Community Property in Texas Divorces

As a divorce attorney in San Antonio, Texas, I find that the concept of "community property" is very confusing to many of my new clients.  In a nutshell, Texas, and a number of other states, consider property acquired during a marriage as belonging to the "community" rather than to either spouse individually.  The idea is that it took a community effort to acquire the property.  Perhaps one spouse worked during the marriage and the other spouse took care of running the household, or perhaps both spouses worked--the idea being that the efforts of both spouses were required to create the community estate. 

In Texas, the law requires that the community estate, also known as the marital estate, be divided in a manner "which is just and right."  That means that a 50/50 division of the community property at the time of divorce is not authomatic.  A number of variables come into play, such as the relative earning capacity of the spouses, their age and health, fault in the breakup of the marriage, and large number of other factors. 

In future posts, I'll discuss the exceptions to the community property rule, as well as other nuances of Texas community property law in the divorce context.

J. Michael Clay is a San Antonio, Texas lawyer/attorney whose practice focuses primarily on family law issues, such as divorce, alimony, adoption, child custody, child support, enforcement and modification issues.

San Antonio Texas Lawyer J. Michael Clay is licensed to practice all types of law in Texas state courts.  He is also licensed to practice in federal courts in the Western District of Texas. 

J. Michael Clay is not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization to practice in any particular area. 

Lack of Board-Certified Specialization  does limit an attorney's practice in any manner.

Comments

[cindy]

if one spouse has over 100,000 in unpaid medical
bills, does the other spouse have to take half the debt