Divorce Process in Texas - YouTube

- Hi, I'm Vonda Covington,

and I want to talk to you about getting divorced,

options for getting divorced.

And one of the things that you need to ask yourself is,

how hard is it going to be to get an agreement

once you guys have all the information

that you need in order to reach an educated decision

on whatever issues you have?

There are a certain number of issues

that need to be resolved in order to get a divorce.

They get divided into property issues and parenting issues.

If you don't have kids,

it simplifies it because you've got about half the problem.

If you have kids,

it helps if you really focus on what's best for the kids,

and getting through this process in a way

that allows mom and dad remain co-parents.

So all of that being said,

what are the processes for getting divorced?

The traditional process is litigation,

which is inherently adversarial.

It's me against him,

and that's just the way the system is set up.

Now there are times whenever

litigation is absolutely necessary.

But because it's so costly and because it's so hurtful,

I think it should probably be the last resort,

rather than the first try.

In order of invasiveness,

the least invasive way to get divorced

is an uncontested divorce.

Husband and wife reach an agreement

as to all the issues that need to be resolved

for a divorce decree to be written.

They basically,

one of them brings that agreement to an attorney,

the attorney files the petition on behalf of that person,

and then drafts the decree,

drafts whatever other supporting documents

need to be drafted,

and drafts the waiver.

They then send all those documents to the other spouse.

The other spouse reviews them,

should probably take them to an attorney and go over them,

and then if everything is the way it should be,

if it represents the agreement,

they sign it, send it back to the attorney.

The attorney and his client

go down and prove up the divorce.

So that's when you've already basically got an agreement.

A lot of people will hire me, for instance,

to do an uncontested for them,

assuming they're gonna get an agreement.

And they can often do that.

It usually costs a little bit more,

because I get involved in advising them

as they're working on an agreement.

But in the end, they reach an agreement with their spouse.

We get a decree that both of them agree to,

we get supporting documents both of them agree to,

and then one morning early,

my client and I go down to the courthouse

and let an uncontested document prove it up.

That's the uncontested divorce.

The next step would probably be

early intervention mediation,

where the parties are pretty close to an agreement

but they can't quite,

without some outside help, get an agreement.

They go to a mediator,

the mediator helps them get an agreement,

and then one party hires an attorney to draft the documents,

which is just like an uncontested.

So the next level of invasiveness, in my mind,

would be to hire two collaborative law attorneys,

who can evaluate the case and see

if it needs to go full-blown collaborative

or if a couple of settlement conferences

would be sufficient.

So husband hires one attorney,

wife hires another attorney,

we might have one joint settlement conference

with husband and wife there.

And then,

decide whether or not a couple of settlement conferences

is going to be sufficient.

A lot of times it is,

and then you don't have to go into

the full-blown formality of collaborative law.

Next on that list would be collaborative law.

Husband and wife are nowhere close to an agreement.

They can't agree on much anything,

but both of them would be very very happy

to negotiate in good faith,

and both of them prefer to reach an agreement

than go to court and beat each other up.

In situations like that,

we have collaborative law.

Each party hires a collaborative law attorney,

we get into the collaborative law process,

and I'm not even going to begin

to try to explain that in depth here,

because that's a whole different video.

But once we're in the collaborative law process,

we go through that process,

reach an agreement,

everybody signs off on that agreement,

and then one or both parties goes and proves it up

on an uncontested.

If you can't get an agreement in collaborative law

or collaborative law is inappropriate

for on reason or another,

then to me the last stop is litigation.

And there are times when litigation

is not only appropriate,

but entirely necessary to protect,

for me from an attorney's point of view,

to protect my client's rights.

Many many times, we can use other methods than litigation,

but there are times whenever there's just really no choice.

Litigation, one party hires an attorney

to represent them in court,

the other party hires an attorney

to represent them in court.

We usually start with temporary orders,

that has to do with while the divorce is pending.

Who's gonna live where,

how are bills gonna get paid,

where are the kids gonna live,

how are the parenting issues gonna be handled,

what kind of parenting times do we arrange,

all of that kind of stuff.

That's temporary orders,

and that brings you up to the time

that the divorce actually is final.

During that period that the divorce is pending,

we also do formal discovery.

In collaborative law,

we gather all the documents,

we get all the information.

In litigation, we do this in a process that,

it's more work-intensive for the attorneys,

it's also work-intensive for the clients.

And we try to make sure that we get everything.

So we do discovery, we send out written discovery,

we don't do that in collaborative law,

but that's how we get the information in a contested case

that requires litigation.

We may take depositions,

we don't need to do that in collaborative law,

though there are times when we can,

and that's really not a no-no,

it's just not something that we often need to do.

Once discovery is finished in litigation,

the court requires us to go to mediation,

see if we can reach an agreement.

If we can't reach an agreement, mediation.

We gear up for trial, and we go to trial.

And those basically are the different processes

that we go through that are available out there

for people to get divorced.