Assessing the Impact of Adultery on a Texas Divorce

Adultery is often one of the first reasons people associate with divorce, and for good reason—it’s one of the most sensationalized aspects of marital breakdowns. The media eagerly highlights stories of infidelity in movies and TV shows, and even casual conversations about divorce grab attention when infidelity is involved. While society widely condemns such behavior, it undeniably holds a unique power to captivate and provoke interest.

Exploring the impact of adultery on divorce cases

If you are in a position where you have been someone whose spouse has committed adultery or you are a spouse who has had an affair, then it is reasonable to be curious about the impact that the adultery could have on your divorce. After all, if we have come to learn anything about divorce from what we see on our various screens, adultery would appear to be a huge issue in divorce cases and their outcomes. If your spouse catches you cheating, it could lead to the marriage ending and you losing all your property and time with the kids, as portrayed on television.

The question that we are going to try to answer in today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan is whether this is accurate. While we know adultery plays a part in divorce cases, we want to find out the areas in which adultery impacts divorce cases most acutely and the overall impact and effect adultery could have on your divorce. After reading today’s blog pos, if you have any questions about what you have read, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. We aim to serve our community and for most of our current clients, their relationship with our office started in one of these pressure-free consultations.

What is adultery and where can it be found in a marriage?

Adultery typically refers to engaging in physical intimacy with someone other than your spouse. If you are curious, you could look up the statistics that tie adultery and infidelity to ending marriages across the country. I won’t speculate on the number or percentage of marriages that end due to adultery. However, I will say that it is a factor in more than a handful of cases in that our attorneys represent clients. Adultery and infidelity cut to the core of the marital relationship and destroy whatever bonds of trust had previously existed. What remains is a decision: either attempt to repair the marriage or proceed towards divorce.

Nurturing trust: the crucial foundation for marital rejuvenation

Fixing the marriage is tough. Trust is the backbone of any successful marriage. When you marry, you entrust your life to your spouse. If that isn’t trust, then I don’t know what is. You are telling that person that you trust him or her so much that you are going to stop pursuing other romantic relationships, goals, and opportunities to commit to that person for the rest of your life. We may become engulfed in the emotion and immediacy of a relationship, but marriage ultimately represents a significant leap of faith with that person.

The first step you need to take when it comes to trying to fix a marriage is communicating with your spouse about the issue that you are experiencing. While you and your spouse may talk to one another frequently, it may not be the kind of deep, personal communication that you may have engaged in while you were dating. I get it- kids, work, stress, age, and many other factors come into play that can cause you all to lose focus on one another. In that time, something, or someone else may catch your attention and then the rest is history. You have a problem with your hands. Now you need to figure out how to work your way out of that problem, or if you are even going to be able to do so.

Marriage challenges: Communication, counseling, and courage

With the television off and your phones put away, you and your spouse can talk to one another about what has happened and where you want to go from there. If both of you are committed to trying to fix the marriage, then you can seek help through counseling or therapy. If only one of you, or neither of you, wants to fix the marriage and try to reconcile, then that probably means that a divorce is around the corner. In any case, having these conversations is not easy and it will take some courage to have them. It is much easier to accept the infidelity and just move on to divorce. However, for some people and in some situations, you may prefer to try and salvage the marriage. This is typically done through counseling.

You can check with your health insurance provider to see if there are any “in-network” counselors or therapists who can provide you with treatment. Your church may have a therapist in the parish or congregation who can help you. Your priest or pastor may even be willing to help you. Ultimately it is up to you to make the effort to try and save your marriage. This is not something where a judge, your uncle, or your neighbor is going to run to your rescue just in the nick of time to save you and your spouse from a divorce. This is going to take effort and it won’t feel good. Even if you are the “innocent” spouse who was cheated on this is not going to be a situation where you are going to just sit and watch your spouse be lambasted by a therapist.

Divorce options in Texas: Navigating adultery cases

If therapy or counseling does not work, the other option is divorce. When adultery is the driving force behind getting divorced, then you need to act quickly to develop a plan on how you want to proceed. In Texas, you can file for a no-fault divorce where you are alleging conflict in personality as the reason why you are divorcing. This means that you can tell the court that you have no specific reason for wanting the divorce, but that you and your spouse just don’t get along well enough any longer to sustain a marriage. This is the main reason people file for divorce in Texas and since the introduction of no-fault divorces, the rate of divorce in our state and the country has skyrocketed.

On the other hand, you can list adultery as the fault ground for divorce. You are telling the court that your spouse has cheated on you and that this is the driving force behind the divorce. As far as filing the divorce, it will not do anything to change the course of how you initiate the divorce. However, as we will see, infidelity can have a significant impact on the case as we near the end of the divorce and begin to discuss topics like child custody and division of property. However, for now, we can walk through what it means to file for divorce and what you need to do after filing your Original Petition for Divorce.

