Fort Worth Family Law Attorneys
Family Law Guidance for What Comes Next
Facing a divorce, child custody dispute, support matter, or another family law issue can bring difficult decisions. Davis & Associates provides experienced legal guidance to help Fort Worth families understand their options, protect what matters most, and move forward with confidence.
There is a building on East Weathorford Street where every divorce, custody fight, and child support dispute in Tarrant County gets heard. Six family district courts work out of this building, the Tarrant County Family Law Center, each with its own judge, its own associate judge, and its own habits.
No, the Texas Family Code does not change from one floor to the next, but how your particular case moves through the building does.
A Fort Worth, TX family law attorney who works in that building every week knows which courts send the most cases to mediation, when a contested custody case turns into a social study with a home visit, and why the automatic protections people hear about in other counties don’t kick in here on their own. Davis & Associates represents Fort Worth families in divorce, conservatorship, property division, modifications, and protective orders.
Here is how each plays out in Tarrant County and where things tend to go sideways.
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How Tarrant County Family Court Really Works
When you file, the district clerk assigns your case to one of the six family district courts. Neither you nor your lawyer get to choose. Each of these courts has a district judge and an associate judge, who often hears early matters such as temporary orders. Child support cases brought by the state go to separate IV-D courts on the first floor. The county’s court directory lists each court’s judges.
A few Tarrant County family court procedures catch people off guard:
- Mediation usually comes first. At least two of the family courts refer most cases to mediation unless there are allegations of abuse against a spouse or child. Our attorneys represent clients through Fort Worth divorce mediation, which means walking in with your numbers and your priorities already laid out.
- Contested custody often means a social study. A court orders social studies in most contested custody cases. No, it’s not the junior high class. It’s when an evaluator interviews both parents, reviews records, and typically visits each home.
- There’s no automatic standing order. Several Texas counties attach a standing order to every divorce petition that protects accounts, insurance, and the children the day the case is filed. Tarrant County’s family courts adopted one only as a temporary emergency measure in 2020. Today, protection of that kind generally must be requested through a temporary restraining order, or TRO.
None of these procedural habits are posted on the courthouse door. You learn it by working in these courtrooms every day, or you learn it the expensive way.
High-Asset Property Division in Fort Worth: Who Gets the Royalty Check?
Texas community property laws start with a presumption that catches some people flat-footed. Everything either spouse owns when the marriage ends is presumed to be community property, and the spouse who says otherwise has to prove it by clear and convincing evidence, one of the highest burdens in civil court.
However, this high burden decides a lot of high-asset cases. The house you bought before the wedding, the inheritance you got from a grandparent, and the brokerage account you opened when you were 25 can all be considered separate property. They can also slide into the community estate if nobody can trace them. Tracing means closing documents, account statements, and transfer records that sometimes go back decades.
Fort Worth adds its own wrinkles.
- Mineral interests. Tarrant County sits over the Barnett Shale, which the Railroad Commission describes as one of the largest onshore natural gas fields in the country. When a mineral interest is separate property, Texas courts have long treated the royalties and lease bonuses it produces as separate, too. Delay rentals paid under that same lease, however, belong to the community.
- Closely held businesses. A family company, a professional practice, or a ranch operation has to be valued, and Texas splits goodwill in two. Enterprise goodwill, the value that stays with the business if the owner leaves, can be divided. Personal goodwill, which is tied to one spouse’s own skill and reputation, generally can’t, and that distinction alone can reshape a valuation.
Once everything is characterized, the judge divides the community estate in a manner the court considers ‘just and right.’ That often lands near an even split, but fault in the breakup, a wide difference in earning capacity, and the size of each spouse’s separate estate can push it one direction or the other. A judge can’t hand one spouse’s separate property to the other, which is why the characterization dispute usually comes first. If your estate includes any of this, talk to a Fort Worth divorce lawyer before you sign an inventory that says who owns what.
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What Conservatorship in Texas Means for Your Kids
Texas law talks about conservatorship rather than custody. That vocabulary defines what you and your spouse are actually fighting over. A managing conservator holds decision-making rights over school, medical care, and the question many Fort Worth parents care about most, where the child lives. A possessory conservator has time with the child under a set schedule.
Texas presumes that naming both parents as joint managing conservators is in a child’s best interest. Joint doesn’t mean equal time, though. In most joint orders, one parent still holds the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence, and the court has to either set a geographic area for that residence or state that there isn’t one. In Tarrant County, that area is often Tarrant and its contiguous counties.
However, the presumption has a hard stop. A court can’t name parents as joint managing conservators when there’s credible evidence of a history or pattern of abuse or neglect by one parent against the other parent, a spouse, or a child. the court must also consider any protective order entered within two years before the case was filed or while it’s pending.
