During a divorce, Texas couples will need to negotiate their settlement. The way this is handled depends on what each spouse contributed to the marriage and whether both spouses worked.

As couples go through the dissolution of the marriage, they will negotiate several things. These include:

• Child support
• Marital assets
• Spousal support
• Lawyer’s fees

Taking care of the children

When it comes to child support, the state formula dictates that a percentage of the non-custodial parent’s income is used as a baseline for the amount that parent has to pay. This amount also depends on how many children there are in the family. Even if the custodial parent earned the same as the non-custodial parent, the amount of the custodial parent’s income would not be considered.

Dividing assets and other financial matters

As a community property state, marital assets accrued in Texas are divided equally during a divorce. Spousal support, in this case, would not be considered as both spouses earn similarly and contributed similarly to the marriage.

In cases where one spouse worked and contributed to the family financially, courts will look at the non-financial contributions the other spouse made in order to work out a fair settlement that does not leave the non-working spouse completely penniless and unable to support themselves. However, in situations where both spouses worked and also earned about the same, the process of the divorce settlement would not include an amount for support.

Finally, lawyer’s fees are usually only negotiated when one of the spouses cannot pay for their fees or if one spouse intentionally drags out the divorce process. In that case, the court might order the spouse that extended the process to pay for the other spouse’s lawyer fees. However, having a lawyer’s support and guidance during the process can be beneficial when trying to reach a just settlement.