Dallas Divorce Law Blog

For as many people who are considered to be celebrities in this country, it might be foolhardy to suggest that there is one celebrity divorce case that has gotten more attention than any other. However, in this particular case, it might very well be true.

Kim Kardashian has captured the nation's attention for being famous for, more or less, being famous. Her wedding to NBA player Kris Humphries was parlayed into a two-hour television special. The marriage, however, was not as successful as the television show depicting its beginning. Kardashian filed for divorce 10 weeks after the ceremony, a year and a half ago, and the divorce battle had been raging ever since.

Many single parents in Texas struggle with keeping their heads above water when they don't get the child support they are owed from the other parent. In many cases, even if warrants exist to get the parent in custody, they are seldom picked up. However, sometimes an arrest and conviction will actually have a positive effect and lead to a financial improvement in the custodial parent's situation.

This happened recently to a man whose wife, who lives in Texas, was convicted in Mississippi on felony charges for failing to support her children. It is relatively rare that a mother would be the one ordered to pay child support to a father; however, this case seems to be a victory for fathers' rights.

We have written extensively on this blog about how divorces in Texas impact property division -- and how in many cases, the largest asset a couple has is their house. In past posts, we have talked about how if one person or the other has entered the marriage with specific debts, those debts will remain with that person after the marriage unless the other person elects to take them on as well.

However, in many cases, a house is something purchased as a couple. So too, frequently, are automobiles. But what happens if a couple gets divorced? In many cases, without the proper legal guidance, a couple might take it for granted that responsibilities for assets such as homes or cars need to be documented.

It takes two people to make a child. However, in many Texas families, the children live with one parent most (or all) of the time. However, this doesn't absolve the other parent of responsibility. In nearly all cases, Texas law requires noncustodial parents to make regular child support payments.

Unfortunately, not all parents live up to this obligation. If you are struggling to get child support payments from your children's other parent, know that help is out there. The Texas Office of the Attorney General provides assistance to Texans who need help recovering past-due child support. In fact, this service is so important that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has been working to spread the word about the aid his office can offer.

When couples in Texas divorce, one of the most contentious issues is often property division. Of a couple's property, often the largest portion is real estate -- namely, the couple's house.

In many cases these days, people enter a marriage with a financial disparity: one person might carry a large amount of debt while the other person might have more tangible assets such as a home. Many couples turn to a prenuptial agreement as a way to keep these assets and debts separate heading into a marriage.

For many people in Texas who are going through a divorce, one of the primary concerns is to figure out the aspects of property division. And, as many couples know -- or will find out -- oftentimes the biggest asset that needs to be divided is the family home.

In some cases, it makes sense for one spouse or the other to keep the house -- and with that, assume the mortgage payments. However, for other couples, a mortgage that was previously being paid on a combined income isn't sustainable on a single paycheck and it's better to sell the property and split the profits -- if there are any.

We have written recently about fathers who owed large amounts of child support despite having large amounts of money being found out because of their activities on social media websites. There are other ways that family law attorneys might be able to determine that a delinquent parent has assets that might go toward child support -- including, unlikely enough, if that parent wins the lottery.

As it turns out, this is exactly what happened to the man who recently won a $221 million Powerball jackpot. After such a large windfall, interviews of the man -- whose cut after taxes was just over $150 million -- were all over television and newspapers. The next day, authorities knocked on the man's door to ask him about it. Nobody answered.

People use Facebook for all sorts of reasons. Oftentimes a primary use is to keep track of family and friends through updates and photos. As technology has made it easier to record videos and take photos, people are sometimes less than judicious about the sorts of things they put onto their own pages. On occasion, this can get people into trouble. We have heard stories about people whose claims for workers' compensation have been derailed after they posted photos of themselves engaging in activities like running marathons when they were not supposed to be able to walk, let alone run.

Now it appears that this has come into play in a child support enforcement case. A man in Wisconsin failed to pay $150 a month that he owed the mother of his child. However, the man posted pictures on his Facebook account of himself posing with large amounts of cash and bottles of liquor. It was not clear where the money came from, but the man seemed to want people to think that it was his.