If you’re facing a divorce, the most important move you can make is reaching out for skilled legal guidance early on. Taking a wait-and-see approach, allowing your spouse’s attorney to draw up the papers, and representing yourself are all bad ideas that can leave you facing disastrous results and few options.
You wouldn’t gamble in relation to service for your car or even in relation to a haircut, and you shouldn’t gamble when it comes to your parental and financial rights in a divorce. Reach out for the professional legal counsel of an experienced Round Rock divorce lawyer today.
When You Don’t Have Legal Counsel on Your Side, You’re All Alone Out There
It may come as a surprise to learn that the State of Texas isn’t on your side in relation to your divorce. When the matter relates to your minor children directly, the court is on the side of your children’s best interests, but your job is defending your own rights in the context of your divorce, and to do that well, you need a dedicated divorce attorney backing you up.
Divorce is a complex legal matter, and when you’re in the thick of it, there is a lot of emotional baggage to contend with. This is in addition to the fact that you don’t have the legal background necessary to fiercely protect your rights, and you don’t have the distance from your case to see the big picture, even if you do have the legal background to handle it.
There is no advantage to heading into divorce without a savvy divorce attorney in your corner. Yes, you may save money on legal fees, but you are virtually certain to pay a price in terms of your rights, which can resonate far into your future.
Settling Terms Out of Court
If you and your divorcing spouse are able to negotiate terms between yourselves, you’ll have control over how your assets are divided, over your child custody arrangements, over child support, and over alimony – as applicable.
Most cases are settled out of court, which means that most divorces are uncontested. While these cases generally require a good deal of effort and serious negotiations, they allow the couples involved to retain the authority to make decisions for themselves rather than turning to a judge to do so for them.
An uncontested divorce is the gold standard, but this doesn’t mean you should casually negotiate terms with your divorcing spouse without legal guidance. The terms you hammer out now will directly affect your future in relation to both your finances and your children, and you’ll turn to your seasoned divorce lawyer to fiercely advocate for your rights.
The bottom line when it comes to divorce is that you and your divorcing spouse are at cross-purposes, and balancing each of your legal rights is a monumental feat that sets the stage for what comes next. This isn’t something you should leave to chance.
Know What’s at Stake
The best rationale for hiring a resourceful divorce lawyer from the outset is what’s at stake in relation to your divorce terms.
The Division of Your Marital Property
In Texas, marital property – or community property – must be divided between divorcing spouses in a just and right manner, which means fairly given the circumstances.
Anything that you, your spouse, or you and your spouse together acquired while you were married is considered marital property. Who made the purchase and whose name is attached have no bearing on the fact that the asset is marital in nature.
Exceptions to the Rule
The only exceptions when it comes to marital property include the following:
Gifts or inheritances that either of you received in your name alone
The pain and suffering compensation that either of you received from a personal injury claim initiated during your marriage
Anything that either of you purchased with separate assets during your marriage
Separate Property
Those assets that you owned or that your spouse owned prior to your marriage and that you kept separate throughout your marriage are separate assets. Separate assets are the sole property of the original owner, but establishing that something belongs to you alone is a complicated process.
The State of Texas begins with the presumption that all assets are community property. This means that the spouse who is claiming separate property must prove its separate nature.
Assets that Are Both Marital and Separate
To make things more complicated, some assets are mixed, which means that they are both marital and separate. Making this distinction is key to ensuring that you receive what you’re entitled to in your divorce.
For instance, a retirement account that either of you brings into the marriage with you is the sole property of the owner at the time of your marriage.
Many years in, however, that account is likely to have grown considerably in value, and while the original value is a separate asset, the amount that it’s increased in value is very likely to be treated as community property, which means it will need to be divided between the two of you fairly.
Understanding what portion of your assets are separate or marital is crucial to protecting your financial future. Contact an experienced Round Rock divorce attorney to ensure you receive what you're entitled to.
Establishing What You Have
Things only get more challenging from here. Before you can pursue a just division of assets, you’ll need to establish exactly what you’ve got. And if your spouse happens to be more involved in your family’s finances than you are and chooses not to be forthcoming, it can make things exceptionally difficult for you.
If you’re thinking that your soon-to-be ex wouldn’t stoop to this level, you may be in for some surprises. Financial wrongdoing in divorce is far more common than you may realize, and the stress and upheaval of the circumstances sometimes drive otherwise reasonable people to do things that their spouses would have never predicted.
