A waiver uncontested agreed divorce or non-contested divorce are terms are used to describe when a husband and wife have an agreement and they do not contest the dissolution of their marriage.
In Texas you start a agreed divorce by filing an original petition for divorce.
You file that in the county in which you reside for the previous 90 days.
As you file an original petition for divorce that will then get you a case number and a court assignment.
Divorce petition in other states
Texas has a 60-day waiting period that is a common waiting period throughout the United States.
I am familiar with California which has a six month waiting period.
Certain states on the East Coast like Virginia, South Carolina have a one-year waiting period.
The shortest waiting period I’m familiar with is Florida which is 20 days and then Georgia is 30 days.
Final judgment of divorce
So with the 60-day waiting period or cooling-off period if a husband and wife get into heated arguments as to their relationship then that gives them time to see if this is really what they want dissolve their marriage.
After the divorce is filed you will need to prepare a final Decree of divorce coupled with any other supporting documents that may transfer real property, transfer title any vehicles, divide retirement accounts.
If you have children your children will need to be addressed also as a caveat, any children born of the woman regardless of whether or not the husband is the father in Texas will need to be addressed.
If you have a court order in regards to the children then you will need to attach it to the Final Decree of divorce or at least disclose it to the court depending on your judges personal preference.
Generally they will want to see the certified copy of a final order in suit affecting parent-child relationship.
Now if your children do not reside in Texas, thus Texas has no jurisdiction over your children, so if the wife has moved to New York and you are trying to get divorce in Texas and you are resident of a Texas County, she has moved away more than six months, Texas may have lost jurisdiction over those children.
Another fact pattern is where the wife has had three children with another man in New York and wife, those children with another man, all live in New York, well in that fact pattern Texas would have no jurisdiction over those three children but you would still have to disclose that the children were born during the marriage and then Texas will make a finding that those children
Are not to be adjudicated in this divorce proceeding because Texas has no jurisdiction over those children.
The property division
Now the final decree divorce should set up the property division and you are required to divide all property, undivided property can be subject to a future division and thus future law suit.
Thus, at the same time you would want to transfer and clear up title to houses, any type of vehicles that the parties may have titled together, retirement usually requires a separate order other than the final decree if it is through an employer.
If you have an individual retirement account you can do those by letter and you don’t need a qualified domestic relations order.
Health insurance for the children, rights and duties for the parents, who determines the residence of the children, or an agreement to restrict the residency of the children to a certain area, educational decisions those decisions and the rights of a parent would need to be specified in the final decree of divorce.
Once you have the form prepared reviewed and signed you would also need a waiver of service.
Some counties require a parenting class if children are involved, which is generally a four hour parenting class you may take that generally online although the live class is offered in the bigger cities.
The proved up of the divorce is done in front of a judge most of the time.
I am familiar with many courts that now allows prove ups to be done by sworn or written affidavit, which are the same questions that would be asked of you in front of the judge either he would give an oral narrative as to these questions and the responses or your lawyer would ask you the questions.
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