How Can a Flat Fee Divorce Simplify the Legal Process in Texas?

A flat-fee divorce allows couples who don’t want to be married any longer, but who don’t have any serious and contentious issues with each other, to get divorced quickly and simply. If you and your spouse agree on all the issues surrounding your divorce and are both motivated to get your divorce done as quickly as possible, you can save a lot of time and money with a flat-fee divorce. A flat-fee divorce lawyer can consider your circumstances and tell you for sure if this is right for you.

There are three key ways that a flat-fee divorce makes things simpler and more streamlined. First, you, your spouse, and your lawyer all agree that you will come to an agreement and that, if for some reason you can’t, you have to start over from scratch. This is an incentive to reach an agreement, even if there are one or two sticking points.

A flat-fee divorce is also simpler because you know all the fees going in. Because your lawyer knows that you agree on the major issues, they know they won’t have to spend a lot of time in discovery or negotiations. The main job of your lawyer will be to take care of all of the paperwork for you. While divorce paperwork can be quite complicated, especially if you’ve never done it before, to a divorce lawyer it’s standard procedure and can go quickly when there are no surprises and no points of contention. This also means a lot of savings for you.

Another way that a flat-fee divorce simplifies things is by shortening the timeline so that you can get on with your life more quickly with certainty and predictability. You know the timeline, you know how things are going to fall out in the end, and you know exactly what you’re going to pay going in.

As appealing as this type of divorce is, not every divorce qualifies. The reason you can save so much money with a flat-fee divorce is that your lawyer can streamline the process, manage their own time effectively, and know that it’s unlikely there will be any unpredictable billing disputes. But all of this depends on the predictability of your case. You can only qualify for a flat-fee divorce if:

It’s important to understand that even in a flat-fee divorce, there’s still an enormous amount of paperwork involved. While your lawyer will take care of all this paperwork, you will still have to sign it, and so will your spouse. This means you both need to be willing to sign whatever comes along and coordinate with each other. If one spouse becomes uncooperative during this process or refuses to sign a document, the whole arrangement can fall apart.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have any difficult things to work out at all, but overall, your financial situation in particular should be relatively simple. If you have a very complicated investment portfolio or are involved in a high-asset divorce, the flat-fee arrangement is not going to cover all of what your lawyer needs to do. Even if you and your spouse are very cooperative, it’s just difficult and complicated to value all these assets and properly divide them. The same as true if there are issues of domestic violence or complicated custody arrangements that cross state or even international borders.

The only way you’re eligible for a flat-fee divorce is if you’re filing on the grounds of insupportability. This is the uncontested grounds of divorce in Texas and simply means that neither of you are accusing the other of any kind of wrongdoing. The marriage simply can’t continue because the two of you are not compatible.

Finally, you and your spouse must be in complete agreement on all issues related to your divorce. You must agree how you want to divide your property and debts, what you’re going to do about child custody and visitation, all issues of child support or spousal support, and anything else that may be applicable to your divorce.

A flat-fee divorce covers everything that you need to get your divorce accomplished. This would include consultations with your lawyer, all documentation, and representation at your (minimal) court appearance requirements. The fee will also include any costs for filing with the court and for finalizing the divorce, which means meeting the final legal requirements and getting the decree from the court. Again, it’s important to remember that if your situation turns contentious, your flat-fee divorce will not cover the work required. At that point, you will have to get a new lawyer and start over, which will be a loss of both time and money for you.

To be eligible to file for a flat-fee divorce in Texas, at least one of you must’ve lived here for at least six months and have lived in the county where you’re filing for divorce for at least 90 days. If you don’t meet these jurisdictional requirements yet, it’s a good idea to wait until you do to make things simple.

If you and your spouse agree on everything, do you really need to get a lawyer at all? The answer is yes. Just considered the paperwork alone. Many divorces need a Petition for Divorce, ancillary letters to spouses, Child Support Order (if applicable), Medical Support Orders, Waiver of Service, Bureau of Vital Statistics form, Special Warranty Deeds, Powers of Attorney to Transfer a Motor Vehicle, Deeds of Trust to Secure Assumption, Owelty Deeds, and more. There are other documents that may be required, depending on your situation, and you may not be aware of what those documents are.

Simply making sure that you have all documents and that all of them are prepared and filed correctly is an enormous amount of work. A lawyer with lots of experience in divorces can this quickly, but the typical person will find themselves spending days at a time just dealing with the paperwork alone.

If you’re looking to get divorced quickly and you and your spouse are in agreement, a flat-fee divorce may be perfect for you. Visit us at C.E. Schmidt & Associates, PLLC in Houston, TX, to speak with a team member.