Houston Business and Family Law Blog

Domestic violence can happen to anyone, regardless of social or financial status, race, gender and sexual orientation. You and other Texas residents should know that those in same-sex marriages are also vulnerable to intimate partner violence. In fact, some studies have shown that those in the LGBTQ community may be more prone to experiencing domestic violence and less likely to seek or get help than heterosexuals.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, studies suggest lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to have experienced sexual assault, physical violence and stalking by a romantic partner than straight women. You may also find it disturbing to learn that 45% of LGBTQ victims do not report domestic violence to authorities because they think they will not receive help.

Whether you are close to retirement or still have many years of earning an income ahead of you, a divorce can upend your financial situation and damage any security you may have had. In essence, a divorce divides a couple's wealth and doubles their household expenses. Additionally, the expense of the divorce process can be exorbitant. Some estimate that the average divorce can cost a couple in their 50s as much as $100,000.

If these details make you nervous, you are not alone. However, it is possible that remaining in your marriage is not an option. Like many, you may be looking for ways to split with your spouse without facing bankruptcy at the end of the process. Fortunately, there are ways to cut the cost of ending your marriage.

When potential clients come to us here at Laura Dale & Associates PC seeking advice about their impending divorce, one of the first things we always tell them is that in most Texas counties, including those in and around Houston, the family law courts require that a divorcing couple go through an out-of-court mediation process prior to seeking a trial. If you and your spouse are talking about divorce, you need to be aware of this requirement and the many benefits it can afford you.

The American Bar Association points out that unlike a divorce that starts and ends with litigation, a mediated divorce gives you and your spouse the opportunity to divorce in the most amicable way possible. Specifically, mediation provides you the following advantages:

• The opportunity for the two of you to meet with a neutral mediator in a private, nonthreatening environment
• The opportunity for the two of you to negotiate together so as to make your own decisions rather than being forced into decisions made by a judge or jury
• The opportunity to save a considerable amount of money since mediated divorces often cost somewhere between 40-60% less than fully litigated divorces
• The opportunity to avoid public court records detailing you and your spouse’s private lives
• The opportunity to avail yourselves of a flexible timetable within which to negotiate and conclude your agreements

At the law offices of Laura Dale & Associates PC, we work with clients every day who wish to obtain a Texas divorce. Along with the advice we give them regarding their custody arrangements, property settlement agreements and possible spousal support requests, we also strongly advise them not to post any personal information on Facebook and the other social media while going through the divorce process.

As FindLaw explains, a divorce situation represents the precise time during which you should steadfastly refrain from putting information online that could come back to haunt you at your divorce hearing. While you may think that such an event is highly unlikely, you need to know that many divorce attorneys make it a practice to go through the Facebook and the other social media postings of their clients’ spouses in order to discover negative information about them that they can subsequently use against them in court.