To file for divorce in Bexar County, at least one spouse must have lived in Texas for six continuous months and in Bexar County for the preceding 90 days, and the case begins when you submit an Original Petition for Divorce to the Bexar County District Clerk along with the current filing fee. Everything else — service, the 60-day wait, temporary orders, and the final decree — follows from that first filing.
Residency Requirements
Either the petitioner or the respondent must have been a domiciliary of Texas for the six months immediately before filing and a resident of Bexar County for the 90 days immediately before filing.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 6.301 – General Residency Rule for Divorce Suit Both clocks have to be satisfied at the same time. If you recently moved to Bexar County from elsewhere in Texas, the state requirement is already met, but you need to wait out the 90-day county clock before the court has jurisdiction.
Filing before you qualify doesn’t restart the clock in a different court. It costs you the filing fee and weeks of lost time, because the petition will be dismissed or transferred.
Filing the Petition
The case starts when you file an Original Petition for Divorce with the Bexar County District Clerk. The published filing fee is $350 for a divorce without children and $401 for a divorce involving children.2Bexar County, TX – Official Website. Fee Schedule Confirm the current amount before you go in, since the schedule can change at the start of each calendar year.
Your petition states the grounds. Most Texas divorces are filed on no-fault grounds, called “insupportability,” meaning discord has destroyed the marriage and it cannot be repaired. Fault grounds such as adultery, cruelty, and abandonment are available, but you have to prove them, and most filers do not use them.
The Standing Order
Bexar County requires a copy of the Civil District Judges’ Standing Order attached to every new divorce petition.3Bexar County, TX – Official Website. District Clerk Forms It takes effect the moment you file and binds both spouses. It typically prohibits hiding or destroying property, canceling insurance, and harassing the other party. It functions as a restraining order for the first 14 days, then converts into a temporary injunction that stays in force until the court signs a final order. Violations can be treated as contempt. Read it before you file.
Serving Your Spouse
Once the petition is filed, you have to formally deliver it to your spouse. Service is usually handled by a private process server, the sheriff, or a constable. Private process servers commonly charge somewhere in the $40 to $200 range for standard service. If your spouse is cooperative, they can sign a Waiver of Service, which acknowledges receipt of the petition and gives up the right to formal delivery.4Texas State Law Library. Answering Divorce Papers – Section: Waiver of Service A waiver only waives service. It does not waive any other rights in the case.
The Answer Deadline
After being served, the respondent has until 10:00 a.m. on the first Monday after 20 days have passed to file a written answer with the court. If the 20th day is itself a Monday, the deadline moves to the following Monday. If the courthouse is closed on the deadline day, the answer is due the next day the court is open.5Texas State Law Library. Answering Divorce Papers Miss the deadline entirely, and the petitioner can seek a default judgment awarding what the petition asks for without any input from the other side.
The 60-Day Waiting Period
Texas requires a 60-day cooling-off period from the date the petition is filed. No divorce can be finalized before that window closes, even in a fully agreed case.6State of Texas. Texas Family Code 6.702 – Waiting Period Most contested divorces take longer than 60 days anyway, so the wait mostly matters in uncontested cases.
There is one exception. The waiting period does not apply if the respondent has been convicted of or received deferred adjudication for a family violence offense against the petitioner or a member of the petitioner’s household, or if the petitioner holds an active protective order against the respondent for violence committed during the marriage.6State of Texas. Texas Family Code 6.702 – Waiting Period
What Happens Between Filing and Final Decree
Either spouse can ask the court for temporary orders covering child support, use of the family home, spousal support, and other urgent matters while the divorce is pending. Temporary orders require a separate motion and a hearing, and they remain in effect until the divorce is final.
Bexar County judges routinely send contested cases to mediation before trial. A neutral mediator works with both spouses to negotiate an agreement, and if they reach one, the court can approve it as the final decree. Mediation costs money, but it is almost always cheaper and faster than a full trial.
If mediation fails, the case goes to trial. Both sides present evidence and testimony, and the judge decides every contested issue. There is no jury in a Texas divorce unless one is specifically requested, which is uncommon. The judge’s rulings are documented in a final decree binding on both parties.
Custody and Child Support
Texas calls custody “conservatorship,” and the standard the court applies is the best interest of the child. Judges weigh each parent’s relationship with the child, the stability of each home, the child’s needs, and any history of family violence or substance abuse.
The two main arrangements are joint managing conservatorship and sole managing conservatorship. Joint is the statutory presumption. It gives both parents shared rights and decision-making duties but does not necessarily mean equal parenting time; one parent is usually named as the primary conservator with the right to determine the child’s primary residence, and the other gets a possession schedule. Sole managing conservatorship, which concentrates decision-making in one parent, is typically reserved for cases involving violence, neglect, or a serious history of poor parenting.
Child support in Texas is calculated as a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly net resources, which is not the same as take-home pay. Net resources include wages, self-employment income, commissions, tips, bonuses, and rental income, reduced by Social Security taxes, federal income tax, union dues, and the child’s health insurance. The guideline is 20% of net resources for one child, 25% for two, 30% for three, 35% for four, 40% for five, and not less than the five-child amount for six or more.7State of Texas. Texas Family Code 154.125 – Application of Guidelines to Net Resources A separate lower-income schedule reduces each figure by roughly five points, and courts can deviate from the guidelines when the child has special needs or other circumstances make the standard amount inappropriate.
