you and your spouse came to home during your marriage. Separate property is any property that you or your spouse earned and owned before your marriage.
From there, the task becomes somewhat more difficult as you will need to be able to identify the property that you and your spouse own which falls into each category. We can see that this will take some time. It is not the sort of activity that you can throw together at the last minute and expect to be able to come away with an accurate idea of property Division in your divorce. Rather, you need to be able to prepare for this as best as possible.
Probably the most common way that people prepare for this aspect of their divorce is by completing an inventory and appraisement. Simply put, an inventory is a rundown of all of the property that you own. This rundown can be something as simple as a Microsoft Word document on your computer, a note on your cell phone, or even scribblings on a legal pad. What you need to do is have an accurate idea of the property that you own so that It does not come as a surprise to you once that property needs to be divided up. Doing a thorough job at this stage of your divorce position G well in that you will not have to scramble the end of your divorce to figure out how you want the property that is labeled as a community to be divided.
A simple way to divide this property in terms of an exercise that you can perform is to take your cell phone camera and walk through each room in your house to take photographs. Not only should you walk through each room but you should also Open up drawers and closets to get an idea of personal property that may be included in your A state. Jewelry, personal items, and things of that nature tend during times like these to grow legs and walk away if you know what I mean. Not to say that anything specific could happen to your belongings in a divorce but items like this may be misplaced or at worst moved temporarily by your spouse.
So, it would make a lot of sense for you to be able to keep close tabs on this information in these types of items. Do not assume that you will always have access to them moving forward in your divorce. You might choose to leave the house and your spouse was to change the locks on the door or otherwise bar you from entry. Additionally, in a temporary orders phase of the case, you may lose access to the house except for certain purposes. In that event, You will not be able to check on the status of these items whenever you would like. As a result, I recommend that you consider the implications of not having access to the home when it comes to inventorying your property. Take the time at the beginning of the case or preferably for the case even begin to Keep an eye on the property that you own. Additionally, this will assist you in preparing an inventory and appraisement for your Family court and spouse.
What are the factors that could lead to community property being divided up disproportionately?
When it comes to Community property the assumption that most people have is that the property will be divided up exactly 5050 once they learn about the laws concerning Community property in Texas. Proportionate and straight down the middle awarding a property is likely what would occur Any other issues in your case. However, there are always issues in a divorce that can impact how property is divided. Factors like the amount of separate property that each of you owns as well as your role in the break of the marriage will almost surely play a part in your divorce.
If your case made it to a trial then a family court judge would look to how much separate property you and your spouse owned when determining how to divide up your community’s state. For example, if you and your spouse are of extremely different ages where you are much older and own much more separate property than your spouse this could be seen as a factor that would improve the chances of your spouse being awarded a disproportionate share of your community estate. This means that because you have more separate property that you can lean on your spouse would likely require more in the way of Community property to keep their head above water after the divorce comes to an end.
For example, this could be your second marriage and your spouse’s first period you may have had an opportunity to work for many years and build up more wealth in your spouse. Likewise, your spouse may have chosen to stay at home and care for your children and the home while you went out and worked. In this way, your spouse could be seen as getting more of what they deserve due to their role as homemakers and parents. We see that being a homemaker presidents a certain amount of economic stability and value to a family. Think about the cleaning of the home, cooking of meals, child care, and many other areas that a homemaker contributes. These all have economic benefits period imagine if your spouse would have passed away and you would have had to hire people to perform these tasks for you. It is then that You would become well aware of the economic benefits of a stay-at-home parent.
Additionally, we can see the benefits of having a large community estate in the need to ask for special maintenance. For instance, suppose that Your spouse needed some financial support immediately after the divorce to help him or her to get back on their feet after a divorce. Rather than having to ask for special maintenance, your spouse could simply receive a disproportionate share Of the community estate. Judges in Texas are not big fans of awarding special maintenance anyways.
Next, we need to consider the role that you and your spouse played in the breakup of your marriage. you and your spouse can get divorced for any reason at all or none. Adultery, abandonment, financial miss dealings, and the like are all causes for divorce that can be cited in your original petition. The original divorce petition is the initial pleading filed in your case. But that said, it is important to note that You can also get divorced 4 no reason in particular. Texas along with every other state in the country honors no-fault divorces and has for years. In summation, you can get divorced For several reasons or no reason at all.
You may be wondering what the benefit of specifying grounds for a divorce is when you can get divorced for no reason at all. Why go through the work of specifying grounds for divorce when you can walk through a divorce case for no particular reason. The reason why it is beneficial to cite specific grounds for divorce is that you can earn a disproportionate share of your community state by noting to your family court judge that your spouse played a direct role in the breakup of your marriage. The trouble that some people have is that you need to be able to provide evidence that these fault grounds exist. Meaning, you cannot simply assert fault grounds and provide no evidence for it throughout the case or in a trial period rather, knees ever to be seen when’s mother that a foreground played a disproportionate role in the breakup of your marriage.
Child support can be awarded in a military divorce
Child support is paid by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent. This is a hallmark of divorce in Every state. What you need to know for your military divorce is if you are the noncustodial parent of your child then you will likely be paying child support. If you are serving our country by not living near your children then almost assuredly you will contribute to their upbringing by paying child support. This child support can be paid directly through the office of the attorney general of Texas. This is the preferred method for paying child support and any other form of child support payments will not be credited directly. This means that if your spouse chooses to argue that they missed a payment of child support from you that you would need to provide some other proof a payment Good it is much easier to be able to say that you paid your spouse according to the terms outlined in your final decree of divorce.
Almost assuredly, your final decree of divorce will contain instructions on how to pay child support. Likely the method that will be utilized is payment from your paycheck to the office of the attorney general. After divorce, your spouse is a solid wage withholding order which mandates that your employer hold back a portion of your check each month for child support purposes. Almost assuredly, also, you will need to have your human resources equivalent in the military A copy of this order so that it can be followed through. This is the first step needed to make sure that you can pay your child support obligations.
Typically, child support in Texas follows the guidelines on child support which are laid out in the Texas family code. For instance, you can open up the codebook and see what the state recommends as far as child support to be paid based on your income and the number of children that you have. Your net monthly income will need to be calculated how long will the number of children before the court counted. Beginning at 20% of your net monthly income for one child and going up to at most 50% of your net monthly income for four children beyond one child support percentage will be calculated and applied against you and for your ex-spouse.
You may end up having to pay more child support if the needs of your children change overtime period additionally, as your children age you may end up having to pay less in child support given that your older children will age out and that will leave you with fewer children before the court. When this happens, you need to be the one to contact the court to make them aware of this.
The last thing that I will mention about child support is that there are fairly significant penalties that can be assessed against you for the failure to pay support. The state of Texas views shops sport enforcement very seriously. This means that you can be assessed civil penalties like fines for each violation of your final decree of divorce when it comes to job work period additionally, there are quasi-criminal penalties that are available such as being found in contempt of court. Purposely violating the court order can result in jail time for failed chops work payments. These are severe penalties as you can see. Therefore, we need to make sure that you understand your responsibilities when it comes to paying show for and ensure that the shots where payments are being made. Almost always this can be done by checking in when you are mouse from time to time it sure that he or she ever received the job for payments as intended. Just because he signed a weight withholding order and has updated the court and the attorney general with your employer does not mean that you have done everything you have to do regarding child support. Rather how you can go the extra mile to help yourself avoid returning to court in the future to face a lawsuit over child support enforcement. You have better things to do with your time and like.
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Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.
Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.
His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.
Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.
