Do you find yourself in a situation where you have separated from your spouse with no plans of reconciling? If so, then you may need to figure out how to get a divorce from him or her despite their living apart from you. Your spouse may not even be living in Texas anymore. He or she may have attempted to move in anticipation of finding new work or attempting to start life fresh in another location. While you may not have had any emotional problem with him or her doing so the fact is that their moving can present some logistical problems for you.
At first, you may have been happy to see your spouse move out of the house because of a toxic atmosphere in the home due to your marriage having some problems. You can feel stuck when it comes to being in a marriage where you do not believe that there is any hope of reconciliation or improvement. As a result, from a psychological perspective, your spouse leaving the house may have given you a boost to your overall happiness and maybe even your self-confidence.
What can end up happening is that because your spouse is now out of sight and out of mind you may become pretty comfortable with no longer moving together and could be comfortable with the state of your relationship as it stands. After all, why bother getting divorced when you already don’t have to live with that person? Can’t you just live your life as you want and allow your spouse to do the same? Why should you bother getting a divorce when that may end up just causing more problems in both of your lives?
The reality is that the decision to stay married to a person that you have no relationship with can present problems to you both now and in the future. Not having any accountability towards one another for your actions puts you both in a position where neither of you is accountable to the other. Since trust is the basis for a good marriage a lack of trust will surely destroy whatever degree of hope you all had for a reconciliation.
Then you can run into problems where not only is there a lack of trust between you and your spouse but that lack of trust may allow one another to take certain liberties with each other’s property. I have seen spouses open credit accounts, take out credit cards and other loans in their spouse’s name without their knowledge. This sort of behavior isn’t necessarily encouraged by separating from your spouse but I think it makes it easier for someone to do this from an emotional perspective when you don’t have to look the victim in the eye every day.
Even if your spouse does not attempt to appropriate year name for debt purposes he or she can still do things in their names that may end up coming back to hurt you. Recall that because Texas is a Community property state that it is conceivable that your spouse’s debts could become your responsibility in a divorce. Even if we are not considering a divorce, a creditor of your spouse may end up trying to go after your wages or other property due to your relationship with your spouse.
I hope that you can see that that getting divorced from your spouse when you know that that is what is in your best interests would be a mistake. It is a risk to remain married to a person even when he or she is many miles away from you. While it may feel like on some level that you are divorced from him or shirt her the reality is that you are very much still married. as you are still married there is a risk that the decisions of your spouse during this time. May end of harming you.
So, if you find yourself living in another state from your spouse and would like to move forward and get a divorce I would like to be able to share with you how you can most efficiently do so. Rather than concerning yourself with questions that are irrelevant or not worth considering at the beginning of a divorce, he should begin to think practically and on the level of what issues can get between you and successful divorce. Among those issues, especially at the beginning of your divorce, is not being able to locate or provide notice of your divorce filing tier spouse.
It is only when your spouse has been provided with notice of the filing of your divorce as well as being able to file an answer with the judge that you could position yourself traction become legally divorced. Until then, he would be in the same position that you have found yourself in sensor separation. To avoid being in that position on an extended basis let’s discuss how you can move forward in a divorce case even if you are facing difficult or less than ideal circumstances like these. While it may take some effort on your part to be able to locate your spouse and provide him or her with notice it is the only way but you can do so
Would your spouse be able to move out of state during a divorce?
This is a reasonable question to ask given our position on the liabilities associated with remaining married to a person who is now living outside the city of Texas. There is no requirement that you and your spouse remain living together, even in the same state, while your divorce is ongoing. What you would need to do is to look at the circumstances of your life and your case and then decide whether or not you believe that it is in your best interests to live apart or live separately during this time. Oftentimes this is a financial as much as it is a relational or emotional decision. As you may be aware, divorce cases can be costly in a relative sense. Therefore, you and your spouse may not be able to move apart from one another until after the case is overdue to your not having the resources immediately to be able to afford rent or to live separately from one another.
On the other hand, if you all have children then it may be best for the primary parent to remain in the house with the kids in 4 the other parent to leave the house. This will help the children to adjust to having multiple homes to visit. Without children in the home, however, there may be less of a reason for you all first day in the house. Planning on selling the home and preparing the house for sale may be what you seek to do once you and your spouse can agree on that particular subject.
How do fault grounds for divorce factor into this discussion?
In Texas, it is possible to get divorced based on a specific reason or no reason in particular. These are otherwise known as no-fault or fault-ground divorces. The no-fault divorce is how most people get divorced in Texas. This simply means that you and your spouse have a discord or conflict and personalities in that there is no chance at reconciliation between the two of you. In that case, you all may want to get divorced without having a specific reason in mind.
