Adultery In Texas Divorce: What Happens Now?
Having extramarital sex, also known as committing adultery, can be especially damaging to a marriage and is often the impetus for divorce. If you are facing a Texas divorce that hinges on your partner’s adultery, it’s important that you understand your legal rights.
Adultery’s Role
In Texas, Adultery can play a significant role in how the court determines the financial outcome of your divorce, including alimony and property division. Although Texas allows no-fault divorce, you nevertheless have the option of filing for a divorce based on fault; adultery is one such fault factor. You will, however, need to prove the affair – at least at the circumstantial level. Such circumstantial evidence can include phone records, credit card bills, bank statements, emails, text messages, photos and/or videos; all of which can be compiled as circumstantial proof of your spouse’s affair.
Alimony in Texas
In Texas, alimony is awarded as compensation to a spouse who, due to long-term homemaking responsibilities, no longer has adequate ability to earn and who cannot adequately support him or herself. If you are eligible for alimony in Texas, there are several factors that relate to both of you equally and that can play an important role in the amount and duration of your alimony:
- Education and job skills;
- Length of the marriage;
- Your age, employment history, earning potential, and physical and mental health;
- Ability to meet your own needs;
- Amount of child support required to pay;
- Property brought into the marriage;
- Contributions as a homemaker;
- Wasting or hiding of money during the marriage;
- Contributions to the education or earning potential of the other;
- Domestic violence during the marriage; and
- Misconduct, such as adultery.
Texas has specific parameters within which it calculates alimony, but it will determine your alimony on the details of your case.
Property Division in Texas
Texas, unlike many other states, factors adultery into its calculation of property division. If your spouse was unfaithful, it can result in the court awarding him or her less by way of property division. The court can also take any money your spouse spent on that affair into consideration.
Texas has divorce laws pertaining to adultery that are unique to the state, and these laws can play a significant role in the outcome of your divorce. If you’re going through a divorce that’s based on your spouse’s adultery, retain experienced legal counsel.
Contact a Richmond, Texas, Divorce Lawyer
If you are facing a divorce in which your spouse had an extramarital affair, it is in your best interest to obtain a skilled Texas divorce attorney who has experience with cases involving adultery. Your divorce can take many unforeseen twists and turns, and adultery only complicates the issues. Allow The Vendt Law Firm, P.L.L.C., to help you move beyond the mayhem and obtain your best possible outcome. Attorney Frank J. Vendt is a Texas divorce attorney who focuses on solution-based legal guidance and representation that protects your rights. Schedule a consultation with Mr. Vendt today by calling our office at (832) 276-9474 or by contacting us online.
