Family law in The Lone Star State has been updated, with changes at different times in 2024. These Texas law changes in 2024 impact divorce and child custody, simplifying some processes and improving protections.
More Uncomplicated Uncoupling
Divorce is difficult enough, even when it’s uncontested. Updates to Texas’ divorce laws have made an uncontested divorce a little easier. For the couple with no children, no assets to divide, and no agreement on terms, the newer simplified divorce can reduce legal costs and other expenses and emotional trauma for both parties. Collaborative law or mediation can be employed to settle any issues that hold up the proceedings.
While the 60-day waiting period is still the rule, it can be waived if domestic violence is involved. This allows quicker resolution for the petitioner regarding safety concerns.
Parties with children, custody disputes, property divisions, or other complexities won’t be eligible for the simplified divorce and will need to discuss their needs with a family law practitioner.
Domestic Violence
Texas law changes in 2024 include standardized forms and other materials now used to file protective orders. Once filed, and a protective order is in place, law enforcement agencies are required by law to add the order to their databases and records of outstanding warrants. Courts can issue a protective order if there has already been an instance of domestic violence without considering the possibility of another incident.
Updates to Conservatorship (Child Custody) and Child Support
Courts have always advocated for the best interest of the child or children involved in the divorce (as well as children from unmarried parents.) The rights of both parents also have more focus in this year’s Texas legislative updates.
The new laws place additional emphasis on detailed parenting plans and the child’s time with each parent. When the needs of the child or the parents change, modifications to existing custody arrangements are easier to better align with the family’s dynamic.
Changes in the Texas legislative updates 2024 mean that child support laws now take into consideration parents’ incomes, the needs of the child, and the amount of time spent with each parent when calculating monthly payments. While the amount is still based on both parents’ incomes and the number of children involved, the court awards child support based on percentages.
Courts can now order unemployed or under-employed parents to get a job to begin paying their child support. Non-working parents who are non-custodial will be ordered to enter a job training program to begin working and paying child support.
Parents who are delinquent on child support payments will be ordered to use inheritances to settle those delinquencies before they have a chance to transfer any assets to another party.
Adoption
Texas law changes 2024 also update the state’s adoption laws. An “adoptive parent” is now defined as someone who has gone through the legal process of adoption or someone who adopted a child “by estoppel.” That is, the child is cared for by someone not their parent, whether a relative, family friend, or other individual, and is not formally and legally adopted, but develops a parent-child relationship.
Adoption by estoppel is sometimes incorrectly called “common-law adoption,” because it isn’t a formal process. But it may involve a common-law marriage when one party is not a parent, but the child considers them one.
The Texas legislative updates may affect your family’s circumstances. Your family law attorney can discuss these law changes with you and how your divorce and/or child custody case could be affected.
Let Wendy L. Hart Help You Navigate Divorce And Other Family Law Matters
The Texas Law Changes 2024 may impact you if you’re considering a divorce, are involved in one, or dealing with child conservatorship (custody) issues such as visitation. Wendy L. Hart can help you through these new changes. Since 2001, Attorney Hart has helped both men and women through a difficult process so they and their children could move on with their lives.
Contact us by using our online contact form, or call us at (817) 842-2336. We work with both men and women for divorce, child support, child custody, and other family law issues. The Law Office of Wendy L. Hart can help make the process a little easier for everyone involved.