Austin Divorce
Lawyers Serving Central Texas Families

Divorce is one of the hardest things a family goes through, and the right lawyer makes it far less overwhelming. SMB Law, PC guides Austin-area clients through every kind of divorce, from fully agreed uncontested cases to complex, high-conflict contested litigation. Whatever your situation, we will help you understand your options, protect what matters, and move forward. Free consultations: (512) 561-5003.

Key Takeaways

Texas is a no-fault, community property state with a mandatory 60-day waiting period for most divorces.
The path you choose, whether uncontested, mediated, collaborative, or contested, drives the cost, timeline, and stress of your case.
Custody, support, and property division can each be resolved by agreement or decided by the court. SMB Law, PC handles every divorce type from one downtown Austin office, led by attorney Shane M. Boasberg.

Divorce in Texas: The Basics

To file for divorce in Texas, you or your spouse must have lived in the state for six months and in your county for 90 days. Texas is a no-fault state, so neither of you has to prove wrongdoing, though fault grounds like adultery or cruelty can still affect property division and support.

Nearly every divorce must wait at least 60 days from filing before it can be finalized. How long it takes after that depends mostly on one thing: how much you and your spouse can agree on. Agreed cases often wrap up shortly after the waiting period; disputed ones take months or longer.

Which Kind of Divorce Is Yours?

The single biggest fork in the road is whether your divorce is agreed or disputed. That choice shapes everything downstream: timeline, cost, privacy, and how much a judge decides for you instead of the two of you deciding for yourselves.

Choosing between an agreed or disputed divorce is the single most critical decision in your case. It dictates your timeline, total costs, privacy, and how much control you maintain over the outcome.

Explore the primary paths below to see where your situation fits and how SMB Law, PC can protect your interests.

Uncontested Divorce

If you and your spouse agree on all the major issues, including property, custody, and support, an uncontested divorce is usually the fastest and least expensive path, often wrapping up shortly after the 60-day waiting period.

We prepare the paperwork, make sure the agreement actually protects you, and keep the case moving so you can get on with your life.

Contested Divorce

When you cannot agree on one or more key issues, the court steps in. That is a contested divorce, and it involves discovery, negotiation, and sometimes trial. The usual flashpoints are custody, property division (especially when a house or business is in play), and spousal support.

These cases demand a litigator who prepares every case as if it is going before a judge. That is exactly what our dedicated contested divorce practice does, and why settling from a position of strength so often follows.

Specialized Divorce Situations We Handle

Some divorces bring extra layers, and each of these has a dedicated SMB Law practice page. A collaborative divorce lets both spouses resolve everything out of court with specially trained counsel. Military divorces involve federal rules on pensions, residency, and deployment. High-net-worth divorces turn on business valuations, complex assets, and separate-property tracing.

Our LGBTQ divorce practice navigates the unique property and parentage questions same-sex couples can face in Texas. Whatever the situation, the fundamentals stay the same: know your rights, value everything correctly, and negotiate from strength.

The Importance of Hiring an Experienced Austin Divorce Lawyer

Whatever path your divorce takes, experienced counsel is usually the difference between an outcome you can live with and one you will spend years trying to fix. A good divorce lawyer knows Texas family law cold: what is negotiable, what a Travis County judge is likely to order, and when to push versus settle.

Just as important, experienced counsel protects you from the unforced errors that are expensive to undo later: missed financial disclosures, bad temporary orders, and rushed agreements signed under stress. That protection applies equally to a simple agreed divorce and a hard-fought contested one.

SMB Law: Expertise in Texas Family Law

Shane M. Boasberg has practiced law for more than two decades and founded SMB Law, PC in 2010. The firm handles divorce and family law across Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties, from simple agreed divorces to high-conflict custody and property litigation.

That range matters: because we handle every divorce type, our advice about which path fits your case is based on your situation, not on the only tool we happen to have.

Strategic Legal Representation

Every case gets a strategy built around your facts and your goals, not a template. That starts at the free consultation: we map your assets, your custody picture, and your risk points, then recommend the path, whether agreement, mediation, collaboration, or litigation, that gets you the best result for the least damage.

