Articles Posted in Kaufman County Divorce Courts

So you want to get married? Or you think you are married? If you are in Texas, there are two different ways to be married. The first is called a ceremonial marriage. It’s what you think of when you picture a traditional wedding or a couple saying their vows in front of a justice of the peace.

What is a ceremonial marriage in Texas? 

The last thing you want to do is have a wedding and not be married. To make sure that doesn’t happen let’s go over the rules for a ceremonial marriage. In Texas, a valid ceremonial marriage requires four things.

There are lots of things associated with Super Bowl Sunday. Snack food and memorable commercials are two that come to mind. Some other things associated with Super Bowl Sunday might not be such a good idea when it comes to your case that involves family law. This blog is going to discuss five of those things that you may want to keep in mind on Super Bowl Sunday.

  1. Lay off the obnoxious posts on social media. You may think you’re being funny by posting a mildly offensive meme about Tom Brady this Sunday, but as the saying goes, treat everything you put in writing as if it is going to be read aloud in open court. Your best option is to avoid posting at all in order to prevent anything being used against you in your family law case. If you must post, keep it positive and definitely don’t post any pictures that involve alcohol or drugs.
  2. Don’t drink around your kids. Many allegations get thrown around when parents are fighting over their children. One of the more common ones involve accusations of drinking or even doing drugs around kids. This can really hurt your case. Don’t give the other side any more mud to sling at you just because you wanted to let loose on Super Bowl Sunday. Also, it should go without saying, but never drink and drive.

Why is everyone talking about fault and no-fault divorce lately?

Fault divorces have been in the news lately in Texas because Representative Matt Krause from Fort Worth authored a bill that would get rid of so-called “no-fault” divorces in Texas. Right now, all fifty states allow for a no-fault divorce. Currently under the Texas Family Code a Judge can grant a divorce based on either “fault” or “no-fault” grounds. This fault or no-fault option is something that only 17 states and the District of Columbia currently allow. “No-fault” is known by family law attorneys as insupportability, basically there is no proof required to obtain a divorce based on the ground of insupportability. Section 6.001 of the family code simply states, “[o]n the petition of either party to a marriage, the court may grant a divorce without regard to fault if the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.” Most family law attorneys say the majority of divorces that they file are based on insupportability because it speeds up the process and reduces the stress related to divorce for many parties.

According to Representative Krause, the bill in its current draft would not actually get rid of all no-fault divorces. The bill in its current form would only apply to divorces with children or “unilateral” divorces. Basically, if there are no children of the parties seeking the divorce and both parties agree that they want to get divorced this bill would not apply and the ground of insupportability would still be available to obtain a divorce. The idea behind this according to proponents of the bill is to promote stability for children and prevent quick acting divorces. Opponents of the bill worry that this bill would increase the cost of divorce and lead to an increase in domestic violence as a result of parties being unable to easily obtain a divorce.

There are several courts within Kaufman County, but only two of them hear divorce, custody, Child Protective Service (CPS), and IV-D or Attorney General cases.  If you file for divorce or custody in Kaufman County, the case would be filed in the Kaufman County District Clerk’s office and then the clerk randomly assigns the cases between the 86th Judicial District Court and the 422nd Judicial District Court.  Because of this random assignment, you cannot choose which court your case will be assigned in.

While some CPS and IV-D cases are heard by our district judges, most are heard by the Associate Judges.  Judge Snarr is the current Associate Judge on the CPS cases and Judge Martinez is the current Associate Judge on the IV-D cases.  IV-D or Attorney General cases are all child support cases started by the Attorney General’s office meaning the Attorney General is the petitioner.  The courtroom for CPS and IV-D is the same one and it is located at the South Campus in Kaufman County, not the actual courthouse on the square.

As you can imagine, all four of the judges have different policies/standards in these types of cases.

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