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FAMILY LAW
PRIMER |
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Filing For Divorce in Dallas The filing of the petition for divorce legally begins the
divorce. It is the document that asks the Court to legally dissolve your
marriage. This document will be served on your spouse to tell them they are
being divorced regardless of whether or not they want to be. If your divorce
is uncontested, your spouse may be willing to waive service to save the cost,
and embarrassment, of having a private process server go to their office or
home and physically hand them a copy of the petition and citation. After
being served, if your spouse doesn't file an answer to your petition within
the allotted time, your spouse will be in default and will have waived their
right to be present at trial and to put on evidence, and after hearing only
your side of the story, the Court will make its rulings. If you and your spouse can agree on every issue, and
have little or no property, reside in Dallas or Collin County, and just need
an attorney to draft and file the petition and decree of divorce, and conduct
a "prove-up", Jackson & Collins typically completes uncontested
divorces like these from $750.00 to $1,000.00 in attorneys fees, given the
inevitable trading of phone calls or correspondence that will arise. Petition An action for divorce, like all civil actions, is
commenced by filing a petition with the clerk of the appropriate court. The
petition must contain a statement, in plain and concise language, of the
petitioner's cause of action and claims for relief. A commonly neglected
requirement is that the allegations of the grounds for relief must be stated
substantially in the language of the statute and without a detailed statement
of evidentiary facts, often those drafting the petition chronicle pages of
events leading up to the divorce, often to the displeasure of the Court.
Similarly, the contents of each paragraph should be limited, to the extent
practicable, to a statement of a single set of circumstances. The first
pleading in a suit for divorce must include a ``Statement on Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR).'' The statement must be in substantially the
language of the Family Code acknowledging petitioner's awareness of
nonjudicial settlement methods (ADR), and promising to try to settle the case
by such a method, and must be specifically signed. Filing The action for dissolution of marriage is commenced by the
filing of the original petition with the clerk of the proper court and
payment of the required filing fees. Once the case is filed-stamped and
assigned a number and court, arrangements may then be made for the judge to
sign any temporary restraining order or show-cause order, completing the
blanks for the hearing for interim relief Citation and Service When an original petition in a dissolution suit is filed,
citation must be issued and served as in other civil cases. The purpose of
citation is to give a party notice that the party has been sued and afford
that party an opportunity to protect his or her interests. Service of
citation also perfects the court's jurisdiction over the person and property
of a party who is a resident of Texas or who is subject to jurisdiction of
the Texas court's under a so-called ``long-arm'' statute; no judgment may be
rendered against a party except on service of process, unless the party has
accepted or waived service or has entered a general appearance. Toward that
end, a true copy of every pleading, plea, motion, or application to the court
for an order, unless presented during a hearing or trial, must be filed with
the clerk in writing and served on all other parties. Generally, citation must be served on the respondent in
the dissolution suit. As is true for any civil lawsuit, no judgment may be
rendered against a person unless the person was served with process, or
accepted or waived service or otherwise entered a general appearance. The basic methods of serving citation are: |
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