On the other hand, you may be able to specify a specific reason why a divorce is necessary. This specific reason is otherwise known as a fault ground for divorce. You may be asking yourself what the benefit of specifying a fault ground for divorce would be if you can get divorced for no reason in particular. Why go through all the trouble of Specifying and then proving a fault ground when you don’t have to do any of the work to get a no-fault divorce?
Well, specifying a fault ground can allow you to receive more time in a divorce with your children and also allow you to receive a disproportionate share of your community estate. The reason being is that a judge would look towards your behavior and that of your spouse to conclude whether or not bad behavior factored into the divorce case. If you can Overfelt ground for divorce then that shows that and your spouse’s bad behavior played a large role in your filing the divorce case. That could be enough to tip the scales, depending upon what the fault ground is, to allow you to receive more of your Community property or receive a more favorable child custody order.
When it comes to living apart from your spouse, you can specify that living apart was the fault ground for divorce that you were going to specify in your original petition. However, the Texas family code requires that you and your spouse live apart from one another for at least three years. However, neither you know your spouse is required 2 live in Texas during that time. One could argue, that living apart in separate states is excellent evidence that you all intended to remain living separately with no intention to move back in.
Bear in mind that if you have children in your divorce then you may be barred from leaving the state. This will be true if a geographic restriction requires your children to live in a certain geographic area such as a particular county, set of counties, or even a school district. This usually occurs if you are the primary conservator of your child. Otherwise, you could choose to move out of that geographic region if you are a nonprimary parent. However, be aware that you are moving outside of the geographic region would potentially cause the geographic restriction to be lifted on your Co-parent and therefore he or she could move anywhere with your children. It doesn’t matter where your spouse could then move with your children if you moved first outside of the geographic region. This opens you up to a great deal of viability as your spouse could choose to live anywhere. Traveling to and from these locations to see your child could become quite costly and time-consuming.
Are you still able to get divorced in Texas even if your spouse moves out of state?
Hopefully, you have been able to read between the lines and answered this question yourself. Yes, you can get divorced in Texas even if your spouse no longer resides in the state. The Texas family code does contain a residency requirement in divorce cases. Either you or your spouse must be a resident of Texas for at least six months before filing for divorce here. You must have been a resident of your specific county for at least 90 days before filing, as well. It does not matter which one of you resides in Texas. So long as one of you meets the residency requirement then you can move forward with your divorce.
On the other hand, if you have just moved to Texas then you would need to decide whether or not you want to wait the required amount of time to divorce in this state or whether you want to move forward with a divorce in your home state if you’re spouse still lives there. Many people would choose to wait to file their divorce given the convenience of being able to file near your new home. However, your spouse may not give you that opportunity if he or she attempts to file for divorce before you can. This is a subject that you and your spouse can discuss together and coordinate. That way you are not going to run into a situation where one of you files for divorce while the other does the same in a separate state.
How do Texas view marriages and divorces from different states?
As a general rule, all states in The United States recognize marriages and divorces from the other states. You will be treated as being married equally in New Jersey or Texas or Hawaii or wherever. In Texas, you have the right to get divorced. It does not matter if you were married in Texas so long as you have a valid marriage from your home state or another state and you meet the residency requirements in Texas. Once your divorce is finalized in Texas it should be Honored in any other state as well.
Living in separate states can complicate Divorces
Undeniably, getting a divorce can become more complicated if you live in a separate state from your spouse. For one, being able to provide notice to your spouse can be difficult if you do not know where he or she lives. Remember that your divorce cannot start until notice is provided to him or her. Notice is most effectively done personally with a process server or sheriff’s deputy providing the paperwork directly to him or her. A citation will be completed in return to the court showing proof of service.
In the alternative, if you cannot locate your spouse, you would need to be able to have service effectuated in some way. This can be done through substituted service and a newspaper comma magazine or even posting a notice on the door of the courthouse. However, you need to be aware that notice of this Stuart is more easily overturned through the filing of a motion for new trial are giving that proper notice was never received by your spouse. Additionally, additional time in expenses associated with this type of notice as in add Litem attorney will most likely need to be appointed by the court to do some research and determine if an alternative address can be found for your spouse.
In whatever circumstance you find yourself in, you need to have an experienced family law attorney by your side. Circumstances, where you cannot locate your spouse, indicate a complicated case where you are going to need to work hard towards getting in two positions where your spouse can be notified of the case. Without this, you may find yourself waiting for a very long period for your case to be completed. This does not serve you or your family well and only exacerbates problems at home. To maximize your opportunities at an efficient divorce having an attorney to guide you through this process is extremely important.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensedfamily law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law as well as about how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of the divorce or child custody case
from Texas Bar Today https://ift.tt/3zCVtse
via Abogado Aly Website
No comments:
Post a Comment