Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce
If a court has determined that you have met the burden of proof for needing spousal maintenance, the next step is determining for what period of time you may be eligible to receive spousal maintenance. The Texas Family Code previously stated that a party could only receive spousal maintenance for a maximum of three years. The Code was recently amended and now states that a person is eligible to receive spousal maintenance for the maximum of:
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Child Custody, Child Support, Divorce, Visitation and Access
Under the Texas Family Code, the right to receive child support and the right to visitation are two independent rights that do not have any weight on the other right. The ability to visit with your children is not dependent on your ability to pay child support. The obligation to pay child support does not disappear if the responsible parent is denied visitation or chooses to no longer possess the child during their periods of visitation.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce, Top 5 Divorce Articles, Uncontested Divorce
Transfer of property
Your Final Decree of Divorce will include language awarding property to you and your ex, however that is not the final step in the process of awarding property. Make sure that, if relevant to your case, documents such as Special Warranty Deeds, Deeds of Trust or Powers of Attorneys are signed, notarized and filed with the proper entities. Don’t wait until an issue pops up down the road to discover that you never transferred the title to a piece of property, make sure it’s all handled quickly after your divorce is finalized.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce, Top 5 Divorce Articles
Just don’t. Divorce is hard enough on children without added pressure or emotional blackmail coming from the parents. Don’t use your kids as pawns, don’t disparage your ex and don’t involve them in any pending litigation. It reflects poorly on you, your judge won’t appreciate it and it will have harmful effects on your children.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | General, Top 5 Divorce Articles
Your family law attorney is there to guide you through the process of a divorce or family law dispute and understands that you are going to have questions about the process. But every communication with your attorney will result in being billed, so save your small questions for a weekly status email with your attorney. This does not mean you should avoid communicating important information to your attorney, just think twice before you send off a quick email asking for information that could be found elsewhere or saved for another time.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Consultations, Divorce, Hiring a Divorce Lawyer
The primary reason we charge for attorney consultations is customer service. Our goal is to provide the highest level of service possible while keeping attorney fees under control. Years after opening our doors, we found that free consultations were negatively affecting the level of service we were able to provide to our clients. During this time we unable to timely respond to client inquiries and in some cases had to start setting trial dates further out to allow the firm to better prepare for each case. While a short delay is the better option than going to trial unprepared, we felt that to provide better service we needed to expedite all cases whenever possible.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce
Under Texas Law and the Texas Family Code, a child born during a marriage is presumed to be the child of the husband and wife. This means that the husband of the marriage is presumed to legally be the father, not the biological father. So if a woman gives birth to a child whose father is not her husband, her husband is still presumed to be the father unless additional steps are taken to adjudicate the paternity of the biological father. Dads if you have a divorce where you are not the father call today!
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce, Technology
With the news that 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords were recently leaked and the fact that internet security breaches are commonplace, the simple answer is YES. However, simply changing your password doesn’t solve the underlying problem without an increase in the password complexity and frequency of password changes. Yes, this means we all have to remember more complex passwords and change them more frequently but in the long run more secure passwords will keep your confidential information secure.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Adoption, Child Custody, Divorce
The termination of parental rights is referred to as the “civil death penalty” because there is nothing worse a Court can do to a person than to legally and permanently remove that person’s parental rights. Because of the severity of termination, it can be difficult to have one’s rights terminated. There must be good cause for a Court to legally remove a child’s parent from its life and there is a process to completing a termination suit.
Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce
Texas is a “no fault state” which means that a person can plead for divorce without alleging that either spouse is somehow responsible for demise of the marriage. One may allege adultery as a ground for filing divorce; however adultery is not a crime in the state of Texas. If you’re hoping your cheating spouse will face criminal repercussions for their actions, it’s not going to happen in Texas. So why would a person plead adultery as a ground for a Houston divorce? There are two main reasons: (1) in order to receive a disproportionate share of the community estate or (2) for reasons related to child custody and conservatorship issues.
