Austin Family Law Attorneys for Custody, Support and Protective Orders

SMB Law, PC handles divorce, child custody, child support, spousal maintenance, protective orders, fathers rights, enforcement and modifications for families across Travis, Williamson and Hays Counties.

Key Takeaways

SMB Law, PC handles the full range of Texas family law: divorce and property division, child custody, child support, spousal maintenance, protective orders, fathers rights, enforcement and modifications.
Shane Boasberg works directly on every case. The firm serves Travis, Williamson and Hays Counties from an office blocks from the Travis County courthouse.
Each section below links to a detailed page explaining how that type of case works under the Texas Family Code and what to expect.

Austin Family Law: What We Handle

Family law in Texas covers what happens when a household changes shape: ending a marriage, dividing property, deciding where children live, setting what one parent pays the other, and enforcing or updating those decisions later. SMB Law, PC handles each of these, and most clients arrive with more than one at once.

Shane Boasberg has practiced Texas family law for more than twenty years, including work at the Texas Attorney General’s office and on family law legislation. He handles each case directly rather than passing it to staff.

The sections below outline the areas we handle. Each one links to a page covering that subject in depth.

Divorce and Property Division

Texas is a community property state. Most of what a couple acquires during a marriage belongs to both of them, and when the marriage ends a court divides it in a way it considers just and right. That is not always an even split, and separate property brought into the marriage or received by gift or inheritance is treated differently.

An uncontested divorce where both people agree on the terms moves very differently from a contested one involving a business, real estate, or disputed separate property. Our Austin divorce page covers contested, uncontested, collaborative, military and high-net-worth divorce in detail.

Child Custody and Conservatorship

Texas uses the term conservatorship rather than custody. It covers who makes decisions for a child, where the child lives, and the time each parent has. Courts begin from a presumption that both parents should be joint managing conservators, but what that means in practice varies a great deal from case to case.

The child custody page explains how conservatorship, possession schedules and the best interest standard work in Texas. Fathers concerned about being treated as the secondary parent may also want the fathers rights page.

Child Support and Spousal Maintenance

Child support in Texas is set by statutory guidelines based on the paying parent’s net resources and the number of children. Courts can depart from the guidelines, and the calculation gets more involved with self-employment income, variable pay, or children in more than one household.

Spousal maintenance is a separate question and a harder one. It requires meeting specific eligibility

conditions in the Texas Family Code, and both the amount and the duration are capped by statute. The child support and spousal maintenance pages cover both in detail, and each includes a calculator.

Protective Orders and Family Violence

When family violence is part of the picture, a protective order is often the first thing that has to happen, before custody or divorce questions can be addressed sensibly. Texas law provides for temporary ex parte orders that can issue quickly, and longer-term protective orders after a hearing.

These cases move fast and carry consequences well beyond the family court file, including firearm restrictions and effects on employment. Our protective order and TRO page covers the process for both the person seeking protection and the person responding to an application.

When a Protective Order Is the Right Step

A protective order is appropriate where there has been family violence and there is a risk it happens again. That includes physical harm, assault, sexual assault, and threats that place someone in fear of imminent harm. It can cover a spouse, a former spouse, a dating partner, a household member or a child.

Timing matters. Evidence is freshest early, and an application filed close to the incident is easier to support than one filed months later.

What a Protective Order Can Do

A protective order can require the other person to stay away from your home, workplace and your children’s school, prohibit contact, and address possession of a residence and temporary support. It can also bar possession of a firearm for the duration of the order.

Violating a protective order is a criminal offense, which is what gives it force that an ordinary civil order does not have.

Fathers Rights in Texas Custody Cases

Texas law does not favor mothers over fathers, but fathers often arrive convinced the outcome is decided before they walk in. The practical issues are usually establishing paternity where the parents were never married, and getting a possession schedule that reflects the time a father actually spends with his children.

The fathers rights page goes through what the Family Code actually says and where fathers most often lose ground procedurally.

Enforcement of Existing Orders

A court order is only worth what it can be enforced for. When the other parent stops paying support, withholds the children, or ignores the possession schedule, enforcement is how the order gets teeth again.

Our enforcement page covers motions to enforce, contempt, and the remedies available for both support and possession violations.

When the Other Parent Will Not Follow the Order

The common situations are missed or partial child support payments, denial of court-ordered possession, refusal to return a child at the end of a period, and failure to comply with property terms in a divorce decree.

