Whether children are involved
A suit affecting the parent-child relationship adds conservatorship, possession, support and health insurance to every stage of the case.
Practice area
Divorce
Contested and uncontested dissolution under the Texas Family Code, with or without children.
What the law actually says
Texas is a no-fault state, which means you do not have to prove anyone did anything wrong. Most petitions in El Paso County plead insupportability, the statutory ground meaning the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities. Fault grounds such as cruelty, adultery and abandonment still exist, and they can matter to a disproportionate division of the community estate, but they are not required to get divorced.
Two threshold rules decide whether you can file here at all. Under Texas Family Code section 6.301, one spouse must have been a domiciliary of Texas for the preceding six months and a resident of the county of filing for the preceding ninety days. Military families stationed at Fort Bliss should ask us about section 6.303, which treats time stationed in Texas as residence.
After the Original Petition for Divorce is filed, section 6.702 imposes a sixty-day waiting period before the court may grant the divorce. Sixty days is a floor, not a schedule. A genuinely agreed case with no children and no real property often finalises between the sixty-first and ninetieth day. A contested case with a business, a disputed retirement account or a custody fight commonly runs eight to fourteen months.
Governed principally by Tex. Fam. Code ch. 6 and 7
What we handle in this area
- Uncontested divorce with a full Agreed Decree and waiver of service
- Contested divorce with temporary orders, discovery and mediation
- Divorce involving a closely held business or professional practice
- Military divorce and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act stay
- Divorce with a disputed separate-property tracing claim
- Divorce with a family violence history and a concurrent protective order
- Default divorce when a respondent cannot be located and citation by publication is required
- Collaborative divorce under Family Code chapter 15
How the case runs
Durations below are what we typically see on the El Paso County family docket. They are not statutory guarantees, and a case with a contested issue can sit outside them entirely.
- Day 0
Original Petition filed
We file the petition and request standing orders. The sixty-day clock starts on the file-stamp date.
- Day 1 to 21
Service or waiver
A process server delivers citation, or your spouse signs a waiver of service before a notary.
- Day 21 to 28
Answer deadline
The respondent's answer is due by 10:00 am on the Monday after twenty days from service.
- Week 3 to 6
Temporary orders hearing
The court sets interim rules on the house, the children, support and bills while the case is pending.
- Month 2 to 6
Discovery
Required initial disclosures under Rule 194, plus written discovery and, in larger estates, depositions and a valuation expert.
- Month 4 to 8
Mediation
Most El Paso courts require mediation before they will give you a trial setting. A signed MSA is binding and not subject to revocation.
- Month 3 to 14
Prove-up or trial
Agreed cases finish in a short prove-up hearing. Contested cases are tried to the bench or, on timely request, a jury on limited issues.
What drives the cost and the timeline
The shape of the estate
A house with equity, a TRS or federal pension, a small business or a separate-property claim each add a valuation or tracing step.
How each spouse behaves
Discovery fights, missed deadlines and violations of the standing order are the largest single driver of cost in a Texas divorce.
Whether the court is backed up
Trial settings in El Paso County family courts are often six to ten weeks out once requested, longer after a holiday docket.
Marisol explained the sixty-day wait on the first call, so I stopped panicking about why nothing was happening. Every deadline after that came with an email telling me what it was for.
Questions we get about divorce
Only in narrow circumstances. Section 6.702(c) allows a waiver where the respondent has been convicted of or received deferred adjudication for family violence against the petitioner or a household member, or where the petitioner has an active protective order against the respondent. Otherwise sixty days is mandatory.
Texas has no general alimony. It has court-ordered spousal maintenance under chapter 8, which requires a specific eligibility finding, and it has contractual alimony, which the parties agree to. Maintenance is capped at the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20 percent of the payer's average monthly gross income, and the duration is limited by the length of the marriage.
No. Texas is a community property state, and the court divides the community estate in a manner it deems just and right. That is often near equal, but a court can order a disproportionate division based on fault, earning capacity, health, custody of the children, wasting of assets and other factors.
El Paso County family courts issue a standing order that attaches automatically to new suits. It bars both parties from hiding or spending community assets outside the ordinary course, changing insurance beneficiaries, removing children from the county and harassing the other party. Violating it is contempt.
If your case settles at mediation or by agreement, you may attend only a brief prove-up hearing, and some agreed decrees are granted on written declaration without an appearance. Contested cases require you at temporary orders and at trial.