Austin Family Law Attorney
Austin Family Law Attorney Overview
- Why You Need a Dedicated Austin Family Law Lawyer
- Filing for Divorce in Texas: What the Law Requires
- Find the Help You Need Near You
- Protecting Your Children With Custody and Support Plans
- Legal Solutions for Life's Challenges
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Dividing Community Property in a Texas Divorce
- When Life Changes: Modifications and Enforcement
- Settling It Without a Trial
- Meet Our Attorneys
- Talk to an Austin Family Law Lawyer at Davis & Associates
- Expert Strategies, Industry Trends, & Firm News
Family law is unique in the way it reaches right into your home. It decides who sleeps where on Tuesdays, who claims the kids on taxes, what happens to the house you painted together, and more.
That’s what makes this practice area different from other kinds. It’s also why an Austin family law lawyer does more than file paperwork.
Texas has its own rules about property, its own vocabulary for custody, and its own waiting periods. Travis County judges apply all of it to families whose lives don’t pause for a court calendar.
Here’s what family law actually covers in Austin, from divorce and custody through property division, modifications, and the settlement options that keep you out of a courtroom.
Why You Need a Dedicated Austin Family Law Lawyer
You can file for divorce in Texas without a lawyer. People do it every day, and some of them actually turn out fine.
The trouble is that family law is full of decisions that look small in the moment and turn permanent later. You could end up with a possession schedule that ignores your work shifts. Or a property agreement that hands you an asset with a weighty tax bill attached. Or a support payment built on mere guesses about your spouse’s income. None of these get easier to fix once a judge signs the order.
Filing for Divorce in Texas: What the Law Requires
Texas divorce starts with two boxes you’ve got to check. Under Chapter 6 of the Texas Family Code, you must have lived in Texas for at least six months in the county where you’re filing for at least 90 days. Otherwise, the court can’t hear your case yet.
Texas is also a no-fault state. This means it’s not necessary to prove your spouse did anything wrong; “insupportability” covers a marriage that simply stopped working. Fault grounds like cruelty or adultery still exist, and can affect property division, but most Austin divorces don’t need them.
There is also the wait time. Texas imposes a 60-day waiting period from the filing date before any divorce can be finalized. That is the floor, not the ceiling. An uncontested divorce where both spouses agree on everything could wrap up shortly after those 60 days. A contested case involving a business, a custody fight, or a spouse who won’t produce financial records can run six months to well past a year, depending on the court’s docket.
- 20+Years of PracticeStrategic family law experience you can rely on.
- 50,000+Clients ServedProven results across divorce and custody matters.
- 50+Locations NationwideWe are local, everywhere.
- 120+Family Law AttorneysFind the right match for you.
Protecting Your Children With Custody and Support Plans
Texas never uses the word “custody” in its statutes. It says conservatorship, and this vocabulary shift trips up a lot of parents.
Chapter 153 of the Family Code sets the framework, and the standard that guides every decision is the best interest of the child. Texas presumes that naming both parents joint managing conservators serves that interest, meaning both share rights and duties, though one parent typically has the exclusive right to decide the child’s primary residence. Sole managing conservatorship exists for cases involving family violence, neglect, or absence, with the other parent named possessory conservator.
Three pieces make up a workable parenting arrangement:
- Conservatorship — who holds with decision-making rights over school, medical care, and religion
- Possession and access — the actual calendar, which often starts from the Standard Possession Order and gets customized from there
- Child support — calculated from guideline percentages of the paying parent’s net resources, starting at 20 percent for one child and rising by 5 percent per additional child
A good custody arrangement is the one that survives contact with a real-life week, which could include soccer practice, a night shift, a grandparent in Round Rock, etc. Judges can impose a schedule, but parents who build their own tend to follow it better.
- Divorce
- Divorce Mediation
- Child Support
- Child Custody
- Fathers Rights
- Asset Division
Find the Help You Need Near You
In Texas, there is a mandatory 60-day waiting period from the date the petition is filed before a divorce can be finalized. However, contested cases involving complex property division or child custody disputes often take six months to over a year depending on the court’s schedule.
