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Texas Family Code 45.101 Name Change of an Adult

March 11, 2019 | by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Most people know that you can change your name as an adult. One of the most common times that adults change their name is when they get married or divorced. When you get married you can change your last name by using your marriage license and when you get divorced you can request the judge to order a name change in the final divorce decree. But, many people do not know what the process is like to get your name changed as an adult outside of that situation. This blog post is going to attempt to summarize the basic requirements and process of getting a name change as an adult in Texas unrelated to marriage or divorce.

Who Can Request a Name Change?

Any adult can request a name change in the county that they live in. The adult simply needs to file a verified petition that meets all of the requirements in the family code. The petition must include the reason that the person wants to change their name along with certain other specific information, including certain information about the person’s criminal history.

Divorce and Relocation: Can I take my kids?

December 19, 2015 | by Guest and Gray Law Firm

“I have to move, but my ex-spouse still lives here. Can I take my kids?”

This is a question that we hear fairly often here at Guest and Gray. Many people find themselves having to relocate for work or the need to be closer to family. However, for divorced parents, this problem is exacerbated by geographic restrictions that say where there children must live. These are known as “Geographic Restrictions”

Geographic restrictions most often place restrictions on the county in which you may live, or the maximum distance from the other parent that you may live. These restrictions are either negotiated by the parties or provided by court order. This means that if you want to relocate out of your geographic area, you have to go to court again and explain the reasons for your relocation.

Kaufman County Divorce Lawyer: Getting Your Child Support Lowered

September 10, 2013 | by Robert Guest

If you’ve lost your job and need your child support lowered, I can help you through the process. We get many Kaufman county residents in our office with this very same problem, and we have helped many get their child support lowered. I would like to sit down with you and discuss your specific situation, so please call my office at (972) 564-4644 to set up a confidential consultation with me, Brett Talley, your Kaufman County Family Lawyer.

In order to lower child support, a petition to modify child support must be filed with the court. To oversimplify, you can file such a petition if

It has been three years since the previous order, or

Kaufman County Divorce Lawyer: Common Law Marriages aka Informal Marriages

August 5, 2013 | by Robert Guest

Most married couples go through the formalities associated with marriage. They get a marriage license, they have a ceremony, and the person who officiates the ceremony signs the license, which then makes the marriage official. But other people choose not to go through that process, and it’s not necessary to go through that process to be considered married in Texas. Texas also recognizes informal marriages which are more commonly known as common law marriages. As a guy who has been dating a woman for a year and a half, I would certainly like to go the common law route and avoid the the cost associated with all the formalities. But I doubt I’ll be so lucky.

The problem with common law marriages is that it is often difficult to prove their existence. With formal marriages there is paper trail, and there are witnesses from the ceremony. There’s never a doubt about whether a marriage occurred in those instances. But for those who are informally married, it can be difficult to prove there was actually a marriage. Why does it matter that you be able to prove a common law marriage? Unless you can do so, you can’t get a divorce. This can be a problem for people who are in a relationship that they consider to be a marriage because in the event that the relationship ends, the parties are not entitled to half of the marital estate unless they can actually prove that there was a marital estate. This can result in parties losing out on assets that they would be entitled to in a divorce action such as home equity, retirement accounts and more.

Texas law has three requirements for proving a common law marriage.

Kaufman County Divorce Lawyer: A Checklist to Go Through for an Agreed Divorce

July 30, 2013 | by Robert Guest

The best way to save money when getting a divorce is to agree on everything. If you do that, it’s just a matter of paperwork and a little bit of court time for the attorney(s). When spouses can’t agree, that’s when a divorce can get drawn out and expensive. So if you and your spouse are considering getting an agreed divorce in Kaufman county, go through the checklist below prior to calling an attorney. The more stuff you can agree upon, the cheaper your divorce will be. Call me, Brett Talley, at (972) 564-4644 to discuss your uncontested divorce.

Assets

Below are the most common assets involved in divorces. You need to decide who will be keeping what in the divorce. It’s important to note that anything that you acquired after getting married is considered what we call community property and is as much the husband’s as it is the wife’s. Division of all community property is usually split 50/50 by courts. But any asset that either spouse came into the marriage with is considered their separate property and not subject to division.