If you and your spouse want to both get divorced and do not disagree on any issues in your case, then you may attempt to file an uncontested divorce. This means that you or your spouse would still need to file an original petition for divorce but would not need to go through with the negotiation steps involved in most other divorces. An agreed or uncontested divorce means that you and your spouse must have a plan in place on dividing property and time/rights to your children.
The best thing to do when trying to expedite your divorce would be to work with your spouse in negotiations. This could mean setting aside some differences to work with each other on finding common ground. Even if the two of you have settled the major issues of your case in negotiations between yourselves it is recommended that you attend mediation. A mediated settlement agreement (MSA) locks you two into the agreement where one or the other cannot back out the following day.
Texas does not have a law on the books that relates to legal separation. As a result, you cannot be legally separated from your spouse. You can be physically separated from him or her, but the law still considers you all married up to the time that a judge signs your final decree of divorce. Once you begin the divorce process, you and your spouse will work through issues in negotiation and eventually sign off on temporary orders which will govern your behavior during the case itself.
Dating during your divorce is normally not a great idea. Dating can make your divorce more complicated than it is already. Potentially wasting community assets on a significant other or even impacting the relationship with your children are potential results of dating during a divorce. Additionally, if your spouse is attempting to allege that you caused the divorce due to adultery then your being in a relationship is almost certainly going to be used against you as evidence of this having been done.
For the most part, courts do not order spouses to pay one another’s attorney’s fees in a divorce case. If you and your spouse are going through an agreed divorce, then you will pay for your own attorney’s fees no questions asked. Only if you or your spouse have done something egregious or harmful to the other (or have violated a court order) would a family court judge in most circumstances order that you pay your spouse’s attorney’s fees, or vice versa.