Serving divorce papers and beginning the process in Texas

Once you file an Original Petition for Divorce along with temporary orders, a request for a hearing, and any other document relevant to your case, you would need to serve those documents on your spouse. You typically accomplish this with assistance from a private process server or a law enforcement officer. Unless your divorce is uncontested, you cannot simply hand the papers to your spouse and proceed to the next stage. Your spouse has the right to receive personal service of the documents, even if they cheated on you, which may have prompted the divorce filing.

From there, your spouse will file an Answer to your Petition and the divorce will be off and running. You can hire lawyers and have them assist with negotiations, planning, and general assistance in the divorce. When you are dealing with adultery, then you may want to take special considerations into mind for making sure that your spouse does not bring the new person around your children, for example. In such instances, an attorney can significantly assist in divorce negotiations. However, it is up to you whether to hire an attorney for your case. There is no requirement that you have an attorney help you in a Texas divorce. The choice is yours, but I think that there are plenty of good reasons to strongly consider hiring an attorney before getting divorced.

Adultery and its impacts on child custody

Adultery can significantly impact child custody decisions in divorce. Your judgment as a parent is scrutinized, and you have the discretion to reject joint conservatorship if it doesn’t align with your family’s needs. Adultery may signal a lapse in judgment crucial for parenting decisions. While joint conservatorship is common, it’s not mandatory; you and your spouse can choose what’s best for your family.

Negotiate for limited visitation for your spouse to ease your children’s transition to dual households. It’s unsettling to face such changes, particularly when your children’s exposure to uncontrollable situations is a concern. Prioritize requesting primary custody if you’ve been the primary caregiver thus far.

Adultery can affect your ability to make decisions for your children’s education and health. Consider how a judge might perceive the situation before deciding how aggressively to negotiate. Ongoing adultery suggests a serious lack of judgment, while a one-time mistake may not significantly influence court orders.

In any event, having an experienced family law attorney by your side helps you determine how hard to push and what areas to push in. It does not make much sense to aggressively negotiate with your spouse in an area where you cannot be successful with a judge. Being overly aggressive in negotiating for a particular item in child custody is your prerogative but you should do so only in an area where you think a judge is likely to side with you in court. Otherwise, doing so can harm your case.

The impact of adultery on community property division

The other major area of a divorce that adultery can impact in significant ways is that of Community property division. For the most part, community property includes assets acquired or purchased by both you and your spouse during the marriage, regardless of whose income was used or whose name is on the title or receipt. Community property means that you and your spouse own the property together with no distinction as to who earns more money or who made the physical purchase of the item.

Adultery’s impact on Texas divorce property division

Community property is subject to division in a Texas divorce. You should understand how property division works and whether adultery affects it. Generally, property is divided equally unless other factors intervene. You and your spouse would both take close to 50% of any property divided in the divorce and would then go your separate ways. However, if adultery has influenced your divorce, it becomes a significant factor to consider. Specifically, the court must examine the allegations and presented facts regarding how the adultery impacted community finances.

As we mentioned a moment ago, if the adultery was a one-time occurrence and truly did not cause much harm to your community estate, then it is unlikely that the adultery will be a major factor in dividing property. This may come as a surprise to many of you. In popular culture, adultery often appears to significantly affect property division in divorce. However, while this can be the case in many instances, adultery may not impact community property division at all. Other factors like the amount of separate property owned by each spouse as well as the needs of each spouse after the divorce may count more towards Community property division than does the adultery itself.

Adultery’s impact on community property division

On the other hand, if we look at adultery from the perspective of a spouse who purchased gifts for the significant other, took that person on trips, or otherwise wasted community assets, then this will almost certainly be an important area to look at when it comes to division of community property. If this occurred in your situation, you can likely negotiate more aggressively for a disproportionate share of your community estate. Because the squandering of community assets harms both you and your spouse, a judge would likely order your spouse to personally restore the community property to level the playing field.

When it comes to dividing up the community estate, having a creative and problem-solving attorney on your side can make a huge difference for you and your family moving forward. The best family law attorneys are ones who take significant problems and work tirelessly to achieve solutions that best serve their client and their families.

In conclusion, adultery continues to be a prominent and compelling factor in divorce, often drawing significant attention both in media and in everyday conversations. Its portrayal in movies and TV shows highlights its lasting impact on relationships and the public’s fascination with it. While infidelity is widely seen as morally wrong, its ability to captivate reflects a deeper cultural intrigue, revealing the complex dynamics of personal betrayal and societal perceptions in the context of divorce.

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