Enforcement is handled by the Texas Office of the Attorney General. Its tools include wage garnishment, suspension of driver’s and professional licenses, denial of vehicle registration renewal, and contempt proceedings that can carry jail time.8Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Child Support Enforcement
Property, Debt, and Retirement
Texas is a community property state. Property acquired by either spouse during the marriage is presumed to belong to both equally, no matter whose name is on the title or who earned the money.9State of Texas. Texas Family Code 7.001 – General Rule of Property Division Separate property, which stays with the owning spouse, consists of anything owned before the marriage, gifts and inheritances received during the marriage, and recoveries for personal injuries other than lost wages.10State of Texas. Texas Family Code 3.001 – Separate Property The spouse claiming separate property has to prove it by clear and convincing evidence, and commingling separate funds with community accounts makes that much harder.
The court divides community property in a way it considers “just and right,” which is not always 50/50.9State of Texas. Texas Family Code 7.001 – General Rule of Property Division Judges look at each spouse’s earning capacity, age, health, fault in the breakup if alleged, who has primary custody, and whether either spouse wasted community assets. Hiding assets can lead the court to award the honest spouse a larger share.
Debt divides the same way, and this is where filers most often get burned. A decree can assign a joint credit card or car loan to one spouse, but the creditor is not bound by that. If your name is on the original loan, the lender can still come after you when your ex doesn’t pay, and late payments will hit your credit report. The clean fix is to pay off or refinance joint debts before or during the divorce so each obligation sits in one name. When that isn’t possible, understand that the decree gives you a right to enforce against your ex in court but does not stop a creditor from pursuing you in the meantime.
Retirement accounts are often the largest community asset after the family home. The portion of a 401(k), pension, or similar employer plan earned during the marriage is community property. Splitting these accounts without triggering taxes or penalties requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), which directs the plan administrator to transfer a share to the non-employee spouse’s own retirement account. Distributions made directly to an alternate payee under a QDRO from a qualified plan are exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty that would otherwise apply before age 59½.11Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions That exception applies to employer plans, not IRAs; if you roll QDRO funds into an IRA and later withdraw early, the penalty applies. Military retirement pay follows the separate rules of the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act.
Spousal Maintenance
Court-ordered spousal maintenance is limited in Texas. The spouse asking for it must first show that they will lack sufficient property after the divorce to cover minimum reasonable needs. On top of that, at least one of the following must apply: the other spouse was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for family violence within two years before filing or while the case was pending; the marriage lasted at least 10 years and the requesting spouse cannot earn enough to meet minimum needs; the requesting spouse has a disability that prevents self-support; or the requesting spouse cares for a child of the marriage with a disability requiring substantial care.12State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.051 – Eligibility for Maintenance
Even when a spouse qualifies, the amount is capped at $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income, whichever is less.13State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.055 – Amount of Maintenance Duration is capped too. For marriages of 10 to 20 years, maintenance generally cannot exceed five years, with longer maximums for longer marriages. Texas courts treat maintenance as a bridge to self-sufficiency, and orders can be modified or terminated if circumstances change substantially.
Name Restoration
If you changed your name when you married and want it back, include the request in the divorce petition. Texas law requires the court to grant restoration to any name you previously used unless the judge writes a specific reason for denial into the decree. There is no separate fee, and having the change in the decree makes updating your driver’s license, Social Security card, and passport straightforward.
After the Decree: Insurance, Taxes, and Other Loose Ends
Divorce is a qualifying event for COBRA. If you were covered under your spouse’s employer plan, you can continue that coverage for up to 36 months, though you pay the full premium plus an administrative fee.14U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs on COBRA Continuation Health Coverage for Workers You must notify the plan administrator within 60 days of the divorce becoming final.
For the tax year your divorce is finalized, you file as single or, if you qualify, head of household. Spousal maintenance under any agreement executed after December 31, 2018 is neither deductible by the payer nor taxable to the recipient, and that rule covers current Bexar County divorces.15Internal Revenue Service. Divorce or Separation May Have an Effect on Taxes Child support is never deductible and never taxable. Property transfers between spouses in a divorce settlement are generally not taxable events, but the receiving spouse takes over the original cost basis, which matters at eventual sale.
A Social Security note for long marriages: if your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you are currently unmarried, and you are at least 62, you can claim a spousal benefit on your ex-spouse’s earnings record even if they have remarried, and doing so does not reduce their benefit.16Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.331
If you hold conditional permanent resident status based on a marriage of less than two years, divorce complicates the removal-of-conditions process. The Form I-751 petition normally filed jointly must instead be filed with a waiver of joint filing, supported by evidence that you entered the marriage in good faith.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part I Chapter 5 – Waiver of Joint Filing Requirement Anyone in this position should consult an immigration attorney alongside their family lawyer.
Filing on Your Own or Hiring an Attorney
You can represent yourself in a Bexar County divorce, but the court will hold you to the same procedural and evidentiary standards as a lawyer. In an uncontested case with no children and little property, self-representation is workable if you are willing to learn the forms and follow the rules. In contested cases, particularly those involving custody disputes, significant assets, or family violence allegations, an attorney is worth the cost. Procedural mistakes in contested divorces can produce default orders or lost property rights that are hard to undo on appeal.
The Bexar County District Clerk publishes self-help forms and procedural guides for people filing on their own.3Bexar County, TX – Official Website. District Clerk Forms For low-income filers, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and similar organizations offer free or reduced-cost representation, particularly in domestic violence and custody matters. The Texas State Law Library also publishes step-by-step guides for filing, service, and responding.5Texas State Law Library. Answering Divorce Papers
Whether you hire counsel or file on your own, pull your financial records together before you file. Bank statements, tax returns, pay stubs, mortgage documents, retirement statements, and a debt list give you a clearer sense of what is on the table and a stronger position in whatever comes next.