Laws of the State of Texas require that in order to file for divorce, a spouse has to be a resident of the State of Texas for at least 6 months and reside in the county of divorce filing for at least 90 days.
State of Texas permits no-fault divorce when
1) “the marriage has become insupportable because of conflict of personalities that has destroyed the legitimate ends of the marriage relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation”
2) when the parties live “separate and apart without cohabitation of three years.”
State of Texas also permits fault divorce. Grounds for fault divorce in the State are:
1) adultery, 2) abandonment, 3) confinement for incurable insanity for over three years, 4) conviction of a felony and imprisonment for over one year, 5) cruel and inhuman treatment.
In the State of Texas, divorce process starts when one party serves the other party with Original Petition for Divorce, which needs to be filed with the District Clerk of the county court in the county where Petitioner resides and then has to be served upon the Respondent, i.e. the other spouse. The service of process is done by a Sheriff or a private server. The process includes various forms such as the Petition and a Citation, which tells the respondent that he or she has 20 days to file an answer to the Petition.
The fee to file and serve is different from county to county but is in the range of $300.00-$350.00 dollars.
As far as Separation, Texas law has no provisions for legal separation. When one is filing for divorce in Texas, he or she may ask the court to issue an Order that deals with, for example, use of property—as example, who gets to live in a house- or deal with the issues of child custody and support. Texas is a community property state, which means that living apart does not make property spouses acquire separate property.
Sunday May 20th 2012
