How to Get a Divorce in Texas: A Step-by-Step Guide
To get a divorce in Texas, you must meet residency requirements, file an Original Petition for Divorce with your local district court, serve your spouse with legal notice, and wait at least 60 days before a judge can finalize the divorce. Texas allows no-fault divorces based on “insupportability,” meaning you don’t need to prove your spouse did anything wrong to end the marriage.
While the basic framework sounds straightforward on paper, the reality involves navigating a maze of procedural requirements, strategic decisions, and potential pitfalls that can have lasting consequences for your finances, your relationship with your children, and your future stability. Whether your divorce is amicable or contested, every choice you make — from how you file to what you ask for — can dramatically affect the outcome. This guide walks you through everything you need to know about getting a divorce in Texas, from the initial filing to the final decree.
Texas Divorce Residency Requirements
Before you can file for divorce in Texas, you must satisfy specific residency requirements under Texas Family Code § 6.301. At least one spouse must have lived in Texas for a continuous period of six months immediately before filing. Additionally, at least one spouse must have been a resident of the county where the divorce will be filed for at least 90 days prior to filing.
These requirements exist to establish that Texas courts have proper jurisdiction over your case—and jurisdiction matters more than most people realize. Filing in the wrong county can result in your case being dismissed, costing you time, money, and the strategic advantage of timing. If you recently moved to Texas or relocated between counties, calculating your exact residency dates becomes critical. Courts won’t overlook procedural defects, and opposing counsel won’t hesitate to exploit them.
Military families have some flexibility here. Under Texas Family Code § 6.303, service members stationed outside Texas, and their accompanying spouses, can count their time away as residency in Texas for divorce purposes. However, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act adds additional layers of protection and complexity that can affect timelines and procedures in ways that catch civilians off guard.
Grounds for Divorce in Texas
Texas recognizes seven legal grounds for divorce, divided into no-fault and fault-based categories. The ground you choose isn’t merely a formality—it’s a strategic decision that can affect property division, spousal support, custody arrangements, and even how the other side approaches negotiations. Choosing wrong can weaken your position; choosing wisely can provide leverage you didn’t know you had.
No-Fault Grounds
Insupportability is by far the most common ground for divorce in Texas. Under Texas Family Code § 6.001, a court may grant a divorce if the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation. In plain terms, you’re saying the marriage is broken beyond repair. Neither spouse needs to prove the other did anything wrong—but that doesn’t mean fault becomes irrelevant when dividing property or determining custody.
Living Apart provides another no-fault option under Texas Family Code § 6.006. If you and your spouse have lived apart without cohabitation for at least three continuous years, either spouse can file for divorce on this ground. Proving “without cohabitation” can be more complicated than it sounds—occasional overnight stays, shared meals, or other contact can disrupt the three-year clock and require starting over.
Confinement in a Mental Hospital applies when one spouse has been confined in a state or private mental hospital for at least three years and recovery appears unlikely. This ground requires substantial documentation and medical testimony, and it intersects with disability rights considerations that add legal complexity.
Fault-Based Grounds
Fault-based divorces require you to prove your spouse engaged in misconduct that caused the marriage to fail. While more difficult to prove, establishing fault can result in a larger share of marital property, affect custody decisions, or influence spousal support—making the additional effort worthwhile in the right circumstances. But pursuing fault allegations without sufficient evidence can backfire, damaging your credibility with the judge and making settlement more difficult.
Cruelty under Texas Family Code § 6.002 applies when one spouse’s cruel treatment makes living together insupportable. This can include physical abuse, emotional abuse, or patterns of behavior that make the marriage unbearable. Documenting cruelty requires more than your word—medical records, witness testimony, photographs, police reports, and other evidence become essential to proving your case.
Adultery is grounds for divorce under Texas Family Code § 6.003 when one spouse has sexual relations outside the marriage. Proving adultery typically requires circumstantial evidence showing opportunity and inclination—and the way you gather that evidence matters. Evidence obtained improperly can be excluded and may expose you to liability.
Felony Conviction applies under Texas Family Code § 6.004 when your spouse has been convicted of a felony, imprisoned for at least one year, and has not been pardoned. However, this ground doesn’t apply if the conviction was based primarily on your testimony—a nuance that can catch people by surprise.
Abandonment under Texas Family Code § 6.005 requires showing your spouse left with the intent to abandon and remained away for at least one year. Proving “intent to abandon” versus a legitimate separation can require careful legal analysis of the circumstances.
Want to learn more about your options? Read our comprehensive guide on no-fault divorce in Texas.
The Texas Divorce Process: Step by Step
Step 1: File the Original Petition for Divorce
The divorce process officially begins when you file an Original Petition for Divorce with the district clerk in the county where you or your spouse resides. This document identifies both parties, states the grounds for divorce, and outlines what you’re asking the court to decide—including property division, child custody, and support.