A skilled divorce attorney wears a few hats at once: protector, negotiator, and advocate, keeping communication clear and your expectations realistic from the first meeting to the final decree.

The Texas Divorce Process, Step by Step

Most Texas divorces move through the same stages; the difference is how many of them you actually need. It starts with filing the petition, serving your spouse, and waiting out the mandatory 60-day period. Agreed cases may skip from filing nearly straight to a final decree, while disputed ones work through each step below.

Fault claims, custody arrangements, and how willing the two sides are to cooperate all affect the timeline. Staying in communication and negotiating in good faith moves things faster at every stage.

The basic path in Texas is the same for everyone: file, serve, wait, finalize. Knowing the steps and having the right lawyer behind you makes a real difference.

Filing the Divorce Petition

It starts by filing the Petition for Divorce with the district court in Travis County. To file in Texas, you need to have lived in the state for at least six months and in your county for 90 days, which is what gives the court jurisdiction.

The Original Petition lays out that you want a divorce and why, and it goes to the county district court. Once it is filed, the filing spouse has to serve the other with the papers within a set window.

Temporary Orders

Temporary orders are court orders that hold things steady while the divorce plays out. They cover the immediate stuff, like money and custody, so both people have some stability until the final settlement.

Having them in place tends to make the whole process more manageable and cuts down on conflict.

Discovery Phase

Discovery is the stretch where both sides collect the evidence and information they need to back up their positions. Spouses trade documents, and it can include depositions to get testimony on the record.

Once that is done, settlement talks begin, with the aim of resolving the disputes on terms both people can accept.

Settlement Negotiations

Settlement negotiations give both sides a chance to work things out and land on terms everyone can live with. Fights over assets, custody, or support are what usually send a divorce toward trial, which is why these talks matter so much.

Settling out of court is often the smarter play, since trials eat up time and money. If you reach a deal, it goes to the court for approval. If you do not, the case heads to trial.

Trial Preparation

When a contested divorce cannot be settled, it goes to trial. Getting ready means thorough documentation and, in many cases, lining up witnesses. After your spouse responds to the petition, both sides gather evidence for negotiation or trial.

At trial, each spouse presents evidence and arguments to a judge or jury, and the decision becomes official through a court order called a divorce decree.

Navigating the Divorce Decree

The divorce decree is the final court order spelling out the terms: property division, custody, and spousal support. It is legally binding and can shape your finances and personal life for years, so it is worth having a skilled Austin divorce lawyer review it to confirm it actually matches what you agreed to.

An experienced Austin divorce attorney helps you get through the decree process with your rights protected, and can explain what the terms mean for you down the road.

If the decree does not sit right, that same attorney can look at options to modify or appeal it. The goal is a final order that is fair and reflects what you need.

Children in a Texas Divorce: Custody and Support

If you have children, custody and support are usually the heart of the case. Texas courts start from the child’s best interests and generally favor joint managing conservatorship. Our child custody and child support pages cover both in depth. The factors below are what courts weigh when parents cannot agree:

Texas courts weigh several things when setting custody, starting with the child’s best interests and whether to order joint managing conservatorship or give one parent sole custody. High-conflict divorces often turn on custody, which adds another layer of difficulty. Texas judges look hard at which arrangement gives the child a stable home, keeping the child’s emotional and physical well-being front and center.

These cases really benefit from an experienced lawyer who can handle the legal complexity while keeping the focus where the court puts it: on the child’s life and best interests, the standard behind every custody decision.

Joint vs. Sole Custody

Joint custody means both parents share in raising the kids. Sole custody gives one parent exclusive physical and legal conservatorship, which usually comes up when the other parent is considered unfit or cannot provide a stable home.

Temporary orders in a contested divorce set the custody, visitation, and child support arrangements while the case is pending.

Best Interests of the Child Standard

In high-conflict cases, Texas courts keep the focus on the child’s best interests. Judges weigh the child’s emotional well-being and look at both emotional and physical stability when sorting out custody. Getting the best-interest standard wrong can lead to a bad outcome, which is why experienced counsel matters so much here.

