Houston Divorce And Family Law Blog

Divorce is seldom a simple process in Texas or anywhere else. When children are involved, the situation can become much more stressful and solutions more difficult to achieve. This can be particularly true where child custody is involved. The custody arrangement will almost definitely require contact with an ex-spouse, and that can be a challenging situation. One should always keep in mind the best interest of his or her child, and maintaining a civil relationship can simplify the situation.

There are some other measures that can be taken in an attempt to ease the stress that may be involved in sharing custody of one's children. It is important to always be respectful when speaking to or about the other parent in the children's presence. Studies have shown that children do best when maintaining a loving and respectful relationship with both parents.

If you are like a lot of people who get divorced in Texas, you may find the whole experience a bit overwhelming at times. This is completely understandable. Ending your marriage ultimately impacts every facet of your life and you will find yourself making decision after decision. In this situation, it can be all too easy to overlook some of the things that could benefit from your attention. Your estate plan is one of these things.

As explained by Forbes, there are some parts of your estate plan that you must keep on hold until your divorce decree is signed and finalized. There are some things, however, that you can do to update your plans as soon as you have separated from your spouse. Updating your health care advance directive and your durable power of attorney can be done at any time and it is recommended you do this sooner rather than later.

Texan couples that have decided to split up will likely have a number of issues to work through during the divorce process. Because of how high tensions can rise when handling custody, alimony, or other such matters, couples may benefit from the aid of a divorce mediator.

What is a mediator, exactly? Encyclopedia.com states that they are a neutral third party whose job is to create a bridge of understanding between two or more additional parties. In terms of divorce, it is the mediator's job to facilitate discussion between everyone and ensure that the outcomes are acceptable by both halves of a couple. They can help do this by asking clarifying questions when necessary, requesting information to be repeated, and ensuring that one party is not talking over the other. They can also provide valuable input that is free from any bias from either side.

When parents in Texas divorce, one parent will likely be called upon to make child support payments. While these payments can be crucial for supporting one's child, they can also potentially become a problem if the person paying support ends up with a changed financial situation. What do you do in those cases?

FindLaw examines the option of child support modification. This is the act in which child support orders are modified due to a change in financial circumstances. There can be many different reasons to request a modification. Most have to do with the supporting parent losing income in some way. This could mean that they lost their job or were demoted. In rare cases, the supporting parent may have gotten arrested. They may be a member of the military, navy or air force and were relocated elsewhere. They may have even married and formed a new family that they now must now support.