In other words, it is paramount to be proactive about property division in divorce, and this translates to working closely with an accomplished divorce lawyer from the start.
Other factors that tend to complicate the division of marital property include:
High assets
Complicated financials, such as joint holdings
Child Custody Arrangements
If you and your divorcing spouse share minor children, your child custody arrangements are of primary concern. It can help to know that Texas courts are motivated by the children’s best interests, and whenever both parents are deemed fit, this means maximizing the time that the children spend with each parent.
Experts in child development agree that this is a universally beneficial approach, and doing what’s right for your children can make negotiating this divorce term less emotionally challenging.
You know that you and your soon-to-be are both committed to your children and that your children need each of you in your lives. And it’s from this vantage point that you’ll establish your parenting time schedule.
The Primary Custodial Parent
While you can both expect to spend a considerable amount of time with your children moving forward, one of you may become the primary custodial parent. This parent has the children for the majority of their overnights and determines where they’ll make their primary home – within the mileage constraints set by the court.
Often, the primary custodial parent is the parent who has done the lion’s share of caring for the children to date. Establishing who will become the primary custodial parent generally makes sense in relation to the relevant circumstances involved.
For example, if one of you works long and irregular shifts, it may make more sense for the other parent to fill the primary custodial position. You and your spouse can also divide parenting time more evenly.
Best Interest Factors
The kinds of best-interest factors that are important to pay attention to in your child custody case include all the following:
Your children’s ages and needs, including any special needs
Each parent’s ability and commitment to adequately addressing the children’s needs
Each parent’s overall mental and physical health
Each parent’s level of commitment to effective co-parenting and to supporting the other parent’s meaningful and ongoing relationship with the children
The degree to which each parent has been involved in raising the children to date
The preferences of those children who are considered mature enough to weigh in
The degree to which the status quo – or the children’s home, school, and community – is serving the best interests
The court wants to see parents who actively participate in their children’s lives and who are committed to working together for the sake of their children.
Legal Custody
It’s also important to address the matter of legal custody, which refers to each parent’s decision-making authority. You and your ex can continue making primary decisions about your children’s upbringing together post-divorce.
One of you may, however, receive the authority to break a tie if your efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable decision aren’t productive. Another option that’s available is dividing important parenting decisions like the following between you according to category:
Where your children attend school
The medical attention your children receive
The religious education your children receive
The extracurricular activities and travel that your children participate in
Child Support
The State of Texas has a careful child support calculation process in place, and most cases are determined according to the following basics:
The parent who is the higher earner pays 20 percent of their net income for 1 child.
The parent who is the higher earner pays 25 percent of their net income for 2 children.
The parent who is the higher earner pays 30 percent of their net income for 3 children.
The parent who is the higher earner pays 35 percent of their net income for 4 children.
The parent who is the higher earner pays 40 percent of their net income for 5 children.
The parent who is the higher earner pays at least 40 percent of their net income for 6 or more children.
Even when parenting time is divided equally between the parents, the parent who earns more typically has the child support obligation.
When the circumstances call for it, Texas courts have the authority to order child support, which varies from the basic calculation methodology. This often relates to a child who has special needs or to a child who has extraordinary medical needs.
Alimony
Alimony, or spousal maintenance, is only ordered when a divorcing couple’s financials are so lopsided post-divorce that one spouse is unable to cover their own reasonable needs while the other has the financial ability to help.
When alimony is ordered in Texas, it’s guided by strict parameters that include a cap of $5,000 per month or 20 percent of the obligor’s gross income – whichever is less. Additionally, there are limits set for the duration of alimony, and alimony generally doesn’t come into play unless the couple has been married for at least 10 years.
For cases involving from 10 to 20 years of marriage, alimony can last up to 5 years, and for marriages that lasted from 20 to 30 years, the duration is extended to up to 7 years. For marriages that lasted at least 30 years, alimony can have a duration of up to 10 years.
Alimony is designed to allow the recipient to become more financially independent. Often, this means through further education or job training.
Seek the Legal Counsel of an Experienced Round Rock Divorce Attorney Today
Brett Pritchard at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard is a practiced Round Rock divorce lawyer whose commitment to his valued clients’ parental and financial rights is well established, and he welcomes the opportunity to faithfully serve you.
Your future is too important to leave to chance, so please don’t put off contacting or calling us at 254-781-4222 to schedule a free consultation and learn more about what we can do to help you today.