Most people who call us have never needed a lawyer before, and they’re not sure what to ask first. The questions below are the ones we hear most often at our Decatur office — about divorce and custody, wills and trusts, settling a parent’s estate, buying or selling property, and how mediation works. The answers reflect Texas law as it stands today, written the way we’d explain it across the desk rather than the way it reads in the statute. If your situation isn’t covered here, or the answer raises a question of its own, call us. That’s usually a better use of your time than reading one more page
A Texas divorce takes a minimum of 61 days. Under Texas Family Code § 6.702, a judge cannot sign a final decree until the 60th day after the petition is filed, and that clock starts on the filing date — not the date your spouse is served. In practice, an agreed divorce where both spouses have settled every issue usually finalizes in two to four months. A contested divorce involving disputed property, a family business, or disagreements about the children more commonly runs six to eighteen months.
Before you can file at all, one spouse must have lived in Texas for the preceding six months and in the filing county for the preceding 90 days. For clients in Decatur, Bridgeport, Boyd, Chico, and Alvord, that means filing in Wise County District Court. The 60-day waiting period can be waived in cases involving a family violence conviction or an active protective order.
No. Texas is a community property state, but that is not the same thing as an automatic 50/50 split. Texas Family Code § 7.001 directs judges to divide the marital estate in a manner that is “just and right,” which can be an uneven division when the circumstances call for it. Courts may consider each spouse’s earning capacity, education, health, who has primary care of the children, the size of each spouse’s separate estate, and fault in the breakup of the marriage.
Community property is generally everything acquired during the marriage. Separate property — which is not divided — includes what you owned before the marriage, plus anything you received during the marriage by gift or inheritance. The catch is that Texas law presumes everything you own at divorce is community property, and a spouse claiming an asset is separate has to prove it by clear and convincing evidence. That is why documentation of a down payment made before the wedding, or an inheritance deposited into a joint account, matters so much.
Texas calculates guideline child support as a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly net resources: 20% for one child, 25% for two, 30% for three, 35% for four, and 40% for five or more. Net resources means gross income from essentially all sources, minus Social Security and Medicare taxes, federal income tax calculated at the single filing rate, union dues, and the cost of the child’s health and dental insurance.
Those percentages apply only up to a statutory cap. Effective September 1, 2025, that cap rose from $9,200 to $11,700 in monthly net resources — the first increase since 2019. That puts maximum guideline support at $2,340 per month for one child and $2,925 for two. A judge can order more than the guideline amount if the receiving parent proves the child has needs beyond what guideline support covers.
One point that catches many parents by surprise: the higher cap did not automatically raise anyone’s existing order. If your order predates September 2025 and your income is above the old cap, changing it requires filing a modification with the court.
Texas does not use the word “custody.” The legal term is conservatorship, and it covers who makes decisions for a child — about school, medical care, and psychiatric treatment. Texas law presumes that naming both parents joint managing conservators is in the child’s best interest, so most orders start there.
Joint managing conservatorship does not mean the child’s time is split evenly. One parent is typically given the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence, often within a specified geographic area, and the other parent receives possession and access under a schedule. The default is the Standard Possession Order — generally first, third, and fifth weekends, a Thursday evening during the school year, alternating holidays, and an extended summer period. Parents who live within 50 miles of each other can elect an expanded schedule that adds time.
A child 12 or older may tell the judge in chambers which parent they would prefer to live with, but the judge is not required to follow that preference. The standard in every custody decision remains the best interest of the child.
Your property passes under the Texas intestacy statutes, and the result is frequently not what people assume. If you are married and all of your children are also your spouse’s children, your spouse keeps the community property. But if you have a child from a previous relationship, your half of the community property passes to your children — not your spouse. Your spouse keeps only their own half.
Separate property splits further still. Your spouse receives a one-third interest in your separate personal property, with the remaining two-thirds going to your children. Your separate real property passes to your children outright, subject to a one-third life estate for your spouse. For a Wise County family whose main asset is land, a house on acreage, or a mineral interest, that arrangement can leave a surviving spouse sharing ownership of the family property with stepchildren.
Dying without a will also means no one has been named to raise your minor children, and no one has been named to handle your estate — leaving both decisions to a judge who never met you.
For most Texas families, a well-drafted will is enough. Texas has one of the most efficient probate systems in the country because of independent administration: if your will names an independent executor, that person can settle the estate with minimal court supervision, no continuous judicial oversight, and no need for court permission before each transaction. In many states a living trust exists mainly to escape a slow and expensive probate court. Texas does not have that problem to the same degree.
