Family Lawyers

Types of Support We Can Offer in Divorce Cases

How a family law expert can help you

An experienced Family Law attorney can help to save you time, reduce stress, and work to achieve your desired Family Law outcome. Here are some of the most common Family Law issues our clients face, and Thompson Law is here to help you with these Family Law services:

Divorce and Separation

We offer Divorce Attorney and Divorce Mediation services to our clients facing the life-changing events of separation and divorce. Other areas of family law, such as child custody, parental rights, child support, geographical restrictions, prenuptial agreements, name changes, and spousal maintenance may also be covered during a divorce case, and we represent clients dealing with those family law issues outside of the divorce context too.

Child Custody, Visitation, and Child Support

A family lawyer can help you navigate complex and emotionally-difficult child custody and visitation issues, ensuring that your child’s wellbeing is put at the forefront of any legal processes. Thompson Law has decades of experience fighting for parents in family law cases. A family law attorney can also help with complicated child support issues, such as non-payment, increasing (or decreasing) support due to changed circumstances, or modifying support due to a change in child custody and visitation.

Parental Rights and Decision-Making

When parents separate or divorce, each parent will be given certain rights and duties. Some of these are fundamental, such as the parental duty to provide the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and financial support. Other rights are more often the subject of disagreement between parents, such as educational or medical decision-making, or child counseling and therapy. In Family Law cases involving children, it must be determined how parents will share these rights. For example, one parent may have the exclusive right to make decisions of this type, or they may be exercised by agreement of both parents only, in which case the parents will need to decide how disagreements will be resolved. An experienced Family Law attorney can help you think through and make informed decisions about important issues affecting your children.

Child Medical Support and Other Child-Related Expenses

Whenever child support is ordered, child medical support and child dental support will almost always be ordered as well. Most commonly, though by no means always, the parent who pays child support will also pay Child Medical Support by either carrying and paying for the child’s or children’s monthly health insurance premiums, or by reimbursing the other parent for them. The same is true for dental insurance and the payment of the child’s monthly dental insurance premiums. A Texas court will not typically order a parent to pay any other child-related expenses beyond child support, child medical support and child dental support for a child who is not disabled, for example. That said, the Court has authority to order one parent to pay more, toward private school tuition for example, depending upon the unique circumstances of each family and family law case.

Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (SAPCR)

A Suit to Modify the Parent-Child Relationship, also known as a SAPCR Mod, is very similar to a SAPCR lawsuit. A SAPCR Mod is a lawsuit typically brought by one parent against the other parent to somehow change each parent’s respective rights or duties on issues such as child custody, child support, medical support, parental decision making rights, geographic restrictions, and extracurricular activities, for example. SAPCR Mod lawsuits most often involve parents who have a prior court order for child custody, visitation and support, typically from a prior divorce or prior SAPCR court order, and at least one parent believes that the prior order needs to change in one way or another.

Suits to Modify the Parent Child Relationship or to modify a prior court order

A Suit to Modify the Parent-Child Relationship, also known as a SAPCR Mod, is very similar to a SAPCR lawsuit. A SAPCR Mod is a lawsuit typically, though not always, brought by one parent against the other parent to somehow change each parent’s respective rights on issues such as custody, visitation, child support, medical support, dental support, or child-related tax issues. The parents’ property is not divided in a SAPCR Mod lawsuit, though issues such as child support, medical and dental support, child extracurricular activity or college or university expenses, as well as child-related tax issues, can play issues in SAPCR Mod cases. SAPCR Mod lawsuits most often involve parents who have a prior court order for child custody, visitation and support, typically from a prior divorce or a prior SAPCR court order, and at least one parent believes that prior order needs to be modified in one way or another.

Enforcement Actions

An enforcement action is the legal process of enforcing the provisions of a prior court order relating to issues such as child support, medical support, dental support, or the division of property contained in the court order after a divorce. When a former spouse or co-parent fails to follow the terms of an existing court order, such as a prior divorce decree or a prior SAPCR or SAPCR Mod order, then one parent will often file an enforcement action against the other parent in an effort to incentivize (or force) their compliance. The process to follow depends on which portion of the prior court order that parent is seeking to enforce. For example, an enforcement lawsuit seeking to recoup unpaid, court-ordered child support has different legal requirements and procedures from a lawsuit seeking to enforce the division of property contained in a Final Decree of Divorce. 

Spousal Maintenance (like Alimony)

After separation from your spouse, but before divorce, one spouse may be entitled to receive (or required to pay) interim spousal support while a divorce case is ongoing. A spouse may also be required to pay (or entitled to receive) spousal maintenance after divorce. Common grounds for post-divorce spousal maintenance are a spouse’s inability to earn sufficient income for some reason such as leaving the workforce to raise children or a spouse’s inability to work due to disability. Spousal maintenance, which is paid from one ex-spouse to another ex-spouse after divorce (like alimony) is either agreed upon between the parties or it is ordered by the Court. For legal assistance determining whether you or your spouse may be eligible to pay (or to receive) either interim spousal support during a divorce case or spousal maintenance after divorce, as well as calculating what those amounts might be, contact Thompson Law’s family lawyers to guide you through the process.

Name Change

You may require a name change for a variety of reasons, such as adoption or after the end of a marriage. The process can be complicated and requires filing paperwork with the courts. A family lawyer can file paperwork on your behalf and represent you in court if necessary. 

Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can provide financial, tax, and inheritance protections and planning opportunities for anyone who is, or who is about to be, married. The prenup contract will define how assets and liabilities are owned and controlled during the marriage (and by whom), as well as how those assets and liabilities will be handled when the marriage ends by death or divorce. A postnuptial agreement provides the same protections and opportunities for couples who are already married.