Houston Divorce Lawyer Blog

Here  is an interesting new issue in Texas family law – what happens when a Texas citizen gets married in another state and then, while living in Texas, wants to get divorced?  Oh, and one other thing,  it is a same-sex marriage.

While same-sex marriage is not recognized in Texas, it is legal in several other states. At some point we will get an answer to the question because a Dallas man filed for divorce from his husband last week.  They were married in Massachusetts in 2006 and have resided in Dallas ever since.

The Texas Attorney General has indicated that he will intervene in the case and seek its dismissal based on the constitutional prohibition against gay marriage.

This leaves the same-sex couple who are splitting up in a strange predicament.  They probably can’t get divorced in Texas since the state does not recognize them as married.  They could get divorced in Massachusetts where their marriage is recognized, but first one of them would have to meet the statutory residency requirement (one year) before filing.

I have said for years when it comes to gay marriage and divorce, why should us heterosexuals have all the fun?

One of the most far-reaching revisions to the Texas Family Code in decades was the increase in the child support guideline cap that went into effect in the Fall of 2007.

The statute is Texas Family Code Section 154.125.

This was the first time since 1995 that the amount of the cap had been raised. The increase will only impact cases were the payor makes over $100,000 per year, but my guess is that literally tens of thousands of divorce and paternity orders per year in Texas fall into this category and will now yield a higher child support amount.

Under the old guidelines a Court was limited to considering the first $6,000/ month of payor “net resources” (a statutorily defined term that is usually close to the payor’s after-tax pay). The amendment raised this cap amount to $7,500/ month.

The end result is that a court setting child support under the guidelines in a case where the payor has an annual gross income of $125,000 and one child will be setting the child support at $1,500/month. Under the old law this would have been $1,200/month.

It should be noted that the amendment did not automatically effect previous orders and applied only to cases filed on or after September 1st.

Anyone receiving child support under an existing order who was subject to the old cap may have the right to a child support increase based on this statutory change by filing a modification case. Given the large number of existing child support orders that were set based on the old cap, there are probably a huge number of cases in the state where there are very good grounds for a modification.