Whatever structure your family ends up with, the order has to be specific enough to enforce. Vague language like “reasonable visitation” sounds generous—right up until the first Thanksgiving handoff. A Fort Worth child custody attorney can build the parenting plan around your actual calendar. If you’re heading into a contested case, start now. Keep a record of who handles school pickups and doctor visits. Keep communicating with the other parent in writing. Keep the kids out of the adult conversations, including the ones on social media.
Practice Areas
- Divorce
- Child Custody
- Child Support
- Father's Rights
- Mediation
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Frequently Asked Questions
A conservator is a parent or other person a family court appoints to hold rights and duties for a child, the arrangement most states call custody. A guardian is appointed under the Texas Estates Code, usually in probate court, to manage the person or property of a minor or an incapacitated adult.
Texas is a community property state, so property either spouse holds when the marriage ends is presumed to be community property, and a spouse claiming separate property must prove it by clear and convincing evidence. A Tarrant County judge then divides the community estate in a manner the court considers just and right. That’s often close to 50/50, but factors such as fault in the breakup or a difference in earning capacity can justify an unequal division. Separate property isn’t divided.
It depends on your order. When parents are joint managing conservators, the order must either limit where the child’s primary residence can be or state that no limit applies, and many Tarrant County orders restrict it to Tarrant and contiguous counties. If yours does, moving the child outside that area takes a written agreement the court approves or a modification, which means showing a material and substantial change and that the move serves the child’s best interest. Moving first and asking later can cost you at the next hearing.
When a Final Decree Stops Fitting Your Life
Final orders feel final. Then someone gets transferred to Houston.
Texas family law modifications can happen under specific circumstances. The standard depends on what you want changed.
- Conservatorship or possession. You generally have to show that circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the last order and that the change you’re asking for serves the child’s best interest.
- Who designates the child’s residence, within a year. If you file within a year of the final orders, you’ll need a sworn affidavit up front alleging something serious, such as an environment that could endanger the child, the other parent’s consent, or that parent giving up primary care for at least six months. If the affidavit doesn’t state adequate facts, the court won’t even set a hearing.
- Child support. Support can change after a material and substantial change, or after three years if the guideline amount would differ from the current order by 20 percent or $100 a month. If you originally agreed to an amount outside the guidelines, the three-year route generally is not available.
Relocation is where these standards collide and need closer inspection. A job offer in Austin doesn’t change the order that keeps the child in Tarrant and contiguous counties. Changing it takes a court, either by approving a written agreement or by granting a modification.
Enforcement is the other part of post-decree work. When a parent stops paying support or keeps skipping child hand-off exchanges, the court can order back payments, wage withholding, make-up possession time, and, in serious cases, contempt. Whether you need a child support modification or enforcement of an existing order the other parent is ignoring, the first step is the same. Pull the order out of the drawer and read what it actually says.
Protective Orders and TROs When Safety Can’t Wait
If you’re in danger right now, call 911. Everything below can wait until you’re somewhere safe.
Texas gives families two different tools for protection. People constantly mix them up.
A temporary restraining order in a divorce protects the status quo while the case is pending. It can stop a spouse from draining accounts, canceling insurance, destroying records, or pulling the kids out of their school. In Tarrant County, a TRO request is usually part of the opening divorce paperwork.
A protective order is built for family violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. It’s a civil order, but violating it is a crime that police can enforce. Tarrant County protective orders generally move in stages:
- If a judge finds a clear and present danger, a temporary ex parte order can be signed the day you apply, typically lasting up to 20 days until a full hearing.
- After that hearing, a final protective order generally lasts up to two years. It can last even longer in some circumstances.
- If a divorce is already pending, the application generally belongs in the court handling the divorce.
You might not need to hire anyone to get a protective order. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office runs a protective order unit that reviews each applicant’s questionnaire and represents those who qualify. Where a private attorney can make a difference is in the overlap. A protective order can reshape conservatorship and possession, and an active order based on family violence can even lift the 60-day waiting period on a divorce. A Fort Worth domestic violence attorney on our team can make sure the protective order and the divorce or custody case around it fit together.
Meet Our Attorneys
Hiring a Fort Worth Family Law Attorney Who Knows the Building
Davis & Associates is a family law firm in Fort Worth, TX, with the backing of offices across the state, from Dallas and Plano to Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Temple, and Waco. Our attorneys handle cases in the Tarrant County Family Law Center, and our statewide reach makes a real difference when a case crosses county lines, whether it’s a spouse who moved to Harris County or property sitting in Central Texas.
Our firm also prices differently. Instead of billing every call and email by the hour, we use custom monthly pricing tailored to your case, so you can plan around a number you already know instead of opening each invoice to find out what last week cost.
If you need a Fort Worth family law attorney for a divorce, a conservatorship dispute, a modification, or a protective order, call Davis & Associates at (817) 631-8492 to schedule a free consultation. Bring your questions, your paperwork, and whatever order you’re currently living under. We’ll tell you where you stand in that building on Weatherford Street and what it will take to get where you need to be.
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