What many people don’t realize is that the petition sets the initial framework for the entire case. The requests you make—or fail to make—in this document can limit your options later. Asking for too little leaves money on the table. Asking for the wrong things signals inexperience to opposing counsel. Strategic decisions made at this stage ripple through the entire proceeding.
Filing fees vary by county but typically range from $250 to $400. Dallas County charges $350 for a divorce without children and $401 for divorces involving children. If you cannot afford the filing fee, you can request a fee waiver by filing a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs—but the waiver process itself has requirements that must be followed precisely.
Step 2: Serve Your Spouse
After filing, your spouse must receive formal legal notice of the divorce. Proper service is a constitutional requirement — without it, any judgment entered can later be set aside. This can happen several ways: a constable or sheriff can personally deliver the documents (typically costing $75 to $125), or a private process server can handle delivery. If your spouse agrees to the divorce, they can sign a Waiver of Service, eliminating the need for formal delivery.
Service problems are more common than you’d expect. Spouses avoid process servers. Addresses are wrong. Waivers aren’t signed correctly. Each defect creates delays and potential grounds for challenging the divorce later. When a spouse lives in another state or country, international service rules add another layer of complexity.
Once served, your spouse has until the first Monday after 20 days have passed to file a response. If they don’t respond, you may be able to proceed with a default judgment—but default judgments have their own procedural requirements and limitations that aren’t always obvious.
Step 3: The 60-Day Waiting Period
Texas Family Code § 6.702 mandates a 60-day waiting period between when the petition is filed and when the divorce can be finalized. This cooling-off period begins the day you file, not when your spouse is served. The earliest a judge can sign your final decree is the 61st day after filing.
The waiting period applies to all divorces with very limited exceptions. If your spouse has been convicted of a family violence offense or you have an active protective order against them due to violence during the marriage, a judge may waive the waiting period. Securing this waiver requires proper documentation and court approval—it doesn’t happen automatically.
Use this time productively. What happens during these 60 days often determines the outcome. Gather financial documents before your spouse can hide or destroy them. Document the status quo for custody purposes. Understand your assets and debts. Work with your attorney to anticipate what’s coming and prepare accordingly.
Step 4: Temporary Orders (If Needed)
If you need immediate decisions about child custody, child support, use of the family home, or bill payments while the divorce is pending, you can request temporary orders. These orders remain in effect until the final divorce decree is signed—and here’s what catches many people off guard: temporary orders often become the template for permanent arrangements.
Judges look at what’s working. If you’ve been the primary caretaker under temporary orders, you have a stronger argument for primary custody in the final decree. If you’ve been paying a certain level of support, that number tends to stick. Temporary orders hearings are often your first—and sometimes only—opportunity to present your case to the judge before trial. Treating them casually is a mistake that’s difficult to undo. Learn more about family court hearings in Texas and what to expect.
Step 5: Discovery
In contested divorces, both parties exchange information and documents through a formal process called discovery. This includes financial records, property documents, tax returns, business valuations, and other evidence relevant to dividing assets and determining support.
Discovery is where hidden assets are found — or remain hidden. It’s where you learn whether your spouse has been honest about income, debts, and spending. It’s where patterns of behavior emerge that affect custody evaluations. Knowing what to ask for, how to ask for it, and how to interpret what you receive requires understanding both the legal rules and the financial realities of divorce. Incomplete discovery leaves you negotiating blind. Texas has specific divorce discovery rules that govern this process.
Step 6: Negotiation and Mediation
Most Texas divorces settle before trial — but “settling” doesn’t mean accepting whatever is offered. Spouses and their attorneys negotiate the terms of property division, custody arrangements, and support. Many courts require mediation before allowing a case to proceed to trial. Mediation involves a neutral third party who helps facilitate agreement between the spouses.
Effective negotiation requires knowing your case’s strengths and weaknesses, understanding what a judge would likely order at trial, and recognizing when a settlement offer represents a good outcome versus when you’re being asked to give away too much. Mediators facilitate communication — they don’t tell you whether a deal is fair. That judgment requires someone who knows the law, knows the local courts, and knows your specific situation.
Step 7: Finalization
If you reach an agreement, your attorneys will draft a Final Decree of Divorce containing all the terms. Both parties sign the agreement, and a judge reviews and signs the decree during a brief hearing called a “prove-up.” If you cannot reach an agreement, your case goes to trial, where a judge (or jury in some cases) decides all contested issues.
The final decree is a legal document that will govern your life for years—sometimes decades—to come. It determines who pays what, who lives where, and when you see your children. Ambiguous language creates future disputes. Missing provisions leave important issues unresolved. Errors in property descriptions or account numbers can complicate enforcement. The document needs to be right.
