Thinking about divorce in Texas? Start by understanding it.

Texas requires a sixty-day waiting period between the filing of the petition and the signing of the final decree, with a narrow exception in certain family violence situations. Sixty days is the floor, not the estimate. An uncontested divorce with no children and simple assets can finish in roughly two to three months. A typical contested case in Central Texas runs six to twelve months, and cases involving a closely held business, asset tracing, or contested custody can run well past a year.

One of the two spouses must have lived in Texas for the preceding six months and in the county of filing for the preceding ninety days. If you and your spouse live in different Texas counties, either county may work, and which one you choose is one of the first strategic decisions in a case.

No. Texas is a no-fault state. The ground called insupportability allows a divorce when the marriage can no longer continue because of discord or conflict, and your spouse cannot prevent the divorce by refusing to agree to it. Texas also keeps fault grounds such as cruelty and adultery. A court may consider fault when dividing property, so whether to plead it is a strategic decision rather than an automatic one.

Not necessarily. Everything either spouse possesses at the time of divorce is presumed to be community property, and proving that something is separate property takes clear and convincing evidence. Courts then divide the community estate in a manner they consider just and right, which is not a synonym for fifty-fifty. Disproportionate divisions are routine.

Court-ordered maintenance is hard to qualify for, and it is capped at the lesser of $5,000 per month or twenty percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income. Duration is capped as well: five, seven, or ten years depending on the length of the marriage. Support that spouses negotiate between themselves, called contractual alimony, is a different instrument and is not bound by those limits.

Guideline child support is a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly net resources: twenty percent for one child, twenty-five for two, thirty for three, thirty-five for four, and forty percent for five or more. The guideline percentages apply up to a cap on net resources, which rose from $9,200 to $11,700 on September 1, 2025. For one child, that produces guideline support of up to $2,340 per month. Courts can and do deviate from the guidelines.

Be very careful about moving out before you have talked to a lawyer. Temporary orders set early in the case decide who stays in the house and what the children’s schedule looks like, and courts are reluctant to disturb arrangements that are working. There are situations where leaving is the right call, including any situation involving safety. Leaving casually can affect both the house and the possession schedule.