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Texas has relatively simple residency and time requirements for filing and obtaining a divorce. Generally speaking, the first requirement for filing is a party must be a resident of the State of Texas for at least six (6) months. The second is a party must be a resident of the county in which the divorce is filed for ninety (90) days prior to filing. A divorce must be on file for at least sixty (60) days before the divorce may be granted. However, since the divorcing party must have the other spouse "served" with a copy of the divorce petition (accompanied by a writ known as a 'citation"); and, the other spouse has until "10:00 a.m. on the Monday following the expiration of twenty (20) days" to file an answer or respond to the petition after being "served;" and, the other spouse is entitled to at least forty-five (45) days notice of the final hearing, it is seldom a divorce is completed within such a short time frame. Of course, if the parties are in agreement, and the other spouse will execute a written "waiver" of the formal service of the petition and citation on him or her, and will waive the forty-five (45) day notice, and execute an agreed decree of divorce, the court may grant the divorce on the sixty-first (61) day. Of course, the court's docket will control the actual timing of any hearings -- even if agreed by the parties. Your lawyer will better understand the unique and individual workings of the individual courts and will be best able to explain the actual timing of the divorce. Texas will not allow a party to the divorce to remarry in the State of Texas for thirty (30) days after signing the decree of divorce -- unless the judge expressly orders the waiver of such limitation on the ability to remarry. This law has evolved out of the procedural rules which provide for even an agreed decree of divorce not to become final until the thirtieth (30th) after it is signed by the judge. Some people simply go to another state if they wish to remarry within the proscribed thirty (30) day window. Texas law does not bar such remarriage. However, if the original decree of divorce is set aside for whatever reason, the second marriage normally is void. -- The Law Offices of Steven E. Rogers |