Bexar County Standing Orders: Children, Money, and Conduct Rules

The Bexar County standing orders are a set of automatic rules that take effect the instant a divorce or suit affecting the parent-child relationship is filed in the county’s Civil District Courts. No one has to ask for them and no judge signs them case by case. They freeze the status quo around your children, money, property, insurance, and conduct until the court enters something more specific.¹

Who Is Bound and When It Starts

The order applies to every divorce and every parent-child relationship suit filed in the Bexar County Civil District Courts. If you filed the case, you are bound the moment the petition hits the clerk. The other party is bound as soon as they are served or make a formal appearance.¹ It carries the full weight of a court directive even though no judge issued it for your particular case.

Attaching the Order to the Petition

The person filing has to attach a copy of the standing order to the original petition and to every copy served.¹ The document is available on the Bexar County District Clerk’s forms page. Forgetting to attach it does not excuse either party from following the rules, but it can create arguments later about whether the respondent was properly on notice.

Rules About the Children

The order locks down most of the children’s daily life. While it is in effect, neither parent may:

Remove the children from Texas without the other parent’s written consent or a court order.
Change the children’s schools or daycare without written agreement or a court order.
Hide the children or change their residence without written agreement or court approval.
Use illegal controlled substances within twelve hours before or during any period of possession.
Have an overnight romantic guest in the home when the children are present during an original divorce action. The order defines overnight as 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.¹

The overnight-guest rule catches people off guard. The time window is specific. If a new partner is still at the house at 10:01 p.m. with the kids there, you are technically in violation.

What You Can’t Do With Money or Property

The order essentially freezes the marital estate. Neither party may destroy, transfer, hide, or reduce the value of any property belonging to either spouse, and that includes concealing financial records, business documents, and records of debts or income.¹ The specific financial prohibitions are:

No withdrawals from checking or savings accounts except for purposes the order specifically authorizes.
No spending cash in either party’s possession except for authorized purposes.
No incurring new debt other than legal expenses, except as specifically authorized.
No withdrawing or borrowing from retirement plans, pensions, profit-sharing accounts, IRAs, or Keogh accounts.
No terminating or limiting credit or charge cards in the other party’s name.¹

What Spending Is Still Allowed

The freeze has built-in exceptions. In a divorce case, both parties are authorized to:

Take actions reasonably necessary for their usual business or occupation.
Spend money on reasonable legal fees and expenses connected to the case.
Pay for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and medical care.
Make bank withdrawals, but only for the purposes above.¹

The word doing the work throughout is “reasonable.” Groceries are fine. Draining savings to buy a boat is not, even if you call it transportation. Judges tend to look at patterns of spending, not just single transactions.

Insurance You Can’t Touch

Neither party may cancel or alter any casualty, automobile, or health insurance policy covering the parties or their children. Changing beneficiary designations on life insurance is prohibited. Borrowing against or withdrawing from the cash surrender value of any life insurance policy is also forbidden unless the order specifically authorizes it.¹ Nobody gets to drop the other person’s coverage as leverage or quietly redirect a payout mid-case.

Conduct, Communication, and Digital Records

Making disparaging remarks about the other parent or their family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and stepparents, is prohibited. Interfering with utility service at the other spouse’s residence is also off limits. The order specifically covers water, electricity, gas, telephone, cable, and contracted services like security, pest control, and landscaping. You cannot pull utility deposits in the other party’s name either.¹

Falsifying any writing or record related to either party’s property is prohibited, and “records” explicitly includes email and other electronic data stored on computers, external drives, or other devices.¹ Deleting text messages or emails that might be relevant is exactly what this provision targets.

The 60-Day Family Stabilization Program

Parents in Bexar County are required to attend a family stabilization program within sixty days of the petition being filed.¹ It is not optional. The program covers how divorce affects children. Missing the deadline can become a problem later, especially if the other side raises it with the court.

What Happens If You Violate the Order

A violation is treated as contempt of court. Under Texas law, contempt carries a fine of up to $500, confinement in the county jail for up to six months, or both.² The court can also make the violator pay the other side’s attorney fees for bringing the enforcement action. Enforcement begins when the other party files a motion for enforcement or contempt. You get served, a hearing is set, and the judge decides. Violations involving children or hidden assets tend to draw the sharpest response.

Getting Permission to Do Something the Order Forbids

The standing order is not unmodifiable. If you have a legitimate reason to do something it prohibits, like selling property, relocating with the children for a job, or pulling retirement money in a real emergency, you can file a motion asking the court for permission. The judge will hear both sides before granting or denying it. Until you have a written order allowing the change, every restriction stays in force. Acting first and asking later is the fastest way to a contempt finding.

1
Bexar County. Civil District Judges Standing Order
2
Justia Law. Texas Government Code Chapter 21 – General Provisions