One spouse must be a domiciliary of the State of Texas
for at least six months and a resident of a county for
ninety days before a divorce can be filed. After the
divorce is filed, there is a minimum 60-day waiting
period before the divorce can be granted. Most cases take
more than this sixty day period to find out what there is and to
finalize the documents if there is to be an agreed divorce.
If a trial will be required to resolve your case, the
date of trial will depend on the congestion of the
court's calendar, the attorney's schedules, your
schedule, the time your case is expected to take, and
whether the judge or a jury will hear your case. The time
varies from court to court, but six months to one year
from the time a case is placed on the trial calendar is
not unusual.
If you are able to reach an agreement with your spouse
on all issues, the agreement can be written up in the
appropriate legal paperwork and submitted to the Court
for entry after all parties have signed it and the sixty
day period has elapsed. In most cases, at least one party
will need to go to Court for a "prove-up" of
the case. We usually like for both parties to appear in
court. The actual appearance before the Judge for a
prove-up is approximately ten minutes, and divorce
"prove-up's" are scheduled on a first-come,
first-served basis every weekday morning in Dallas
Divorce Courts. Procedures vary in other counties; many require a date
to be set in advance.
Go to How A Texas Divorce Case Works
