Divorce Petitions (Papers)
Many parents can initially agree on who the child will live with and visitation; however, as the divorce drags out, very sharp disagreements appear. With no Orders the spouses must go to Court and fight there – this is very expensive. However, if you wish to pay for an attorney’s 2nd house payment or Lexis car payment then choose to fight. As an attorney, I make money from parents fighting.
Or, the spouses could agree on Temporary Standard Orders while they negotiate the Final Divorce Decree. These Agreed Temporary Orders can be changed, as long as both spouses agree on any changes. Many spouses with Agreed Temporary Orders agree (BOTH MUST AGREE) not to follow the Orders.
Agreed Temporary Orders may order the child to live with spouse A; however, because of circumstances both spouses agree that the child should live with both spouse A and B on alternating weeks, or the child may live with spouse B. Also, the Agreed Temporary Orders can say visitation occurs on certain days; however in reality or actual practice, the spouses could agree on completely different days.
If agreement breaks down, the spouses can go to the Agreed Temporary Orders and SAVE a lot of money from avoiding attorney fees going to Court.
Texas Form Shop will write Agreed Temporary Orders. These will be the standard orders that most courts will use if you went to Court. While what is actually done can be VERY different from the Agreed Temporary Orders, these standard orders prevents having to go to Court, if or when, agreement breaks down.
WHAT HAPPENS AT CONTESTED TEMPORARY ORDERS:
Child Custody:
GENERALLY, the Court has a only a couple of hours to decide the ''Best Interest'' of the child. At a final Trial the Court may spend days to determine the ''Best Interest'' of the Child, however at Temporary Orders it is only a 2-8 hours. Normally, the fight is two issues: 1) Who the Primary caregiver of the Child is; and 2) Is that care acceptable. Lawyers charge a lot of money to fight these. If the spouses can agree on these two issues, a lot of money can be saved.
Property Division:
The main goal, if there is children, is stability of living location, housing and transportation, if not, determining who will live in the house or apartment, and keeping safe ''marital'' (community) property until Final Orders. Lawyers charge a lot of money to fight these.
A Problem with Agreed Temporary Orders
One concern, while the vast majority of divorces settle without going to trial, if your divorce did go to trial and you had Agreed Temporary Orders that were being followed, in practice, then a Judge would lean to follow them, but is not required to and they often do not. This is because, the law judges must follow in child custody disputes is the ''Best Interest of the Child''. Most judges consider living environment ''Stability'' to be the child’s Best Interest. If the spouses have agreed to the living arrangement of the child and are actually following it, without proof of abuse, neglect or danger, the Judge will tend to follow the agreed arrangement. At the time of trial, you may not want the arrangement anymore.
However, if you and your spouse go to trial to get divorced then you probably have had Mediation that failed, so you two are not negotiating well. You two need Temporary Orders.
Temporary Support(Temporary Alimony)
Texas law is that both spouses are responsible for each other while they are married. Since any money earned by one spouse is the Community(marital) property of the other spouse. Because of this, depending on the earning differences of the spouses and expenses a judge may order one spouse to pay temporary support(alimony) to the other.
Many are concerned that Temporary Alimony will lead to Post Divorce Alimony. Unlikely.
Texas relies on the dividing of Community(marital) property(not generally 50/50). However, if the spouses have been married over ten years and have children and the earning difference is great and other resources are low or there are children and there has been family violence then a judge may order Post Divorce Alimony. However, it is only for three years.