A trust still earns its place in specific situations — when you own real property in more than one state, when you want to leave money to a beneficiary with a disability without disrupting public benefits, when a child should receive an inheritance gradually instead of all at once, when privacy genuinely matters, or when you want a plan already in place if you become incapacitated.
Texas also offers simpler probate-avoidance tools that fit many families: payable-on-death designations on bank accounts, transfer-on-death deeds for real property, and properly updated beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance. A short conversation about what you own and who you want to receive it will usually make the right answer clear.
Four years from the date of death. If a will is not filed for probate within that window, Texas law generally treats the estate as though the person died without a will — and the intestacy statutes take over regardless of what the document says.
There is a narrow exception. A will can still be admitted as a muniment of title after four years if the person applying can show they were not at fault for the delay, such as genuinely not knowing the will existed. That exception is not something to rely on by choice.
Texas also offers shortcuts that avoid full administration. A muniment of title works when there is a valid will and no unpaid debts other than those secured by real estate — the court simply validates the will and the order itself transfers title, with no executor appointed. A small estate affidavit is available when there was no will, at least 30 days have passed, non-exempt assets total $75,000 or less excluding the homestead, and the only real property involved is the homestead. Which path fits depends on the specific mix of assets and debts, and choosing wrong usually means paying twice.
Texas does not require an attorney at a real estate closing. Title companies handle most residential transactions, and for a standard sale using a promulgated TREC contract with a conventional lender, that process works fine.
Attorney involvement earns its cost when a transaction falls outside that standard pattern — which in Wise County happens often. Deeds transferring property between family members, seller-financed sales, transactions involving land where the mineral estate has been severed from the surface, property inherited through an estate that was never probated, boundary or access questions on acreage, and contracts that need terms a form does not include all benefit from having a lawyer draft or review the documents before anyone signs.
It is worth understanding what a title company does and does not do. The title company works for the transaction, not for you, and it does not give you legal advice. If you have a question about whether the deal protects your interests, that is a question for your own attorney.
Mediation is a settlement conference led by a neutral third party who helps both sides reach an agreement. The mediator does not decide anything and does not take sides — the outcome is whatever the parties agree to. Most Texas courts order the parties in a contested family law case to attempt mediation before they will set the case for trial, so for many clients the answer is yes.
Mediation matters more in Texas family law than people expect, because of what happens when it works. Under Texas Family Code § 153.0071, a mediated settlement agreement that meets the statutory requirements is binding and generally cannot be revoked, and a party is entitled to a judgment on it. An agreement reached at mediation is typically final in a way that ordinary settlement talks are not.
The practical case for mediation is straightforward: it costs a fraction of a contested trial, it resolves matters in a day rather than over months of hearings, it keeps your family’s circumstances out of a public trial record, and it lets you and the other party build the arrangement rather than handing that decision to a judge. The Reeves Law Firm offers certified mediation services in addition to representing clients at mediation.
Cost depends on the type of matter. Flat fees are common for work with a predictable scope — a will, a power of attorney, a deed, an uncontested divorce, an uncomplicated probate. Contested matters are usually handled hourly with a retainer paid up front, drawn down as work is performed, because no attorney can know at the outset how hard the other side intends to fight. You should expect a written fee agreement that states which arrangement applies to your matter before any work starts.
The first conversation is about your situation, not a sales pitch. Come with the basics — key dates, any court papers you have received, a general picture of what you own and what you owe, and the questions actually keeping you up at night. You will leave understanding your options, the likely path a matter like yours takes, and a realistic range of what it costs. If the honest answer is that you do not need a lawyer, or that your matter belongs with a different firm, we will tell you that and point you in the right direction.
Call (940) 627-5800 or stop by the office at 700 N Trinity Street in Decatur.
“Lori was great to work with on my divorce, as was her staff. I generally do not like lawyers but she was a real human being. She did what she said she would do and I never felt that her billing was unfair. She didn’t gouge me with bills for fluff work. She wasn’t arrogant, condescending, or unkind, character flaws I expect to find in lawyers. I can’t say the same positive things about another lawyer I considered for my divorce. I’m glad I chose Lori. Also, as a man, I did worry about hiring a woman as my lawyer because I didn’t want it to be me versus “the girls”, but I never felt like it was. I feel I was well-represented by her. I have, and continue to, recommend her to others.”
-Hartford B.
