Meeting with a lawyer and deciding on grounds for divorce.

During your meeting with the attorney, you will discuss and decide on grounds for divorce. You will also address other matters such as property division. If you have children, then you must make provisions for child custody, visitation and child support. In some cases, spousal support may also be an issue.

This meeting allows you to address these various legal areas and is also an opportunity to explain your goals for divorce and your priorities. The lawyer also goes over any actions you need to take, such as gathering information, inventorying assets and copying important documents.

Divorce petition.

The attorney will file a divorce petition on your behalf. To be eligible to file for a Texas divorce, you must have lived in Texas for at least six months. You also must file in the county where you reside and must have lived there for at least 90 days.

Notice of divorce.

Your attorney will handle serving divorce papers to your spouse. The papers contain your proposed grounds for divorce and provisions for child custody, support, visitation, property division and in some cases, alimony.

The response.

After serving the papers, your spouse has 60 days to respond and can agree to all the provisions or request changes. If your spouse fails to respond, the marriage dissolution can be finalized without their consent.

Temporary orders.

Not every case requires temporary orders. However, the court may agree to temporary divorce orders that instruct how to deal with child custody and management of assets prior to finalizing the divorce. Temporary orders can also address safety, if it is an issue.

Disclosing information.

During disclosure, the spouses make important information available, which may include medical records, documents and testimonies that will be subject to arguments during the case. Financial disclosure would include income, assets and liabilities.

Discovery.

Discovery is the formal process used to gather evidence and information from the other spouse. For example, your attorney may file a motion for discovery that includes interrogatories. These are lists of questions that your spouse must answer. Many cases settle without having to go through discovery. For the most part, discovery occurs when attorneys are preparing to present arguments regarding disputed issues in court.

Settlement.

You can reach a settlement if you and your spouse can agree on terms for property division (asset and debt division), child custody, visitation, child support, spousal support and legal fees. Often, legal counsels will negotiate on behalf of their clients to help spouses arrive at a settlement.

If you reach a settlement, the trial or final hearing may be more of a formality to approve the settlement agreement. However, if you have contested issues, then some courts order mediation in an attempt to resolve them outside of trial. If any issues remain unresolved after mediation, you would address them during the trial or hearing. Both lawyers will present evidence and call witnesses to argue their side of the case. The goal is usually to resolve as many disputes as possible prior to trial.

Final decree.

At the conclusion of a trial or divorce settlement, there is a 60 days waiting period in Texas before courts can finalize a divorce. After the waiting period ends, the judge can sign the final decree and have it filed through the court clerk. At this point, the divorce is final. You will receive a copy of the final decree. Afterward, your attorney can help you with other divorce related matters such as transfer of property rights or dividing financial accounts, and so on.