FAMILY LAW

The concept of a family has many legal aspects, from the formation of a marriage, the dissolution of a marriage and the rights and responsibility of parents.

Similar to the probate of a will, a court is must confirm that there has been a marriage in order to issue a decree of divorce. Many times the existence of a marriage is not contested. But because there are both ceremonial and common law marriages, this can be an issue.

A divorce may be granted by a court with jurisdiction over the parties. In Texas, a person must have been a resident of Texas for 6 months and a resident of this county for 30 days for a court to be able to act.

In a decree of divorce involving children of the marriage, the decree will make findings relating to child support, visitation rights and possessory custody of the children. Courts will use a standard possession order in many cases which have the benefit of certainly for the parties.

Child support payments are collected through payroll withholding and the Attorney General of Texas is tasked with overseeing such process.

The court will determine what separate property that each party owns. Separate property is property generally acquired before marriage, or by gift or inheritance. The court will also divide the “community estate”, which is property acquired during marriage by both husband and wife, called the “community.”

Parties to a marriage can make agreements either before or during marriage to divide community property into separate property ( and vice versa). These agreement can affect not only the underlying property but also the income from that property. The Law Office of Gregory E. Turley can assist in preparing such marital agreements.