How to File a Texas Motion to Enforce Your Divorce Decree

A Texas motion to enforce a divorce decree is how you get a judge to make your former spouse follow the orders the court already signed. You file it in the same court that granted the divorce, and it can address any part of the decree: child support, visitation and possession, spousal maintenance, or the property split. The motion has to point to the specific provision that was violated, describe exactly how it was violated, and tell the judge what you want done about it. Depending on what the court finds, the consequences run from a money judgment and attorney fees to jail time for contempt.

What Your Motion Has to Say

Texas Family Code Section 157.002 sets the baseline. Every motion to enforce must identify the specific provision of the decree that was violated, describe how the other party failed to comply, state the relief you want, and carry your signature or your attorney’s.¹ The statute then adds extra requirements based on what you’re enforcing.

Child Support

A child support enforcement motion has to list the amount ordered, the amount actually paid, and the total arrearages. If you want the court to hold your ex in contempt, you have to go further: for each date the payment was missed, list the amount that was due and the amount paid, if anything.¹ A payment record from the Title IV-D registry or a local registry works as supporting evidence.

Visitation and Possession

When the violation is about custody time, the motion has to include the date, place, and time of each denied exchange.¹ “She keeps denying my weekends” will not fly. Each missed visit needs its own entry: the Friday you were supposed to pick the child up, the address in the order, the time the order set.

Property Division

If your ex hasn’t turned over property the decree assigned to you, you can ask the court to enforce the division. An enforcement order does not change the split; it forces performance or specifies how the transfer should happen.² If your ex still refuses after that, you can seek a money judgment for what the failure cost you.

Where to Get the Forms

TexasLawHelp.org publishes free, fillable form kits for people filing without a lawyer. There’s a Visitation Enforcement Kit with instructions and every form bundled together,³ and a separate Motion to Enforce and for Contempt form for other kinds of violations.⁴ Your county clerk can also hand you a packet or point you to one.

Enter the cause number and court information exactly as they appear on the original divorce petition.⁴ Getting the cause number wrong will slow everything down before you’re out of the gate.

Where and How to File

File in the court with continuing, exclusive jurisdiction, which is usually the court that signed your original divorce decree.⁵ Anywhere else and the motion gets rejected.

If you have an attorney, electronic filing through eFileTexas.gov is required in district and county courts for civil and family matters.⁶ Self-represented filers usually aren’t required to e-file, but some courts’ local rules say otherwise.⁷ Ask your clerk before you show up with paper.

The clerk’s basic filing fee for an enforcement motion in an existing family law case is $15.⁸ County-level add-ons can push the total higher. If money is the problem, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs and ask the court to waive the fees.⁹

Serving Your Former Spouse

Filing does not put your ex on notice. Texas requires formal service: a constable or a certified private process server has to hand the citation and a copy of the motion directly to the respondent. Private servers typically charge between $50 and $150, depending on how hard the person is to find.

Personal service must happen at least 10 days before the hearing. That 10-day window applies to enforcement of child support, visitation, and any final order rendered against someone who has already appeared in the case.¹⁰ After service, the server files a return of service with the court. Without a properly filed return, the judge cannot hold the hearing.¹¹

When Your Ex Is Dodging Service

If your former spouse is avoiding personal service, you can ask the court for substituted service under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 106(b)(2). That can include service by email or social media, but it is not automatic. You have to file a sworn affidavit showing diligent attempts through the normal methods, showing that the account or address really belongs to your ex, and showing recent activity on it. Courts turn these requests down when ownership is unverified, the account looks dead, or the affidavit is thin.

The Enforcement Hearing

Once service is complete and the notice period has run, you or your attorney calls the court coordinator to schedule the hearing. Bring a certified copy of the original decree and the evidence that backs up your motion: bank statements, text messages, registry payment records. The judge listens to both sides and decides whether the decree was violated.

This is where the specifics you put in the motion earn their keep. If you alleged a $1,200 payment was due on March 1 and nothing came in, prove it. Vague claims without dates and dollar amounts rarely survive contact with the courtroom.

