Introduction

The Claunch Law Firm has a combined total of over 60 years of experience in Family Law. The firm accepts all types of Family Law cases. Each case is different, and the firm members understand that and we listen to you and your problems. We will answer your questions honestly and tell you what we believe you can expect during the legal proceedings. Divorce and other family law matters in Texas are set out in the Family Code of the State of Texas. Jim Claunch has been Board Certified in Family Law since 1979.

What a Divorce Can and Cannot do for You

Divorce is not an answer to all the problems that you have encountered in life. In many instances money problems will increase. If there are minor children, there will be support, custody, and visitation issues. The minor children are potentially the ones that suffer the most in a divorce. The parents need to understand that they need to work with each other for the best interest of the children. The courts have available to them programs that will help the parents and the children adjust to the divorce situation.

Things You Need to Know about Children in Divorce

Children are subject to the jurisdiction of the Court until they become adults at age 18. If a child is eighteen and still in school, the child support obligation continues for that school year. Child support is set out in the Family Code. Child support is based upon the number of children and earnings of the one paying child support. Basically, the support is 20% of the net disposable income for one child; 25% for two children; 30% for three children; and 35% for four or more. It has been our experience that the one paying support thinks that it is too much, and the one receiving the support thinks it is not enough. Visitation is also provided for on a standard basis in the Family Code. The Court allows the visitation schedule to be modified by agreement of the parties. The Courts favor a Joint Managing Conservator relationship which means both parents continue to share in decision making about events concerning their children. Generally one parent will have the right to establish the domicile, and the other parent has a visitation schedule. The parent with the visitation schedule will have the children about 40% of the time if the visitation schedule is observed. The matters of support and visitation are always before the Court even after the divorce, and they are subject to modification.

Jurisdiction of the Court

The Court that grants the divorce is called the Court of continuing jurisdiction and that Court will generally be the Court to which the parties return after the divorce if there are questions about support or visitation.

Things You Need to Know about Property Division

In Texas we are a community property state. Community property is all property acquired during the marriage except property acquired by inheritance or gift. Separate property is that which you owned before marriage and that which you acquired by gift or inheritance at any time. In a divorce case the Court will divide the community property. The Court's only guidance by Statute is that the Court make a "fair and just" division of the property. The property will not necessarily be divided evenly. The Court takes many factors into account. To name just a few; fault in the breakup of the marriage, age, education, work experience, earning potential. There are other factors to be considered, but you need to know that the property may not be divided equally. Some of the larger assets in a divorce case are the home, the retirement account, IRA's, and 401k's. The Courts generally require an inventory of the property. The parties are free to work out their own division of the property and the Court will encourage you to make an agreement on the issue of property division as well as the conservatorship of the children and child support.

Mediation

The Courts generally encourage people to use mediation in an attempt to settle their problems before asking the Court to make the ultimate decision about their children and their property.

Other Family Law Matters

There are several areas of Family Law wherein in the Claunch Law Firm often represents clients. A few of those are listed:

1. Modification of divorce decrees as to custody, support or visitation. A custody modification is based upon the parties and the children, but such cases are sometimes necessary, and we do work diligently for our clients in such cases.
2. Enforcement of Support. No longer can a person just refuse to pay and escape the penalty of the law. If the person to whom the support is owed aggressively pursues the other party, the other party will have to pay the support or go to jail or go on the run to avoid the law.
3. Paternity suits. In today's society there are more and more children born when the parents are not married. Both parties have rights. The mother has the right to ask for financial assistance from the father in raising the child, and the father has the right to ask for visitation or custody. Paternity is fairly easy to establish by a blood test.
4. Adoption. Many times the mother and father cannot raise their child and that responsibility falls on someone else. The parties raising the child or children may want to adopt for a number of reasons. Adoption may sometimes be granted over the object of the father or mother in a contested proceeding
5. Grandparents. We receive more and more calls from grandparents about their grandchildren. Grandparents may have limited rights. If grandparents are raising grandchildren, they need to consider either a petition to be named managing conservator of the children or possibly an adoption.
6. In recent years, Texas State Agencies, such as Child Protective Services, have become more and more involved in many family law cases. These agencies were created to protect children against abusive families and for the most part these entities perform that duty adequately. However, in some instances, our firm has encountered situations where entire families have suffered from anonymous and unfounded allegations.

We have a great deal of experience in dealing with these situations, and if you need help call us.

Conclusion

All of the above matters are called "Family Law." The Claunch Law Firm has a great deal of experience in Family Law. We will help you by answering your questions about any of these matters. If you decide to employ us, we will represent you to the very best of our ability.

The Claunch Law Firm can represent you in any Family Law matter. We have tried and won contested adoptions before juries, and we tried all of the above cases that we discussed above. We also are competent in Appellate work and have established the law of the State of Texas in some of our appellate work. As a team we often write articles about the law for publication, and we are published.