Welcome to the ShTexaslawyer.com Blog

I track the search strings that come through the blog. I have had a number of questions not directly answered, so I am posting this to address those issues. I will try to do a sweep of these topics at least once a month.

Waivers:
I have been asked what happens if your spouse will not sign a waiver of service. I have also been asked by defending spouses happens they refuse to sign a waiver. A waiver's purpose is to prove that the other side knows of the divorce. Waivers should be read closely. The waiver can take away your right to be present at any future hearings, can take away your right to read or sign a decree, and waive the keeping of a record of any court proceedings. If you do not like the waiver presented, ask that it be changed before you sign it. How much you are willing/wanting to waive is up to you. You are not required to sign a waiver. Not signing a waiver usually means your case will be considered a contested divorce. If you do not sign a waiver then the spouse who filed must serve you with a copy of the petition for divorce. That service can be by a uniformed constable, a private process server, certified mail, or other means as allowed under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The important thing is that if a spouse's whereabouts is known, the court wants proof that the spouse has actual knowledge of the divorce suit before it will grant any decrees.

Resisting or Fighting a Divorce
Unfortunately, the best time to fight a divorce from happening is before it is filed. Marriage counseling, changes in behavior, compassion, affection, honesty and all the things that are a part of a good relationship must be used to keep relationship strong. Once one side makes up their mind they want out, you can't really stop them. Marriage is not a life sentence or a prison. The state will not force two people to stay together against the will of one of them. Once the divorce is filed, you can still try to rescue the relationship, that is the only thing that will stop the divorce. Otherwise, all you can fight for is to have a fair division of assets, debts, access to children and responsibilities to children.

Minimizing Delays in a Divorce
Delays in divorces (other than built in timetables under Texas Law) are the result of disagreement. The sooner the parties can agree to a decree, the sooner they can finalize their case. Otherwise, the parties have to wait till their case goes to trial and a judge or jury makes decisions for them. If you are waiting for the other side to take an action before you can go tot the next step, it is usually because they have a hard decision to make. The only way to speed up those decisions is to seek hearings over smaller matters. Those hearing will cost you though. If you are paying an attorney and hourly rate, every hearing is expensive. The best way to keep your divorce moving is communication. Communication between you, your lawyer, the other lawyer, and your spouse. If people are talking, disagreements can be resolved. The sooner the disagreements are resolved, the sooner you can both sign an agreed decree.

People have been asking for it, and it is almost here. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be able to make public a new section of the main site dedicated to allowing electronically signed contracts, electronic payments, and electronic forms. The goal IS NOT to de-personalize the services I offer, but to make these services more accessible to clients with tight schedules or with limited cash flow.

Through the new sections of the site, payments will be allowed by all major credit cards, bank transfers or even Paypal, via a secure Paypal transaction. I started with Paypal due to the ease of set-up. YOU WILL NOT NEED A PAYPAL ACCOUNT TO USE THIS SERVICE. Paypal is merely the clearing house to grant me access to using credit services.

My goal is to be able to allow clients to make payments to their retainer fees without the need of visiting me or mailing a check. For some services such as wills, I plan to have the ability to purchase the will package that fits your needs, to sign an electronic contract and make your payment. Then, I can contact you directly to go over the information provided, to customize a will solution to fit your specific needs, and produce a final executable document to you in record time.

Looking around, I don't see a lot of lawyers taking advantage of the online tools most of us have grown accustomed to. But, lawyers are a traditionally slow bunch to change. I can remember working in an office without any internet and no inner-office network at all, in the 90's. The next place I went to was still using DOS based tools when the Y2K scare was about to hit. So, I guess I can understand why none of them have jumped to provide online access to services.