How Long Can a Divorce Be Put on Hold in Texas?

A Texas divorce can be put on hold anywhere from the mandatory 60-day minimum up to the length of a deployment, a bankruptcy case, or a court-ordered counseling period, depending on what triggers the pause. Some holds happen automatically the moment a document is filed. Others require a motion, an affidavit, and a judge’s approval. A few can stretch a case past the one-year mark without anyone technically doing anything wrong.

The 60-Day Floor Every Case Has

No Texas divorce can be finalized sooner than 60 days after the petition is filed with the district clerk. Section 6.702 of the Texas Family Code sets this cooling-off period, and it applies even when both spouses agree on property, debts, and custody.¹

There is one narrow exception. A judge can skip the 60 days 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 or emergency magistrate’s order based on violence during the marriage.¹ Outside that circumstance, the 60-day wait is the earliest any decree can issue.

Continuances Are Where Months Disappear

The most common delay in a contested Texas divorce is the continuance, which simply resets a hearing or trial date to a later day. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 251 says a court will not grant a continuance unless the party asking shows “sufficient cause” supported by an affidavit, both sides agree, or a law requires it.²

Reasons that tend to persuade a judge include:

Inadequate notice of a hearing date.
Needing time to hire a lawyer or apply for legal aid, especially early in the case.
A key witness being unavailable, or more time being needed to gather important documents.
Illness of a party or witness, backed by a physician’s statement.

A single continuance typically pushes a trial date out 30 to 90 days. Repeated requests face a higher bar, since judges are less patient with a party who keeps asking. A string of granted continuances is how an otherwise ordinary contested divorce ends up running past twelve months.

Pausing the Case for Counseling

If one or both spouses think the marriage might still be saved, Section 6.505 of the Texas Family Code lets a judge order the parties into counseling and stay the proceedings while that counseling happens. The statute does not fix a length. The judge chooses the period based on the family’s needs and the availability of counseling. When the period ends, the counselor reports back and the case picks up where it left off.³

If children under 18 were born or adopted during the marriage, the counseling must also address how the breakup affects them. One practical point to confirm in the court’s order: an abatement pauses the case but does not dismiss it, so existing temporary orders for custody, support, or property restraints remain in force. A dismissal would wipe them out.

Bankruptcy Freezes the Property Division

When either spouse files for bankruptcy, 11 U.S.C. § 362 imposes an automatic stay the moment the petition is filed, and that stay immediately halts any proceeding to divide marital property.⁴ A state court judge cannot touch assets or debts that belong to the bankruptcy estate until the federal bankruptcy judge lifts the stay.

Not everything stops. Federal law allows these family law matters to continue during a bankruptcy:

Establishing or modifying child support and spousal support.
Child custody and visitation disputes.
Paternity proceedings.
Domestic violence matters.
The dissolution of the marriage itself, as long as property that belongs to the bankruptcy estate is left alone.⁴

The property hold lasts until the bankruptcy case is closed, dismissed, or a discharge is granted or denied. That can mean months or years, depending on the complexity of the bankruptcy. Either party can ask the bankruptcy court to lift the stay, but the federal judge will only do so for cause or if the debtor has no equity in the property and it is not needed for reorganization.⁴

Military Deployment Can Extend a Hold Indefinitely

Active-duty servicemembers have separate protection under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. A servicemember whose duty prevents them from appearing can request a stay of at least 90 days. The request has to include a statement showing how current duty materially affects their ability to appear and a letter from their commanding officer confirming that duty prevents attendance and leave is not authorized.⁵

The initial 90 days is only the beginning. If military service continues to interfere, the servicemember can apply for additional stays with the same supporting documentation. There is no statutory cap on how many extensions a judge can grant, so a deployment-driven hold can last as long as the deployment. If a court refuses an additional stay, it must appoint an attorney to represent the servicemember.⁶

What Happens If the Case Just Sits

A divorce left idle too long gets dismissed. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 165a lets a court dismiss a case for want of prosecution when a party seeking relief does not appear at a hearing they were notified about, or when the case has not been resolved within the Texas Supreme Court’s time standards.² The clerk sends notice, and the party has to appear and show good cause to keep the case alive.

If the judge keeps the case on the docket, expect a pretrial order setting firm deadlines for trial, discovery, pleadings, and new parties. After that order, continuances require “valid and compelling reasons,” a higher standard than the usual sufficient-cause test.²

If the case does get dismissed, you have 30 days from the signing of the dismissal order to file a motion to reinstate. If you did not receive notice of the dismissal until more than 20 days after it was signed, the 30-day window starts running from the day you learned of it, with an outside limit of 90 days after the dismissal. That makes 120 days after the judge’s signature the absolute latest you can file to reinstate. After that, you have to start over with a new petition and new filing fees, which in many Texas counties run $350 or more.

One Pause That Is Really an Ending

A divorce in Texas is a personal action between two living spouses. If either spouse dies before the judge signs the final decree, the case becomes moot and is dismissed. The surviving spouse is a widow or widower, not a divorced person, and the deceased spouse’s estate passes through probate rather than through the property division the court was working on. The one exception is a case where the trial court had already rendered judgment on the merits before the death. Being close to settlement is not the same thing.

Why the Length of the Hold Matters

A delay that pushes finalization past December 31 changes your tax picture. The IRS looks at your legal status on the last day of the calendar year to set your filing status. If the decree is not signed by then, you file as married filing jointly or married filing separately for that entire year, no matter how long you have lived apart.⁷

Delay can also help in one specific situation. A divorced spouse can claim Social Security benefits on a former spouse’s earnings record only if the marriage lasted at least 10 years. If your marriage is near that mark, a few extra months before the decree lands can decide whether you keep that option. Benefits paid to a divorced spouse do not reduce what the other spouse or their current partner receives, and any clause in a decree trying to waive Social Security rights is unenforceable.⁸

1
State of Texas. Texas Code FAM – Section 6.702 – Waiting Period
2
Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Effective January 1, 2026
3
State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM Section 6.505 – Counseling
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
5
United States Courts. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3932 – Stay of Proceedings When Servicemember Has Notice
7
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Taxes After Divorce or Separation
8
Social Security Administration. 5 Things Every Woman Should Know About Social Security