Self-help is the mistake to avoid. Withholding the children because support was not paid, or stopping payment because possession was denied, puts you in violation too and weakens your own position.

Evidence That Supports an Enforcement Action

Enforcement is a documentation exercise. A motion to enforce has to identify each violation specifically: the date, what the order required, and what happened instead. General complaints that the other parent is difficult do not get anywhere.

Keep a contemporaneous record of missed payments and denied exchanges as they happen. A log kept at the time carries more weight than one reconstructed from memory a year later.

What the Court Can Order

On a successful enforcement action a court can order a judgment for unpaid support, wage withholding, make-up possession time, attorney fees and costs, and in serious cases contempt, which carries the possibility of jail.

Courts also have discretion to give a party a chance to come into compliance rather than impose the harshest available remedy, particularly where the failure was not deliberate.

Modifying an Existing Order

Orders that made sense at the time stop fitting. Incomes change, a parent relocates, a child’s needs shift, and the schedule written three years ago no longer matches how the family actually lives.

Modification is the mechanism for updating custody, support and maintenance orders. Because it is its own area with its own standards and timing rules, we cover it separately on the Austin modification page.

When a Modification Is Possible

The threshold is a material and substantial change in circumstances since the order was signed. A job loss, a significant change in income, a relocation, or a real change in a child’s needs can all qualify. Wanting different terms is not enough on its own.

Custody orders carry an additional timing rule, and spousal maintenance in Texas can be reduced through modification but not increased.

How the Modification Process Works

You file a petition to modify in the court that issued the original order, serve the other party, and support the request with documentation of what changed. Many modifications settle by agreement and are entered as an agreed order without a contested hearing.

Until the court signs a new order, the existing one still governs. It is

a common and costly mistake to stop paying, or to change the schedule informally, before the new order is signed.

Working With SMB Law, PC

Family law cases are decided on facts and procedure, but they are lived as some of the hardest months of a person’s life. We try to be straight with clients about what the law allows, what a case is likely to cost, and which fights are worth having.

Consultations are free. If you are weighing whether you need a lawyer at all, that conversation is the place to find out.

Direct Attorney Involvement

The attorney you meet at the consultation is the attorney who handles your case. Shane Boasberg does the hearings, the negotiations and the drafting himself. For a case that turns on details in a decree or a possession schedule, that continuity matters.

It also means the caseload is deliberately limited, and we will say so if a matter is not a fit for the firm.

Serving Travis, Williamson and Hays Counties

Our office is at 1204 San Antonio Street in downtown Austin, a short walk from the Travis County Civil and Family Courthouse. We appear regularly in Travis, Williamson and Hays County courts.

Local practice is worth more in family law than in most areas, because associate judges, standing orders and local rules differ meaningfully between these three counties.

Summary

Most family law matters start with one problem and turn out to involve several. A divorce raises custody and support. A custody dispute raises enforcement. Family violence changes the order everything has to happen in.

Whichever of these you are facing, the pages linked above go into the detail. If you would rather just talk it through, consultations are free and you can reach the firm at (512) 561-5003.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What areas of family law does SMB Law, PC handle?

Divorce and property division, child custody and conservatorship, child support, spousal maintenance, protective orders, fathers rights, enforcement of existing orders, and modifications. Each area has a dedicated page linked above.

Which counties does the firm practice in?

Travis, Williamson and Hays Counties. Our office is at 1204 San Antonio Street, Suite 201, in downtown Austin, a short walk from the Travis County Civil and Family Courthouse.

How long does a divorce take in Texas?

Texas requires a minimum 60-day waiting period from the date of filing before a divorce can be finalized. An uncontested divorce can conclude shortly after that. A contested case involving custody or significant property commonly runs several months to a year or more.

Do I need a lawyer if my spouse and I agree on everything?

Not necessarily, but the decree governs for years afterward. Agreed cases still go wrong when the property division is ambiguous, retirement accounts are divided without a qualified domestic relations order, or the possession schedule leaves gaps. Having the paperwork reviewed before you sign is usually cheaper than a modification or enforcement action later.

What does a consultation cost?

Consultations are free. Call (512) 561-5003 or use the contact form to arrange one, and we will tell you plainly whether you need a lawyer for what you are facing.