The worst month of your life
deserves a lawyer who explains things.

The petition is filed, the other party is served, and the answer deadline runs.

A Texas family case opens with an Original Petition. It states the statutory grounds, the residency facts, what you are asking the court to order, and whether children are involved. Filing triggers the El Paso County standing order, which restricts both parties immediately. The respondent is then served by a process server or constable, or signs a waiver of service before a notary, and their answer is due by 10:00 am on the Monday after twenty days.

The court sets the interim rules for the house, the children, support and the bills.

Temporary orders govern the months between filing and final judgment, and they matter more than most people expect. Whoever has the children on the temporary schedule establishes a status quo the court will be reluctant to disturb later. The hearing is usually short, often under an hour per side, and it is decided on live testimony and a small number of documents. Preparation is disproportionately valuable here.

Both sides exchange the documents and answers the case will actually be decided on.

Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 194 requires initial disclosures without anyone asking. Beyond that, discovery includes requests for production, interrogatories, requests for admission, and in larger cases depositions. In family cases the heart of discovery is financial: two to five years of tax returns, every bank and retirement statement, and business records where a party owns an interest. This is the longest and least visible phase, and it is where cases are usually won.

A neutral mediator works between two rooms until there is a binding agreement or there is not.

El Paso family courts ordinarily require mediation before granting a trial setting. Sessions are caucus style: each party sits with their attorney in a separate room and the mediator carries proposals back and forth. Everything said is confidential and inadmissible. If the case settles, the Mediated Settlement Agreement is signed that day, and under section 153.0071 a compliant MSA is not subject to revocation. Roughly seven in ten of our contested cases resolve here, which is a sample figure drawn from our own files.

Agreed cases finish in a short prove-up. Contested cases are tried to the bench or a jury.

If everything is agreed, final judgment is a prove-up: a brief hearing where one party confirms the jurisdictional facts and the judge signs the decree. If it is contested, you try it. Texas is unusual in allowing a jury on conservatorship and primary residence, though not on the possession schedule or on the division of property. A contested family trial in El Paso commonly takes one to three days and requires exhibits prepared, marked and pre-filed on the court's schedule.

The decree is drafted, signed and then actually implemented: deeds, QDROs, withholding.

A signed decree is not the end. Real property moves by special warranty deed. Retirement accounts move by Qualified Domestic Relations Order, which the plan administrator must separately approve. Support flows through an income withholding order sent to the employer and routed via the Texas State Disbursement Unit. Insurance, beneficiary designations and refinance deadlines all need to be executed. Cases that skip this phase come back as enforcement actions two years later.