The State of Texas requires a 60 day waiting period before a divorce can be finalized. That means, after your Original Petition for Divorce is filed stamped by the District Clerk, you have to wait 60 days before you can go back to court to finalize your divorce. In the interim, your spouse needs to either be served with the file stamped petition for divorce or sign a Waiver of Citation stating service is not necessary and a file stamped petition has been provided putting spouse on notice of the divorce proceeding. If served, your spouse will then be directed on the citation of service to file an answer on the first Monday after 20 days from receipt of service. If your spouse fails to file an answer, you can go to court and finalize your divorce without further contacting him/her after the 60 day waiting period has expired. If your spouse files an answer, hires an attorney, or contests any issues in the divorce the proceedings will take longer. The length of time varies and depends on the time needed for negotiations and/or the time it takes to receive a court date in order for the judge to rule on the contested issues.

As long as there are no court orders, either parent has the right to possession of the child. Therefore, until there is a court order, you are not required to allow the other parent visitation because they are not required to return the child. However, denying a child access to its parent may not be advisible if you expect there to be a contested custody case, unless there is abuse or neglect. In those cases you could establish a supervised visitation schedule.

Court’s in Texas typically do not allow party’s to finalize a divorce when the wife is pregnant, whether the pregnancy is of the marriage or not. Some court’s may allow you to finalize the divorce under very stringent guidelines. One such scenario is if the child is not the child of the husband and the unborn child’s father appears in court and under sworn testimony acknowledges the paternity of the unborn baby.

Joint Managing Conservatorship (JMC): The court looks to the best interest of the child to determine which parent should be the primary conservator. Typically, the court prefers Joint Managing Conservatorship. JMC allows each parent to have some level of rights with respect to decisions concerning the child. It does not necessarily mean that the child will live with each parent 50% of the time. The child will still remain primarily in the residence of one parent, however, each parent has some say regarding decisions concerning the child. Nonetheless, the custodial parent has the right to establish the main residence of the child while the non-custodial parent, will be required to pay child support.

Sole Managing Conservatorship (SMC): In some cases the court may find it in the child’s best interest to name one parent the sole managing conservator of the child and the other parent the possessory conservator of the child. These are usually reserved for instances when family violence has occurred or one parent has exhibited abuse or neglect toward the child. The difference between JMC and SMC is that the sole managing conservator has the exclusive right to make decisions concerning the child.

Can I modify a previous order regarding custody, visitation, and child support?

In order to modify an existing order, a material change of circumstance must have occurred since the signing of the order. A material change can be anything that substantially affects the child. Note that in custody cases, parties seeking to change the custodial parent within one year of the original order must provide an affidavit alleging: the child’s present environment significantly endangers the child, OR custodial parent is seeking or consents to the modification, OR custodial parent has voluntarily relinquished possession of the child for at least six months.