Lewisville Divorce Law Firm

Residency requirements and grounds for divorce

To file for a divorce in Texas, you must have been a resident of the state for the last six months and a resident of the county where you file for at least 90 days. Texas is a no-fault divorce state, meaning that you can get a divorce without either of you having to acknowledge or prove that the other is at fault for the split. There are two grounds for no-fault divorce in Texas:

• Insupportability — The marriage is considered insupportable because conflict between the spouses destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.
• Living apart without cohabitation — A three-year period of living apart is required.

There are also fault-based grounds for divorce that are recognized in the state:

• Cruelty — One spouse is guilty of inflicting cruel treatment on the other that makes living together not viable.
• Adultery —You can get a divorce on this basis if you can prove that your spouse cheated on you.
• Conviction of a felony — Your spouse must have been convicted of a felony and imprisoned for at least a year in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a federal penitentiary or the penitentiary of another state. However, you cannot get a divorce on these grounds if your spouse was convicted on the basis of your own testimony.
• Abandonment — Your spouse must have left you and stayed away for at least one year.
• Confinement in a mental hospital — Your spouse has been in a mental hospital for at least three years and it appears that the mental disorder is highly unlikely to resolve.

Most divorces these days are the no-fault variety, which makes the process much simpler and less likely to go to court. On the other hand, in contested divorces where there are children or a lot of marital property at stake, the person who feels wronged sometimes prefers to go to court with grounds in hope of getting a better divorce settlement. In Lewisville, a divorce lawyer from the Law Office of Dale A. Burrows, P.C. can advise on the pros and cons of selecting fault or no-fault grounds for your divorce petition.

Temporary assistance from the court

There is no provision in Texas law for what in other states is known as legal separation. Instead, when you file for a divorce, you can get the court to issue orders — including temporary child custody and support provisions and specification of who pays community debts temporarily and who gets to live in the family house during the divorce proceedings — for the period before your divorce becomes final.

Contact the distinguished Lewisville divorce law firm

If you are looking for a Coppell or Lewisville area divorce attorney, contact the Law Office of Dale A. Burrows P.C. today at 888-845-4119, or complete our web form.  Let us guide you through the legal process.

*Dale Burrows is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization