Family Law

Family Law

The temporary orders usually become the permanent ones.

The first real hearing in a Texas divorce or custody case is about temporary orders — who stays in the house, when each parent has the children, what gets paid while the case is pending. People treat it as a formality because of the word temporary. It is not one. Months later, when the final orders are argued, the schedule that has been working is the schedule the court is most reluctant to disturb.

That is the single most useful thing to know before you walk into one of these cases: show up prepared to the hearing that feels like it does not count.

Kevin Acevedo has practiced for more than 25 years and founded Ace Law in 2025. Most of the firm's staff are bilingual, which matters here — family cases run on documents, school records and conversations with people who are frightened, and none of that works through a stranger interpreting over the phone.

What we handle

The Texas rules that shape a divorce

• Sixty days, minimum. A Texas divorce generally cannot be finalized until at least 60 days after the petition is filed, even when both people agree on everything. There are narrow exceptions in family violence cases. Nobody gets divorced in a week here.
• You have to belong here first. Texas generally requires that a spouse has lived in the state for six months and in the county for 90 days before filing.
• Community property, but not automatic halves. Property acquired during the marriage is presumed to be community property. What you owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance, is separate — but you have to prove it, and the standard of proof is high. The court then divides the community estate in a manner that is just and right, which is frequently not 50-50.
• Standing orders start the moment you file. Many Texas counties, Harris among them, have standing orders that attach automatically to a new family case. They restrict emptying accounts, cancelling insurance, hiding property and moving the children. Violating one you never read is still a violation.
• Spousal maintenance is the exception, not the rule. Texas limits court-ordered maintenance sharply. It generally requires a marriage of at least ten years plus an inability to meet minimum reasonable needs, or a recent family violence conviction, or a disability. Even when it is awarded, the amount is capped and the duration is limited by statute.

How Texas thinks about children

Every decision about a child in Texas is measured against one standard: the best interest of the child. Not what is fair between the parents, and not what the parents agreed to informally two years ago.

• Conservatorship is decision-making. Possession is time. Texas presumes that parents should be joint managing conservators, sharing rights and duties, and then separately decides who has the exclusive right to determine the child's primary residence. Joint conservatorship does not mean equal time.
• The standard possession order is the starting point. For children three and older it is presumed to be in the child's best interest, and it is built around the first, third and fifth weekends of the month, with an expanded version available. Departing from it requires a reason the court will accept.
• Support is calculated, not negotiated. Texas uses guideline percentages of the paying parent's monthly net resources — roughly 20% for one child and rising with each additional child — applied only up to a maximum amount of net resources that the state adjusts periodically. Health and dental insurance for the child is ordered on top of that.
• A child twelve or older can be heard. On request the judge will interview a child aged twelve or older in chambers about their preference. It is not a vote, and the judge is not bound by it.

What it costs

Family cases are handled on a flat fee or hourly basis depending on what the case actually is. An agreed divorce with no children and no real property is a different job from a contested custody case with a psychological evaluation, and it should not be priced the same.

There is no fee for the consultation. Afterward you get the fee in writing, along with an honest read on which kind of case you have — because the largest single factor in what a family case costs is not the lawyer's rate, it is how much of it is fought.

Common questions