Property Division in a Texas Divorce
Texas is a community property state, which means the court presumes all property acquired during the marriage belongs equally to both spouses, regardless of whose name is on the title. However, this doesn’t mean everything gets split 50/50. Instead, Texas Family Code § 7.001 requires courts to divide community property in a manner that is “just and right.”
What constitutes “just and right” depends on dozens of factors — and judges have significant discretion. Two judges looking at the same facts might reach different conclusions. Knowing how local judges tend to rule, what arguments resonate in your county, and how to present your case persuasively can mean the difference between an outcome you can live with and one that hurts for years.
Community Property vs. Separate Property
Community property includes virtually everything acquired during the marriage: income, real estate purchased during the marriage, retirement contributions made during the marriage, vehicles, and personal property. It doesn’t matter who earned the income or whose name is on the account.
Separate property belongs solely to one spouse and is not subject to division. This includes property owned before marriage, gifts received during the marriage, inheritance received during the marriage, and certain personal injury settlements. If you claim something is separate property, you must prove it by clear and convincing evidence — a higher standard than many people expect.
The complications arise when separate and community property become mixed — which happens constantly during long marriages. If you owned a house before marriage but made mortgage payments with marital income during the marriage, the community estate may be entitled to reimbursement. If you inherited money but deposited it in a joint account, tracing becomes necessary to prove what’s yours. Investment accounts, businesses started before marriage but grown during, stock options earned over multi-year periods—each creates classification challenges that require careful financial and legal analysis. For detailed information, visit our page on property division in divorce.
Factors Affecting Property Division
Judges consider multiple factors when determining a “just and right” division: each spouse’s earning capacity and financial resources, fault in breaking up the marriage (if applicable), who has primary custody of children, the health and age of each spouse, any waste or dissipation of community assets by either spouse, and the nature of the property itself.
In cases involving adultery, for example, a court may award the innocent spouse a larger share of the community estate — particularly if marital funds were spent on the affair. But proving how much was spent, and connecting it to the affair rather than legitimate expenses, requires documentation and analysis that casual observers wouldn’t think to pursue. The spouse who does the homework gets better results.
Child Custody in Texas Divorces
Texas uses the term “conservatorship” rather than custody. The court’s primary consideration in all custody decisions is the best interest of the child—a standard that sounds clear but involves weighing numerous subjective factors. Texas Family Code Chapter 153 establishes the framework for how parental rights and duties are divided.
Joint Managing Conservatorship
Texas law presumes that naming both parents as Joint Managing Conservators (JMC) is in the child’s best interest. This doesn’t mean equal time with each parent—a common misconception that leads to disappointment. Instead, it means both parents share decision-making authority on major issues affecting the child, such as education, healthcare, and religious upbringing.
Even in a joint managing conservatorship, one parent typically has the exclusive right to determine the child’s primary residence, usually within a specified geographic area such as a county or school district. This parent is sometimes called the “custodial parent,” and the child primarily lives with them. Who gets this right—and how the geographic restriction is defined—often becomes the most contested issue in the divorce. The parent who isn’t paying attention to these details can find themselves with far less time than they expected.
Sole Managing Conservatorship
When there’s evidence of family violence, abuse, neglect, or other factors that would make joint conservatorship harmful to the child, a court may name one parent as Sole Managing Conservator. The other parent becomes a Possessory Conservator with limited rights and possibly supervised visitation.
If your situation involves allegations of abuse or neglect—whether you’re the accuser or the accused—the stakes become dramatically higher. These cases require careful evidence gathering, potentially expert witnesses, and understanding of how family courts evaluate these sensitive situations. False allegations can backfire. True allegations require proper documentation to be believed.
Standard Possession Order
Texas has a Standard Possession Order (SPO) that applies when parents cannot agree on a visitation schedule. Under the standard schedule, the non-custodial parent typically has the child on the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month, Thursday evenings, alternating holidays, and extended summer possession.
Parents can agree to different arrangements, including 50/50 schedules, but any parenting plan must be approved by the court. What works on paper doesn’t always work in practice. Work schedules, travel requirements, children’s activities, geographic distance between homes—all of these factors affect whether a custody arrangement is realistic. Agreeing to something unworkable creates future conflicts and potential returns to court.
How Long Does a Texas Divorce Take?
The minimum time for any divorce in Texas is 61 days due to the mandatory waiting period. In reality, most divorces take considerably longer—and predicting timelines requires understanding what makes divorces slow down.
