Posted on May 16, 2019 in Divorce

Money can often lead to marital conflicts. However, a new study indicates that one specific money woe — student debt — is bringing a lot of young couples to their breaking points.

According to a study from Student Loan Hero, student loan debts seem to be particularly toxic to marriages. Money trouble was generally cited as a contributing factor in a third of all divorces — while student loans were specifically blamed by one out of eight divorced borrowers.

Why are student loans so stressful? That’s probably because the cost of an education has spiraled past the rewards. While many people still see a college degree as critical to a young person’s success, the debt young people have to take on to get that degree can be staggering. Right now, the average student loan balance is $34,000, and the number of people with student loans topping $50,000 has tripled in the last 10 years. When two people with student loans marry, that’s double the debt and double the stress.

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 Posted on May 09, 2019 in Child Custody

When you and your spouse divorced, you agreed to some pretty specific terms for custody and visitation with the kids. Unfortunately, your ex-spouse seems to feel pretty comfortable about bending — or outright breaking — the rules whenever he or she feels like it.

While an occasional deviation from the formal agreement can be fine when ex-spouses agree on it, and a genuine mistake or accidental slip-up can be forgiven once in a while, you don’t have to allow your ex-spouse to simply ignore the rules whenever it suits him or her.

What counts as a violation of your custody agreement?

• Keeping the child past the scheduled visitation or time
• Picking the child up from school without notifying you
• Taking the child out of state without notifying you per your agreement
• Failing to meet you at the designated time and place for exchanges
• Continually interrupting your visitation time with phone calls or “just dropping in” at random while you have the child

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 Posted on May 02, 2019 in Family Law

If you own a business (or are about to start one), you need to think about the possibility of divorce and how that could damage your enterprise. There are ways to protect your company — but the sooner you act the better.

If you’re nowhere near a divorce right now

If you’re happily married or not married at all, you still need to divorce-proof your business as much as possible. You can do that through several different means, depending on your situation:

• Get a prenuptial agreement — Before you tie the knot with someone, insist on a prenuptial agreement that protects your business. If your intended spouse balks, you can consider an agreement that phases out over time or offer something else that will make the agreement more acceptable.
• Get a postnuptial agreement — If you’re already married when you start your business, a postnuptial agreement can function the same as a prenup — and be just as effective. Just make sure that it’s reasonable and fair. A family law attorney can help you make sure that any agreement is enforceable.

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 Posted on April 30, 2019 in Divorce

Have you and your spouse agreed to a divorce? If you’re hoping to keep things friendly and get through the divorce as quickly as possible, an uncontested divorce may be exactly what you need.

How do you get an uncontested divorce?

Uncontested divorces aren’t right for every couple. In order to qualify for an uncontested divorce, both halves of a couple must:

• Agree to the divorce (usually due to irreconcilable differences or similar grounds) regardless of who files first
• Have no remaining disagreements regarding the division of the marital property
• Have no disagreements regarding spousal support or child support
• Have worked out an acceptable agreement regarding child custody and visitation (if there are any minor children involved)

Any “kink” in these agreements can make an uncontested divorce impossible, so it’s important to make sure that all the issues are ironed out before you head into court.

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 Posted on April 24, 2019 in Divorce

The decision to divorce is, arguably, a much harder decision than the one you made when you got married. When people decide to get married, they’re full of optimism and dreams of a future together. When they’re contemplating divorce, they tend to be keenly aware of what feels like “wasted time” and the loss of their dream life.

So, are you really ready for a divorce? Should you stay a little longer and give things one more try? Here are some questions you need to consider before you decide to divorce:

1. Do you find yourself unable to tolerate just about anything your spouse does?

For example, maybe your spouse was always a bit of a slob — and you tolerated the cascade of papers, shoes and abandoned coffee cups as just one of his quirks. Now, however, you find yourself furious at every dropped towel or forgotten pair of socks.

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 Posted on April 22, 2019 in Firm News

As the breadwinner of your family, divorce is particularly complicated, both legally and financially. You may be on the hook for paying child support. Divorce is expensive and complex in general, but with the addition of monthly payments, it can be overwhelming.

There are plenty of misconceptions about child support. The emotions associated with divorce can also cloud your judgment. All of this may lead you to make costly mistakes. Here are some major child support errors to avoid during and after the divorce.

1. Being vengeful

While you may have anger towards your ex, seeking revenge and being nasty is counterproductive in virtually every aspect of a divorce, including child support. If you send furious messages to your ex, disparage her in person or talk badly about her to your children, you only hurt yourself. When your ex is able to paint you in a negative light, she may have more leverage in getting more money out of you. Be as cordial, decent and calm as possible.

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 Posted on April 11, 2019 in Child Custody

The family of a nine-year-old Houston boy is celebrating after the child was located by authorities in Florida. He has been missing since the end of 2017 — the victim of parental abduction.

According to authorities, the child’s father left Texas with the child, who was just seven at the time, without telling the boy’s mother.

After the abduction, the mother was granted sole custody. By early 2018, the child had been listed as a missing person “abducted by a non-custodial parent.”

Initially, authorities believed the father would go to Tallahassee, Florida, where he had once lived. Ultimately, the father and son were located through the efforts of Houston detectives in Sanford, Florida, which is about four hours away from Tallahassee. The detectives notified the police in that state. The authorities there were able to locate the boy and his father the next morning at Fort Mellon Park.

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 Posted on April 03, 2019 in Divorce

The state of your family prior to your divorce can have a major difference in your children’s academic prospects after that divorce — but the result of a new study from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) say that the effect may be counterintuitive to what most people think.

What’s the state of your home life prior to the divorce?

That seems to be the most critical factor when it comes to how well children do academically once their parents divorce. Frankly, in households where there’s a lot of parental conflicts, money woes, abuse or other problems that seem to make divorce inevitable, children seem to handle the divorce better.

However, the same isn’t true of children from households where divorce seems to be “unexpected.” In other words, the children coming from households where there was plenty of money, the semblance of stability and little obvious conflict between the parents fared much worse academically than their peers. The children in the UCLA study who came from those backgrounds were 6 percent less likely to make it to high school graduation and 15 percent less likely to get through college.

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 Posted on March 27, 2019 in Family Law

Every so often, a client wants to know if there’s a way to involuntarily terminate the parental rights of their child’s other parent.

Terminating someone’s parental rights isn’t an easy proposition — it’s definitely nothing to be done lightly. However, there are times it’s the right thing to consider. Sometimes, a parent goes absent for years without showing any sign of support for the child. Sometimes, someone should just never have been a parent in the first place.

If you believe that having your child’s other parent remain in his or her life is actually harmful to him or her, here’s what you should know about your options.

Section 161.001 of the Texas Family Code outlines the situations where involuntary termination of a parent’s rights is possible. They include:

• Leaving the child with another nonparent and expressing the intention not to return for that child

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 Posted on March 27, 2019 in Firm News

As a resident of Texas who finds yourself involved in a child custody case, you will undoubtedly hear the term “the best interests of the child” referenced regularly throughout court proceedings. While, in some cases, it is relatively easy for courts to determine which parent or person seeking custody would provide a better environment for a child, in other situations, both people seeking custody may prove suitable guardians.

Therefore, the courts needed to come up with a way to make custody decisions that consider the best interests of the child, as opposed to the bad things two parents or potential guardians might have to say about one another. So, what exactly does a judge or court consider when trying to determine the best interests of a child?

“Best interests of the child” criteria

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