Modifying Custody Orders

Changing a custody order in Texas means petitioning the court. Custody can be modified after a divorce when circumstances shift, as long as the change still serves the child’s best interests.

You will need real evidence of a substantial change to modify an order. If a parent can no longer meet their responsibilities, or their situation changes in a big way, a modification may be on the table.

Property Division in a Texas Divorce

Property division in a Texas divorce comes down to how the community property gets split, and that means understanding Texas law. It gets tricky fast when there are significant assets or a business involved. Texas is a community property state, so assets and debts from the marriage are jointly owned and generally divided evenly, which makes accurate valuation and classification important.

Common-law marriages count too: those spouses can divorce under the same community property rules. Pinning down separate property, meaning what you owned before the marriage or received as a gift or inheritance, is a big part of getting the split right.

When a business is in the mix, you are looking at careful valuation and some real legal and financial coordination. A good attorney helps you stay transparent and hold onto wealth while high-value assets get divided.

Community Property Laws in Texas

Texas is a community property state, which means the assets and debts you take on during the marriage belong to both spouses. The law assumes you own that community property equally, no matter who earned it, and it is generally divided down the middle.

When it splits things up, the court weighs each spouse’s earning power, fault in the breakup, and future needs. That is why

accurate valuation and classification of your assets matters so much. And common-law marriages count here too: those spouses can also divorce under the same community property rules.

Identifying Separate Property

Separate property is what you owned on your own before the marriage, or received as a gift or inheritance. Sorting it out matters for a fair split, since separate property does not follow the same division rules as community property.

High-Value Assets and Business Interests

When a divorce involves high-value assets or a business, you need a careful read on what the business is worth and some serious legal and financial coordination. High-net-worth cases often bring in business ownership, professional practices, and investment portfolios.

Hiding assets in a divorce is illegal and can backfire badly. A good attorney helps you stay above board while protecting your share as high-value assets get divided.

Spousal Support and Alimony Considerations

Spousal support in Texas comes in two forms: court-ordered spousal maintenance and contractual alimony. A court only awards maintenance in specific situations, like financial need, a long marriage, a disability, caring for a disabled child, or a family violence conviction. Texas caps monthly maintenance at $5,000 or 20% of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income, whichever is less. Judges weigh factors like financial need and what each spouse contributed, including homemaking or supporting the other’s education. In fault-based cases, proven misconduct can move the needle, but you need solid proof to allege fault.

Divorce can leave a lasting mark on your finances and what you own. Contractual alimony is a private deal, separate from court-ordered maintenance, and it takes careful negotiation and paperwork. Good legal help makes sure the terms actually work for you and that you understand them before you sign.

Eligibility for Spousal Maintenance

To qualify for spousal maintenance in Texas, you generally have to show financial need, a marriage of at least 10 years, and an inability to cover your reasonable needs on your own. Length of marriage carries a lot of weight, and for marriages over 30 years, maintenance can run up to 10 years.

The court looks at both spouses’ finances when it decides.

Contractual Alimony Agreements

Contractual alimony is a private agreement, separate from court-ordered maintenance. For it to hold up, it needs careful negotiation and documentation, and a knowledgeable lawyer to make sure the terms favor you.

Read the terms and think through what they mean before you finalize anything.

Mediation and Collaborative Divorce

Mediation and collaborative law let couples settle their differences without a courtroom. In mediation, a neutral third party helps both spouses negotiate toward an agreement they can both accept. In collaborative law, the spouses and their attorneys commit to working things out amicably, often with other professionals lending a hand. These routes can produce better results, keep relationships intact, and cut down on the emotional and financial toll.

Both approaches lean on cooperation instead of confrontation. They open up communication and help couples work out terms without going to court, which makes room for custom arrangements around kids, property, and money, and a more peaceful ending overall.

Mediation in Contested Divorces

In mediation, a neutral mediator helps spouses reach an agreement. Their job is to help both sides find fair compromises. Like collaborative divorce, mediation runs on cooperation over conflict, which keeps communication open and helps couples settle terms without court.