Uncontested divorces where both spouses agree on all issues can often be finalized within 60 to 90 days after filing. These cases require minimal court involvement and are the least expensive option. But “uncontested” requires genuine agreement on everything—custody schedules, property division, support, debts, retirement accounts, the house, the cars, everything. One disputed issue transforms an uncontested case into a contested one.
Contested divorces involving disputes over property, custody, or support typically take six months to a year or longer. Cases requiring extensive discovery, expert witnesses, or trial preparation can extend well beyond a year. Complex cases involving businesses, significant assets, or high-conflict custody disputes sometimes take two years or more to resolve. During this time, you’re living in limbo—unable to fully move on, tied to court schedules and opposing counsel’s tactics.
How Much Does a Divorce Cost in Texas?
Divorce costs vary dramatically depending on whether your case is contested and how complex your assets and custody issues are. The range is enormous—and the difference usually comes down to whether issues resolve through negotiation or require court intervention.
Uncontested divorces with no children and minimal property can cost as little as $1,500 to $5,000 including attorney fees, filing fees, and other expenses.
Average contested divorces in Texas cost between $15,000 and $30,000 for couples with children. Cases involving significant property disputes, business valuations, or custody battles can easily exceed $50,000 per spouse—and that’s not the high end.
Filing fees range from $250 to $400 depending on the county and whether children are involved. Service of process costs $50 to $125 for constable service.
Attorney fees in Texas average $250 to $500 per hour depending on the attorney’s experience and location. Major metropolitan areas like Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston tend to have higher rates. But hourly rate alone doesn’t determine cost—an experienced attorney who resolves issues efficiently often costs less than a cheaper attorney who lets cases drag on.
Additional costs may include mediation fees ($150 to $500 per hour), custody evaluations ($2,500 to $5,000), business valuations, forensic accountants to trace assets or uncover hidden income, and expert witnesses. These costs add up quickly in disputed cases—but skipping necessary experts to save money often costs more in the final outcome.
Common Questions about How to Get a Divorce in Texas
Can I get a legal separation in Texas?
No. Texas does not recognize legal separation. You are either married or divorced. However, you can enter into a separation agreement that addresses custody, support, and property issues while you remain legally married—but drafting these agreements requires careful attention to enforceability and future implications.
Do I need a divorce for a common law marriage?
Yes. If you have a valid common law (informal) marriage in Texas, you need a formal divorce to end it. The process is the same as for couples with a marriage license—but first you may need to prove the marriage existed, which adds another layer of complexity. Read more about divorce for common law marriage in Texas.
How long do I have to wait to remarry after divorce?
Texas law requires you to wait 31 days after your divorce is finalized before remarrying someone new. However, you can remarry your former spouse immediately. Courts may waive the 31-day requirement for good cause—but “good cause” requires demonstrating genuine need, not mere convenience.
Can I date while my divorce is pending?
Technically, you’re still married until the divorce is final, which means a new romantic relationship could be considered adultery. Even in a no-fault divorce, dating during the proceedings can complicate negotiations and may affect custody or property division if your spouse raises it as an issue. What feels like moving on with your life can become a strategic weapon for the other side.
What if my spouse won’t agree to the divorce?
In Texas, you cannot be forced to stay married. Even if your spouse refuses to sign divorce papers or participate in the process, you can still obtain a divorce. After proper service, if your spouse fails to respond, you can request a default judgment. The divorce will proceed based on what you’ve requested in your petition—which makes what you ask for in that initial filing even more important.
Get Help from an Experienced Texas Divorce Attorney
Divorce affects every aspect of your life — from your finances to your relationship with your children to your ability to rebuild and move forward. The decisions made during this process, and the documents signed at the end of it, will govern your life for years to come.
While some couples successfully handle simple, truly uncontested divorces on their own, the reality is that most divorces involve complications that aren’t obvious until you’re in the middle of them. Hidden issues surface. Emotions cloud judgment. The other side has their own interests to protect. What seemed straightforward becomes adversarial. What seemed fair turns out to leave you disadvantaged.
The family law attorneys at Varghese Summersett have helped hundreds of families in Fort Worth, Dallas, Southlake and across North Texas work through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. We understand that every divorce is different. Some require aggressive advocacy in the courtroom. Others benefit from creative problem-solving at the negotiation table. Many require both at different stages.
Our team will listen to your situation, explain your options honestly, and develop a strategy designed to protect your interests and your children. We’re experienced trial attorneys, which means the other side knows we’re prepared to go to court if necessary. That leverage often helps us achieve better results in negotiations — because when opposing counsel knows you’ll fight if you have to, they’re more likely to offer reasonable settlements.
If you’re considering divorce or have already been served with papers, contact Varghese Summersett Family Law Group at (817) 203-2220 for a consultation. The sooner you understand your rights and options, the better positioned you’ll be to protect your future.