Divorce is a difficult legal process as well as an emotional and personal one. If you’re ready to file for divorce, contacting a divorce attorney in San Antonio will give you access to experienced legal advice, knowledge of the law, and acquaintance with the local courts. All this will help your case to move through as smoothly and quickly as possible so that you can move on with your life.
How Do You File for Divorce in San Antonio?
1. Contact a Divorce Attorney in San Antonio
The first step is to get qualified legal help. The more contested your divorce, the more important it is to have an attorney’s help. Your attorney can especially be a valuable asset if there are children involved, if you have a lot of assets that needs to be divided, or if this is a particularly emotional time and you need someone who can help you negotiate and come to agreements.
Your attorney will help you make the best decisions, assist you in filling out all the complicated paperwork and making sure it’s filed on time and with the right court, and will negotiate on your behalf so that all settlements you reach are fair to you and your children. Your attorney will also represent you in court, if that’s necessary, and serve as a buffer between you and your spouse. If there is domestic violence involved, your attorney can help you petition the court for whatever is needed to keep you safe.
2. Talk With Your Attorney About Where and When to File
You are not allowed to bring a petition for divorce in our city unless you meet the state and county residency requirements. Either you or your spouse must have lived in Texas for at least six months before you can file for divorce here, and to file for divorce in San Antonio, one of you must have lived in Bexar County for at least three months. If you’re from out of state, but your spouse has lived here for at least six months, then you can get a divorce here.
3. Prepare and File the Petition for Divorce
The official filing that starts this process is called the “Petition for Divorce.” It includes all the important details of your marriage, like names, the date of your marriage and separation, and all the proof confirming you have Texas residency. If there are children involved, there are other forms that must be included. There are fees for filing all of these documents, but your attorney can help you submit an Affidavit of Inability to Pay Court Costs if the costs are too high for you.
4. Serving Your Spouse
Once you have filed, the next step is for you to “serve” your spouse. This means simply giving them official legal notification that you are taking this action against them (divorce is a legal action). If your spouse agrees to the divorce, this is a very simple step. They’ll just sign a “waiver of service” in front of a notary public, you will file this, and you’ll get right on with the process.
Potential complications arise when your spouse is not interested in being cooperative. In that case, you will need to serve them the papers by certified mail or use a process server to do it. If you can’t reach your spouse, the court will then consider other options like allowing you to try to reach them by email, social media, or other avenues. If you are genuinely unable to find your spouse at all, the court will want to see a checklist of everything that you have tried in order to reach them. If all of those efforts to reach them are unsuccessful, you can then serve your spouse by publishing a notice in the newspaper. You must have permission to do each of these things, so talk to your lawyer about what to do next.
5. Spouse Response
Once your spouse has been served the papers, the next step is for them to respond. The waiver of service they may have signed only acknowledges that they received the papers. They then need to make an answer. Their answer could be to agree to all the terms you have laid out, which usually happens when you and your spouse have talked through things in advance and agree on all the major issues of the divorce. They can also make an answer that outlines objections to your claims and sets out the terms they wish to request for the divorce. Finally, they can just ignore everything entirely. If they refuse to answer at all, the court is likely to make a default judgment in your favor.
The most common outcome, unless you and your spouse have thoroughly talked through everything in advance and agree on all issues, is for your spouse to file a counter-petition. At this point, the divorce is “contested,” and you will need to move into a negotiation phase to deal with all the issues of your divorce. If you can’t come to an agreement, the court will settle the dispute.
6. Getting Temporary Orders and Support
If there are any issues of domestic violence, if there’s a need for financial support, or if there are children involved, your lawyer can help you to get temporary orders. These are issued relatively quickly, and their purpose is to provide stability for the family while you get through the divorce process. They’re only valid until the final divorce decree is issued.
Some of the temporary orders you can request include orders for child support or spousal support, child custody and visitation, restraining orders, orders that give you exclusive (but temporary) use of certain shared marital property, and orders regarding who will pay the household bills and debts and cover insurance for everyone in the family.
7. Negotiating
If you have a contested divorce, the court is very likely to require you to enter into mediation. In mediation, a third party will sit down with you and your spouse and your lawyers to talk through all the issues and try to help you find common ground for compromise and agreement. In most divorces, this is in the best interest of everyone involved. When you and your spouse can negotiate, you stay in charge of your family and your finances and usually have a less emotionally adversarial experience than if you have to go to court. Mediation is also usually faster and cheaper.
8. Finalizing the Divorce
The divorce will be finalized either once you and your spouse have reached a settlement or, if you could not come to a settlement, after hearings before the court. If you come to a settlement, the court will look over the settlement and approve it if it believes it is equitable and in the best interests of any children. If you cannot agree, the court will make its own decision on all these issues. Either way, the court will issue a Final Decree of Divorce.
If you are thinking about divorce in San Antonio, contact Woodford Sathappan McGee in San Antonio for family law help anywhere in Bexar County, Alamo Heights, Bandera, Boerne, Helotes, Bulverde, Canyon Lake, and the surrounding Texas areas.