Texas uses specific statutory guidelines based on a percentage of the non-custodial parent’s net monthly resources. For one child, this is typically 20%, increasing by 5% for each additional child, though the court may deviate based on the child’s specific needs or the parents’ financial status.
Texas does not recognize “legal separation” as a formal legal status like some other states do. Instead, Austin residents can achieve similar protections through temporary orders during a pending divorce or by entering into a formal Partition and Exchange Agreement.
Dividing Community Property in a Texas Divorce
Here is where people get the law wrong most often. Texas is a community property state, not an equitable distribution state, and the distinction really matters.
Almost everything either spouse earned or acquired during the marriage belongs to the community estate, no matter which spouse’s name is on it. Separate property, whatever you owned before the marriage, plus gifts and inheritances—stays yours as long as you can prove it was yours all along. It gets harder the longer the marriage lasted and the more that accounts got mixed and mingled.
Texas courts then divide the community estate in a manner that is “just and right” under Chapter 7 of the Family Code. Note the phrasing: not equal, but just and right. This lets a judge weigh earning capacity, fault, custody of the children, and who is walking away with what.
Complications could lay in the assets nobody thinks about until they’re on a spreadsheet in front of a divorce lawyer. These can include:
- A business built during the marriage
- A retirement account that needs a special court order to split
- Stock options that haven’t vested
- A house that has appreciated past what either spouse can finance alone
Sorting all of this out is at the heart of marital asset division, so it’s worth doing carefully the first time.
Spousal maintenance is separate from property and far from automatic in Texas. Courts award it only when a spouse meets specific statutory conditions, and the amount and duration of maintenance are capped.
When Life Changes: Modifications and Enforcement
A family court order describes one moment. Then the moment ends.
Jobs disappear. Promotions land. A parent needs to move away for work. A child’s needs change. Texas lets you ask the court to modify an existing order when there’s been a material and substantial change in circumstances, or, for child support specifically, when three years have passed and the guideline amount would differ from the current order by either 20 percent or $100.
Enforcement is the other side of that coin. When the other parent stops paying support or starts ignoring the possession schedule, the remedy runs through the court, not through self-help. Withholding a child because a support check is late, or stopping payment because a weekend got canceled, turns you into the one explaining yourself before a judge.
The mistake many families make is waiting. Unpaid support keeps accruing with interest whether or not anyone files. A possession schedule that everyone quietly ignores for two years is much harder to enforce than one you raised the first time a parent broke it.
Settling It Without a Trial
Most Austin family law cases never get to a final trial, and that’s usually the best outcome available.
Mediation is the biggest off-ramp. A neutral third-party shuttles between you and your spouse, often in separate rooms, until you reach terms. Once both sides sign a Mediated Settlement Agreement, it’s binding. Travis County courts commonly expect couples to attempt mediation before setting a contested case for trial.
Collaborative divorce goes further. Both spouses and specially trained attorneys sign an agreement to settle without litigation, often bringing in a neutral financial professional or child specialist. If settlement talks collapse, both lawyers must withdraw and everyone starts fresh with new counsel. This gives everyone involved a powerful reason to make it work.
Neither route fits every family. A spouse concealing assets or a history of family violence belongs in front of a judge with subpoena power. But when both people can negotiate honestly, settling can cost far less. It also moves faster, stays private, and produces agreements that people actually stick with.
Talk to an Austin Family Law Lawyer at Davis & Associates
The details matter when it comes to family law cases. The date on a bank statement, the wording of a possession schedule, and the difference between community and separate property are not minor things. Getting them right produces an order you can live with. Getting them wrong could lead to spending years trying to undo it.
Fortunately, that’s the work at Davis & Associates. Our Austin family law attorneys handle divorce, custody, support, property division, modifications, and enforcement. We are a firm with more than 40 locations and a flat, predictable monthly rate instead of the hourly meter that adds financial crisis to what you’re already going through. If you’re facing a family law matter in Austin or anywhere in Central Texas, speak with a divorce attorney before you sign anything. We can give you clear answers about where you stand. Reach out for consultation.
Get In Touch
Change Starts With a Conversation
Schedule a Consultation
Schedule a Consultation
Fill out the form, and let’s talk about how we can support your business with tailored solutions.