529 plans are a common asset that's divided in a divorce.  Perviously these funds could only be used for college expenses.  The new Tax Cut and Jobs Act changes that to allow 529 plans to be used for homeschooling and private school tuition up to $10,000 per year. ...

The language in the Texas Family Code creates two rights that directly affect what school a child will attend.  The first is the right to determine the child's primary residence and the second is the right to make educational decisions.  The code requires in a...

The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on the beneficiary designation of an ex-spouse (Sveen v. Melin.)   The case addressed a Minnesota Law that states if one spouse has made the other the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or similar asset before a divorce, their...

In Texas parents have a right to ask a jury to decide which parent determines the primary residence of the child. There are a host of reasons to select a jury, one of the most obvious being you don't want the Judge making that decision. Juries however are precluded...

This a pretty stunning case out of the Houston Court of Appeals - 14th District. In re Minix, 2018 Tex.App. LEXIS 1489 (Tex.App..-- Houston [14th Dist.]. The parties entered a Mediated Settlement Agreement regarding custody of their three-year-old child. Prior to...

I have had both lawyers and judges suggest from time to time that possession in particularly thorny custody cases be decided by a children's therapist. Therapeutically and practically this always been problematic. The role of therapist is not to referee custody...

A common dispute in a divorce is the appropriateness of gifts a spouse has made to third parties during the marriage. This ranges from gifts to children, parents, and paramours. Gifts fall under constructive fraud which is discussed in the prior post, but there are...

Constructive fraud, waste and breach of fiduciary duty are essentially the same in the context of a divorce. Puntarelli v. Peterson 405 S.W.3d 131 (Tex.App. – Houston [1st Dist.] 2009. Constructive fraud is the breach of a legal or equitable duty which the law...

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 has made a big and significant change to alimony and maintenance. Beforehand, alimony and maintenance were deductible for payers on their federal return and were reported as income by the receiver. In most cases, the payer is in a...

As home prices rapidly increase in Austin, taking into account the cost of sale of a home is becoming a bigger deal in divorce settlement agreements and judgements. As an example, in a divorce trial Spouse A wants to keep the marital home worth $500,000 but only once...

As more people move to Austin from both around the country and around the world, jurisdictional issues have become more prominent in local family law. One of the most frequent questions I receive is about "emergency jurisdiction." This arises when a Court in another...

There is an interesting case out of the Houston Court of Appeals (1st Dist.) about the effect of a person's immigration status as it pertains to child custody. In Turrubiartes v. Olevera the Court found that (1) a parent's immigration status, standing alone, was not...