If Your Ex Doesn’t Show Up

The court cannot hold a properly served respondent in contempt just for skipping the hearing. It can, however, grant a default judgment on the relief you asked for and issue a capias, which is an arrest warrant to bring the respondent before the court.¹² Not appearing usually makes things worse, not easier.

What the Court Can Order

A contempt finding carries real weight. The judge can impose a fine of up to $500 for each violation and jail the respondent for up to six months.¹³ The court can also enter a money judgment for the full amount owed and order the respondent to pay your attorney fees and court costs.

Contempt is not the only remedy. Even without a contempt finding, the court can award court costs and attorney fees, render a money judgment, order income withholding, or require the respondent to post a bond as security for future compliance.¹⁴

Attorney Fees

The fee rules depend on the violation. If the court finds a parent violated a visitation or possession order, it must order that parent to pay your reasonable attorney fees and court costs. In child support enforcement, the court can order the respondent to pay your fees, but it can waive that if the respondent proves good cause for the nonpayment. The waiver disappears once arrearages hit $20,000, unless the respondent is involuntarily unemployed or disabled and lacks the resources to pay. For property division enforcement, an attorney fee award is discretionary.¹⁵

Interest on Missed Child Support

Delinquent child support accrues six percent simple interest per year from the date each payment becomes delinquent until it is paid or reduced to a money judgment. That same six percent keeps running on the judgment until the judgment is satisfied. After a few years of missed payments, the interest is not a rounding error.

When the Decree Is Too Vague to Enforce

Some decrees are too loose for contempt. If the order says “husband shall pay wife her share of the retirement account” with no amount, no deadline, and no method, no judge will jail someone for violating it. In those situations, either party — or the court on its own — can ask for a clarifying order under Texas Family Code Section 157.421.¹⁶

The court has to find the original order is not specific enough to be enforced by contempt before it will clarify. A clarifying order does not change the substance of the decree; it fills in the missing details so a future contempt finding can stick.¹⁶ You can request clarification on its own or file it alongside a contempt motion.²

Defenses Your Ex Can Raise

The respondent has options too. Texas Family Code Section 157.008 provides two affirmative defenses in child support cases. The respondent can show the child was voluntarily living with them beyond what the order provided and that they were actually supporting the child during that time.¹⁷

More often, the respondent claims an inability to pay. That defense requires proof of all four elements: no ability to pay the ordered amount, no property that could be sold or pledged, unsuccessful attempts to borrow, and no other legal source for the funds.¹⁷ Missing one sinks the defense, and courts look at these claims closely.

Deadlines That Can Kill Your Case

Different parts of the decree have different filing deadlines, and missing the wrong one ends your ability to enforce.

Property division: Two years from the date the decree was signed by the judge, or from the date it became final after appeal, whichever is later.²
Child support contempt: The court keeps contempt jurisdiction if you file within two years after the child turns 18 or the obligation otherwise ends.¹⁸
Child support money judgment: Up to 10 years after the child turns 18 or the obligation ends to confirm arrearages and get a cumulative money judgment.¹⁸

The property division deadline is the one that catches people out. Two years sounds generous until you’ve spent 18 months waiting for a voluntary transfer that isn’t coming. If your ex is not moving toward compliance, file before the clock runs out.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.002 – Motion for Enforcement
2
Texas Law Help. Enforcing the Property Division in a Divorce
3
Texas Law Help. I Want to File a Motion to Enforce Visitation
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TexasLawHelp. Motion to Enforce and for Contempt
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.001 – Motion for Enforcement
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eFileTexas.Gov. Official E-Filing System for Texas
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Texas Law Help. I Want to Electronically File (E-File) My Documents
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Texas Courts. District Court Civil Filing Fees
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Texas Law Help. I Cannot Afford My Court Fees
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.062 – Time and Notice
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Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 107 Return of Service
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code 157.066 – Failure to Appear
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 105.006 – Contents of Final Order
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.162
15
Texas Law Help. Attorneys’ Fees in Family Law Cases
16
State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.421 – Clarifying Nonspecific Order
17
Texas Public Law. Texas Family Code 157.008 – Affirmative Defense to Motion for Enforcement of Child Support
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 157.005