Fatherhood is a cherished institution in American life, but it can also be a thorny question when it comes to  family law cases where it’s important to determine who is responsible for a child’s welfare. With that in mind, it’s useful to go through the four types of fathers per the Uniform Parentage Act. Texas was actually a pioneering state when it came to that Act, adopting it in 2000 and starting implementation in 2001, as part of Section 160 of the Texas Family Code. It can be incredibly useful in cases involving assisted reproduction, as well as cases where the mother isn’t sure whic ..read more

One of the most important things you can do in a divorce is to make sure you’re telling your lawyer everything that might be pertinent to your case. Being truthful and thorough in conveying information about your marriage, your spouse, and your own actions and behaviors reduces the chances that your lawyer will be surprised by something that comes up in trial. Part of what protects you when telling your lawyer everything is attorney-client privilege. As a State Bar of Texas publication states, “The purpose of the attorney-client privilege is to encourage free discussion between a lawyer and cl ..read more

If you know that you and your spouse are looking to have an amicable divorce, know how lucky you are to be in that position, especially if you have children. One of the most important relationships you’ll need to maintain after your divorce, if you have children with your spouse, is that new co-parenting relationship with the person you’ve just divorced. If you can get through your divorce on the same page about your settlement, you’ll be that much further along in your co-parenting relationship. But you might be wondering, even if you want to divorce amicably, if you need a lawyer to help wit ..read more

For divorced parents during this holiday season we’re just wrapping up, the parenting schedule comes into special focus. Parents are not only aware of what the schedule is, but they’re aware of the limitations and the disappointment that comes with it. It could even be a disappointment you personally registered, regardless of how much your kids enjoyed the holiday season. As a parent, you’d love to spend the entire holiday season with your kids, and that’s understandable. But if you’re like the vast majority of divorced parents, you used to be married to someone else who also would love to spe ..read more

When you’re thinking about getting a divorce in Texas, one of the most important things to remember is that even the most straightforward divorces take time and involve multiple steps. At least a couple of steps are baked into the Texas Family Code, while other steps are dependent in part on the couple getting divorced and how they’d like to proceed. For example, if there’s a conflict regarding custody of the children or property division, that could drastically change the timeline for finalizing the divorce. When you’re getting divorced in Texas, there are at least two steps written into the ..read more

It’s understandable that, in a lot of cases, clients are anxious to finalize their divorce You might be wondering how long it will take to finalize your divorce … and there’s no easy answer to that question. A lot of that depends on the people involved with the divorce: The two people actually getting the divorce, as well as their legal teams. In a recent article, we talked about the process of getting served and how that might affect your case. If both parties in the divorce are expecting it and are preparing for it, it’s quite possible that by the time the petition for divorce is officially ..read more

When you’re getting divorced, it will definitely affect you in a lot of different ways. It will affect you emotionally, and financially, and if you have a child, it will most definitely affect you as a parent. That’s why it’s important at the outset of the divorce process to think about what expectations you have for your divorce. The most important thing about your divorce is to think about who it will impact. This is  especially true if you have kids. If you have kids, you will of course be concerned about their well-being first and foremost.. But if you have kids, you also have to thin ..read more

When you’re getting a divorce, you might hear the term “discovery” as it relates to information shared by the parties with each other, including information regarding assets and debts. Simply put, it’s the process that guarantees that everyone has all their cards on the table in a divorce. You and your spouse will know what shared assets and debts you have, but you might have assets and debts that are just yours, and you both might have assets and debts that each other is not aware of. Since divorce is ideally about splitting all those up fairly, you want to make sure everyone has a complete p ..read more

If you’re looking to get divorced or make a modification regarding the current custody arrangements for your child, the process will start with filing a petition in court, which your family lawyer can handle for you. At the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance, when we do a petition filing, we check to see if a waiver of service is an option, and if it is, we also make sure there’s a waiver of service included, along with a letter to the other party explaining what the waiver of service means. When a petition is filed in court, there’s a petitioner (the person who files the petition with the court ..read more

When celebrities divorce, many of us tend to read with an eye toward wanting to know why. After all, though we don’t know celebrities personally — or, at least, most of us don’t — we feel that we know what they’re like and know enough about their lives to wonder what’s going to happen next. Divorce is a chapter that’s full of uncertainty, and for those going through it, knowing how others deal with it can help us deal with it. Last week, news broke of what might be the ultimate high-net-worth divorce between supermodel Gisele Bündchen and football star Tom Brady. According to Yahoo!, the coupl ..read more