A lawyer adds real value here by making sure the deal does not tilt toward one spouse, and strong client reviews are a good sign a lawyer knows how to steer these negotiations.

Collaborative Divorce Approach

In a collaborative divorce, both spouses and their attorneys work together to settle everything without going to court. The whole point is to resolve the issues cooperatively and reach a more peaceful ending.

Preparing for Court Proceedings

Trial prep matters a lot. It means organizing the facts, setting a strategy, and pulling together the documents you will need before you ever walk into court. Gathering evidence covers records, witness statements, and anything else that backs up your claims. And courtroom etiquette counts too: dress the part, respect the court, and do not interrupt.

Being prepared and organized shapes how the court sees your case. Showing up on time, dressed appropriately, and addressing the judge with respect all help you come across as serious and credible during a contested divorce.

Gathering Evidence

Divorce cases use a few kinds of evidence: testimonial, documentary, tangible, and demonstrative, each one supporting a claim. Financial records, property valuations, and anything tied to custody or support are key. Pulling together documents like tax returns and bank statements is essential for backing up what you are claiming.

To be used in court, evidence has to be relevant, material, authentic, and not privileged. Witness statements can add weight to your claims.

Courtroom Etiquette and Expectations

Being well-prepared and organized can significantly impact the court’s perception of your case. Courtroom etiquette is essential for presenting yourself professionally and respectfully during a contested divorce.

Tips for proper courtroom behavior include dressing appropriately, arriving on time, and addressing the judge respectfully. Expect the courtroom to be formal, the proceedings to be taken seriously, and the judge’s directions to be followed attentively.

Emotional and Financial Impact of Divorce

Divorce often leads to a range of intense emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and guilt. Attorneys offer support beyond legal advice, providing emotional support to clients experiencing high-conflict divorces and emotional turmoil. Common emotional issues faced by clients during a divorce include betrayal, parental alienation, financial loss, and relocation. Joining a support group can help individuals feel connected and share strategies for handling divorce stress.

The outcome of a divorce can significantly affect various aspects such as business, retirement, parenting rights, and financial independence. Creating a strong support network is crucial for emotional stability during divorce. Seeking counseling can significantly assist individuals in coping with the emotions associated with divorce.

Managing Emotional Stress

Focus on long-term implications to avoid unfavorable outcomes. Mediation reduces stress, leads to quicker resolutions, lowers costs, and allows for tailored agreements.

An empathetic attorney is vital for comprehensively understanding clients’ emotional challenges during divorce.

Financial Planning and Budgeting

Sound financial planning takes some of the pressure off before and during a divorce. In high-net-worth cases, it is worth bringing in financial experts, and forensic accountants often, to protect your long-term interests. These divorces come with their own headaches: big assets to manage and complicated financial arrangements to untangle.

Planning for after the divorce matters just as much. Think through housing changes, tax consequences, and how you will reshape your finances for the long haul.

Texas Divorce Cost Calculator

What will your divorce actually cost? It depends on four things more than anything else: whether you and your spouse agree, whether children are involved, how complicated your property is, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. Answer those four questions below for a ballpark range based on published Texas averages — then talk to us about what your specific case would really take. Want a version you can bookmark or share? Use the standalone Texas divorce cost calculator page.

Where do you and your spouse stand? Agreement on property, custody, and support is the single biggest cost factor.

Minor children involved? Children add a parenting plan and support orders — and in contested cases, possible custody evaluations.

Property & assets Complex estates can require appraisals, business valuations, or forensic accounting.

How is the disagreement likely to resolve? Most Texas divorces settle before trial. Mediation usually cuts costs substantially.

Disclaimer: This calculator provides a rough educational estimate based on published Texas market averages — it is not a quote, a flat fee, or legal advice, and it does not reflect SMB Law, PC’s specific rates. Actual costs depend on the facts of your case, how contested it becomes, and factors no calculator can predict. Texas requires a minimum 60-day waiting period for most divorces. Use of this tool does not create an attorney–client relationship.

