Austin Divorce Law-A Step-By-Step Guide to the Basics

If you are interested in filing for a divorce in Austin or the surrounding counties, your attorney must file a petition for divorce. While this is the first step to filing, there are potentially many steps. But the step of filing the petition gets the process moving and will get you on the court’s docket. The petition will need to show evidence as to why you are seeking a divorce.

The grounds may be no fault or fault. The Petition must also be served and delivered to your spouse by a process server, who can be a sheriff or private process server. Your spouse will have a certain number of days to respond. Each county also has local rules that must be complied with.

From the time the divorce petition is filed, there is a sixty day waiting period, until the divorce may become final. This is kind of a “cooling off” period so that the spouses are not jumping into to anything based on a rash decision.

During the divorce proceeding, the spouses will then need to work out issues such as child custody, child support, spousal support, how property should be divided etc. If the parties can’t agree to all issues, the time frame can take much longer. Easier divorces are done in 60 days, while some divorces can drag on for months or years. It is up to you.

For a divorce in Austin, Texas, there are really two grounds: one is the fault divorce, and the other is the no-fault divorce. Texas is a no-fault state, but parties may allege fault. A no-fault simply means that the “marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.” This basically means that it’s neither parties’ fault, but that the marriage cannot continue.

So any reason or no reason at all is grounds for divorce. But, there are times when a party may want to allege fault to try and better position your case. These fault grounds are:

Adultery; Imprisonment or conviction of a felony; Imprisoned for at least one year for a felon and has not been pardoned; Abandonment whether intentionally or remained apart for at least one year; Insanity and confinement to a mental hospital; Living Separate and apart without cohabitating for minimum of three years; and Mental cruelty

Eric Willie is a Partner at the Law Office of Willie & Dasher in Austin, TX. You can learn more about the Austin Divorce Lawyers at the Law Office of Willie & Dasher by visiting us online.

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