You can call it whatever you want: cheating, infidelity, or adultery. By any name, your spouse being unfaithful to you is both an uncomfortable and extremely hurtful thing to have to go through. The idea that the person you should trust the most has violated the most central aspect of your marriage; there’s something that can stay with a person for many, many years. Unfortunately, it can also lead to divorce more quickly than probably any other subject under the sun.
In a divorce case, there are two components to cheating. The first component is the emotional aspect of the cheating that will certainly impact your relationship with your spouse moving forward period to think that he or her cheating on you would not change the nature of your relationship with that person would be unrealistic. He will almost certainly view that person differently and treat them differently. If you were having problems in the marriage even before the cheating, it is possible that the cheating pushed you towards never again considering reconciliation or counseling.
The second aspect too cheating is that it has the potential to play a role in your divorce. Whereas the emotional in psychological aspects of having been cheated on is something that will stick with you throughout the day, the reality is that the impact of the cheating on your divorce will depend on a wide range of circumstances. This does not mean that any cheating behavior will be excused or that I am trying to minimize how important cheating is in a relationship. All it means is that you don’t know exactly how cheating will impact your divorce until you begin to examine the specific circumstances of your case, including the cheating.
In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, I would like to share my thoughts on this subject. Specifically, I would like to help you identify what important circumstances exist in your case that the cheating may impact. Since not all divorce cases are created exactly equal if you should consult with an experienced attorney with our law office before making assumptions about how a family court judge would likely view your circumstances in light of any cheating or infidelity.
To what extent has cheating occurred?
This is an important question that I think you need to ask yourself before considering the potential impacts of cheating itself. Most notably, how to recommend that you think long and hard about what type of cheating has occurred in terms of your marriage and the impact on your family to this point. Again, I do not want to sound sleazy or make it seem like I am condoning behavior of this sort. However, the simple truth is that cheating can run the gambit from extremely long-term relationships to one-time incidents.
Those of you reading this blog have had their spouses cheat on them with a long-term partner. This is a tough circumstance to have to stomach, given the repeated betrayal of your trust as well as the emotional aspects of essentially your spouse having two relationships at one time. The physical aspect of cheating is unfortunate and heartbreaking, but there are emotional aspects to long-term cheating.
On the other end of the spectrum is cheating; there exists more based on one-time incidents that were never repeated. Again, I mention this not to make light of the behavior but more so to point out that there are gradations of cheating but not only impacted your marriage on a relational and emotional level but likely also will impact your divorce. As I’m sure you could imagine, not all examples of cheating and infidelity in a marriage are treated equally. While you have every right in the world to be angry or spouse upper having engaged in either type of behavior that is far from certain that a judge will treat your spouse or the circumstances of your case differently based on cheating alone.
The other aspect of marital infidelity that needs to be discussed is your children, if you have any, to begin with. If your children were ever exposed to infidelity, this could certainly be a factor that weighs on a family court judge when all is said and done. Cheating is damaging to a relationship and emotionally scarring. If you throw in a factor regarding your children, then that only exacerbates things further. I think it is relevant to a case whether or not your children have ever been exposed to infidelity firsthand.
What are the primary ways your divorce may be impacted by infidelity?
There are two areas of a divorce case that are generally speaking impacted by infidelity in a marriage. The first area would be regarding the division of Community property, and the second area would be regarding child custody. Both of these areas are important, to be sure, when we’re talking about a divorce. However, from experience, I know that parents care much more about their children than they do about their money. With that said, let’s begin there and discuss how your spouse may impact child custody issues has cheated on you previously.
If the cheating in question was more or less a one-time affair with no repeated acts, then you may expect a child custody determination of a judge to be impacted minimally by the cheating. I can see how you, and to be honest, many people before you, would make an argument that infidelity is a sign that a parent is incapable of putting their best interests of their child first period; however, the reality is that I think most family court judges would not necessarily see it that way. Unless the cheating was made manifest to your children and that they were impacted by it, I do not believe that a one-time affair would impact a custody situation all that much.
If, however, the situation with the cheating was such that they were repeated X / a long period that your children were made aware of. I could see cheating impacting your divorce when it comes to a few different areas regarding custody. When you talk about custody issues, we are talking about conservatorships. Conservatorship rights and duties extend to your ability to care for your children, make decisions for them, and your duty to care for them. For the most part, parents, after a divorce, share nearly equally in conservatorships rights and duties. However, cheating over an extended period may cause some disruptions to this area of your case.
When it comes to conservatorships issues, a judge will decide based on what is in your child’s best interest. The judge will look at how their decisions impact not your life or that of your spouse but the lives of your children. If it is apparent that the choices your spouse is made are not in the best interest of your child, then it would follow that a judge would not expect them to be able to make decisions in your child’s best interest, especially when you have displayed a history of doing so.
But this may mean for your case is that a judge would be less likely to name your spouse as the primary conservator of your child. A primary conservator would have the right to determine the primary residence of your kid, make more independent or exclusive decisions on behalf of your child, and receive child support on behalf of your child. This is the most meaningful distinction that can be drawn between you and your spouse in terms of your conservatorship’s rights and duties.