Modifications and Enforcements

Life changes after a divorce, and sometimes the decree needs to change with it, whether that is custody, child support, or spousal support. An experienced Austin divorce attorney can help you handle the modification process with your rights protected.

Enforcement matters too, since the decree only works if both people follow it. If the other side will not comply, a skilled Austin divorce lawyer can help you enforce the order and protect your rights.

Modifications and enforcement are just part of life after divorce, and having an experienced attorney in your corner makes them far easier to deal with as your circumstances shift.

Common Pitfalls

One of the biggest mistakes in a divorce is going without experienced legal help, which can lead to bad outcomes that follow you for years. A skilled Austin divorce attorney gives you guidance and support so you can sidestep those traps and land a fair result.

Another common misstep is not fully disclosing your assets and debts, which can throw off the property split. Being upfront is essential in the divorce

process, and an experienced Austin divorce lawyer helps make sure everything you own and owe is disclosed and divided fairly.

Emotions can drive impulsive choices that do not actually serve you. A good Austin divorce attorney gives you the support to make decisions that fit your long-term goals instead.

With a skilled, compassionate Austin divorce lawyer in your corner, you can get through the process and reach a fair result, avoiding the usual pitfalls and protecting your rights the whole way.

Choosing the Right Austin Divorce Lawyer

Picking the right Austin divorce lawyer is one of the most important moves in a contested case. You want a firm that will actually give your case the attention and advocacy it needs. With SMB Law, PC, the first step is a free consultation. Take the choice seriously and go in informed. Looking at a lawyer’s past results tells you a lot about how effective they are, and talking to a few Austin divorce attorneys helps you decide.

A good divorce lawyer is hardworking, knows Texas family law inside out, and brings some empathy to the table. An attorney who stays proactive through the case can shape the outcome and keep communication clear.

Sharp negotiation and professional conduct are what protect your rights, win favorable results, and keep the legal process on track.

Qualities to Look For

A good divorce lawyer is hardworking, well-versed in Texas family law, and genuinely supportive from start to finish. When your attorney stays engaged throughout, it can shape the outcome and keep everyone on the same page.

Strong negotiation skills and professionalism are what protect your rights and get you a favorable result.

Client Testimonials and Reviews

Client reviews tell you a lot about how effective and committed a divorce attorney really is. Consistent praise is a good sign they handle cases well, while a pattern of complaints is worth paying attention to.

Summary

Every divorce is different, but the fundamentals hold: understand which path fits your situation, get experienced counsel early, and make decisions with the long term in mind. Whether yours is agreed, contested, or somewhere in between, SMB Law, PC has a dedicated practice for it, and one office in downtown Austin handling all of it. Start with a free consultation at (512) 561-5003.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a divorce take in Texas?

At minimum, 60 days from filing, which is the mandatory Texas waiting period. Agreed divorces often finish shortly after that; contested cases run several months or longer depending on what is disputed and the court’s schedule.

What is the difference between contested and uncontested divorce?

Uncontested means you and your spouse agree on all the major issues: property, custody, and support. Contested means the court resolves what you cannot. Cost, timeline, privacy, and stress differ dramatically between the two paths.

Do I have to prove my spouse did something wrong?

No. Texas is a no-fault state, so neither spouse has to prove wrongdoing to get divorced. That said, fault grounds like adultery or cruelty can still influence how a court divides property and decides support.

How is property split in a Texas divorce?

Texas is a community property state: most assets and debts acquired during the marriage belong to both of you. Courts divide marital property in a “just and right” manner, which is not always a strict 50/50 split, weighing factors like earning capacity, health, and separate property.

What does a divorce cost in Austin?

Filing fees run roughly $250 to $350, and total cost depends mostly on how much you and your spouse agree on. Uncontested divorces cost a fraction of litigated ones, and mediation usually lands in between. We discuss fees openly at your free consultation.

For a personalized ballpark, try the free divorce cost calculator on this page. It factors in your case type, children, property, and whether you expect to settle or go to trial.

Attorney fees & case costs (est.)	$0 – $0
Court & filing fees (Travis County)	$0 – $0
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Austin Divorce Lawyers Serving Central Texas Families