It would not make sense for a family court judge to name your spouse as the primary conservator absent other evidence or circumstances. Everything else is equal; it is likely that a family court judge, good name, you ask the primary conservator of your children, especially if that is a role you have fulfilled to that point in history. I’m not saying that your spouse will have all their parental rights taken away and will not be able to see your children if they have cheated on you. I am telling you that it is an important circumstance to consider for a judge, especially when your children have been exposed to cheating on an ongoing basis.
Another aspect of this discussion that I think is worth having is your spouse having unrelated persons in their home when your children are with your spouse. It is common after a divorce for something included in your orders that require any unrelated person to be out of the house the truly hours of 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM. Essentially, this protection would prevent someone from spending the night with your spouse after the divorce. If your spouse marries, then that protection would no longer apply.
It would allow your children to have some protection against being a part of anything inappropriate on the phone after divorce. Admittedly, your spouse may break this rule in the future, and it may be relatively difficult to prove that violation of the order has occurred. However, in the instance of ongoing cheating in the past, I could see that this type of order is strengthened by not allowing an unrelated person to come into the home at all when the children are present. This may seem extreme at first glance but bear in mind, and if the cheating has been extreme, then a result might be that the response from the court may be equally as extreme.
Division of Community property after incidents involving cheating
The other area of your divorce that may be most acutely impacted by infidelity is your community estate. When I say that Texas is a Community property state, I mean that property acquired during your marriage is presumed to be found fully and completely by both you and your spouse. It doesn’t matter who purchased the property, who earns more money, or whose name appears on the receipt or title to the property. This is significant if, for example, you own a home with your spouse, but your name does not appear on the title. So long as the home is purchased during your marriage, it will be classified as Community property.
Community property is divisible in a Texas divorce. This is where a factor like infidelity may play a role. For starters, you can allege that your divorce is occurring because of your spouse’s infidelity. Asserting fault grounds for divorce based on infidelity is not uncommon. If the judge agrees that infidelity and adultery played a central role or the defining role in your divorce, then the judge can consider this when dividing up Community property. It is not uncommon for Community property to be divided up disproportionately when the country is in the picture.
Another factor to consider is whether or not your spouse gifted money or other property to their partner during your marriage. Consider items like jewelry, vacations, meals out, hotel stays, or other consumer items. The extent to which this behavior occurred may determine what sort of wasting of community assets took place. The more significant the wasting that a Kurd means, the more you may be in line 2 be reimbursed out of your spouse’s share of the community estate. This is a crucial factor to consider, and as a result, I would recommend you follow through with your attorney to discuss this matter in greater detail.
First, you should do whatever you can, within the bounds of the law, to determine what sort of property has been gifted to this other person. If you can determine through receipts, checking account ledgers, and things of that nature that a substantial amount of money has been spent in this person, I would recommend documenting it and then organizing it as best as possible to both present to your spouse and their attorney and then also a judge. The clearer your documentary evidence is, the better chance you will be reimbursed for money spent on this other person.
The other aspect of this discussion would be that you and your attorney could start thinking creatively about how this sort of evidence could be used to help negotiate through a division of your community estate. For example, you could attempt to negotiate for a larger share of your community estate even before it comes time to attend a trial. The more substantial and well-organized your evidence is regarding the cheating means that your spouse will likely be more willing to negotiate with you in good faith. If they think that the evidence is spotty or inconclusive, they may be less willing to work with you.
Do not enter into your divorce thinking that infidelity will be your silver bullet.
I have worked with many people who enter into a divorce over the years with the assumption that the family court judge will utilize evidence of infidelity or cheating as the most important factor in his divorce. Their reasoning is almost always that because the infidelity was so hurtful and so impactful on their marriage, a judge won’t be able to help themselves but throw the book at their spouse due to their bad behavior. We’ve all seen movies and television shows where spouses in this position have been held accountable by judges in divorce cases.
As we have already discussed, this may not be your experience. The fact is that infidelity and cheating are certainly important, especially if you allege adultery as a fault ground for your divorce. If the adultery and cheating were substantial, malicious, and exposed to your children, I think the judge will be more likely to view his actions harshly and benefit you from having gone through them.
On the other hand, I would not go into your divorce under the assumption that adultery will be the most important factor in your case. It certainly can be, but I would not fail to prepare based on the assumption that the divorce judge will look favorably upon you out of pity or empathy. You still need to prepare for a divorce as diligently as possible no matter what your particular factors circumstances are. Cheating is never right, but the impact on your case may be negligible depending on your specific circumstances.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case.
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Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC | Houston, Texas Child Custody Lawyers
The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, routinely handles matters that affect children and families. If you have questions regarding child custody, it’s important to speak with one of our Houston, TX child custody lawyers right away to protect your rights.
Our child custody lawyers in Houston, TX, are skilled at listening to your goals during this trying process and developing a strategy to meet those goals. Contact Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC by calling (281) 810-9760 or submit your contact information in our online form. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC handles child custody cases in Houston, Texas, Cypress, Klein, Humble, Kingwood, Tomball, The Woodlands, Houston, the FM 1960 area, or surrounding areas, including Harris County, Montgomery County, Liberty County, Chambers County, Galveston County, Brazoria County, Fort Bend County, and Waller County
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.
