Texas

All states

Luck of the Draw score: 65 out of 100

Texas caps both the amount and the length of post-divorce maintenance by statute, but leaves the division of community property to the judge’s view of what is just and right, including fault. Either side may demand a jury, and its findings on whether property is separate or community and what it is worth bind the judge. On the book’s scale, 0 is a contract you can read and 100 is one that mostly says “ask the judge.” Texas ranks 16 of 51, counting from the state that leaves the least to the judge. How the index works, and every state’s score.

Part	Score	The rule, and where it comes from
Property	15 / 20	The court divides the community estate in a manner it deems just and right, and the division need not be equal. Tex. Fam. Code § 7.001; Murff v. Murff, 615 S.W.2d 696, 698-99 (Tex. 1981)
Alimony	0 / 20	Maintenance may not exceed the smaller of $5,000 a month and 20 percent of the obligor’s average monthly gross income, and may not last more than five, seven, or ten years depending on marriage length, except in disability and similar cases. Tex. Fam. Code §§ 8.054(a), 8.055(a)
Fault	20 / 20	The court may consider fault in the breakup of the marriage when dividing the community estate, and marital misconduct including adultery and cruel treatment is a statutory maintenance factor. Murff v. Murff, 615 S.W.2d 696, 698-99 (Tex. 1981); Tex. Fam. Code § 8.052
Lawyers’ fees	20 / 20	In a suit for dissolution of a marriage, the court may award reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses. Tex. Fam. Code § 6.708(c)
Second opinion	10 / 20	Either party may demand a jury in a divorce, and its findings on whether property is separate or community and what it is worth bind the judge, who then makes the just-and-right division; the regular judge can’t be removed without cause. Tex. Fam. Code § 6.703

Getting in

A 3-day wait. Each applicant appears before a county clerk with proof of identity and age. The ceremony cannot take place for 72 hours after issuance, unless a judge waives the wait, an applicant is on active military duty or works for the Defense Department, or the applicant took an eight-hour premarital course. The license expires on the 90th day.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 2.002, 2.013, 2.201, 2.204; Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code §§ 118.011, 118.018

Who can marry you. A licensed or ordained Christian minister or priest, a Jewish rabbi, an authorized officer of a religious organization, or a current, former or retired federal or state judge may officiate. The statute does not address online ordination and requires no witnesses. A couple can skip the officiant by signing a declaration of informal marriage with a county clerk.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 2.202, 2.203, 2.302, 2.402

Common-law marriage: A couple can still become married here without a license. A Texas couple can marry informally by signing a registered declaration, or by agreeing to be married, living together in Texas as spouses and telling others they are married. If no suit is filed within two years after they separate, a court presumes no agreement unless shown otherwise. A Texas appeals court has said validity depends on the law of the place of celebration.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 2.401, 2.402; Braddock v. Taylor, 592 S.W.2d 40 (Tex. Civ. App. 1979)

Chapter 5 of the book covers getting in, and whether you are in at all.

The property system

Texas is one of nine community property jurisdictions. Community property. What either of you earns during the marriage belongs to both of you as it’s earned, and it’s generally split in half at the end. Chapter 11 of the book covers what that means, and Chapter 22 covers what happens to it when you move.

What counts as marital. Community property is everything either spouse acquires during marriage other than separate property, and whatever either holds at divorce is presumed community. Premarital property, gifts and inheritances stay separate, as does their growth in value, but income they produce is community. The community can claim reimbursement for uncompensated effort that enhanced separate property. The code has no separation cutoff.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 3.001-3.003, 3.402; Jensen v. Jensen, 665 S.W.2d 107 (Tex. 1984); Arnold v. Leonard, 114 Tex. 535, 273 S.W. 799 (1925)

An inheritance that touches a joint account

It can stay separate if you can trace it. Inheritance stays separate if its owner can trace it by clear and convincing evidence, such as bank records. A joint account deposit does not by itself convert it. Property bought with it and titled in both names is presumed a gift of half to the other spouse unless evidence shows otherwise. Money mixed beyond identification is treated as community. The Texas Supreme Court reaffirmed tracing in 2026.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 3.001(2), 3.003, 4.203(b); Tarver v. Tarver, 394 S.W.2d 780 (Tex. 1965); DePuy v. DePuy, 483 S.W.2d 883 (Tex. Civ. App. 1972); Cockerham v. Cockerham, 527 S.W.2d 162 (Tex. 1975); In re Marriage of Woolf, No. 07-24-00123-CV (Tex. App.—Amarillo Oct. 7, 2024); Landry v. Landry, No. 24-0910 (Tex. Mar. 20, 2026)

Chapter 12 explains how mine becomes ours.

Your spouse’s medical bills (Article 5)

Spouses owe each other a duty of support, and a spouse who fails to discharge that duty is liable to anyone who provides necessaries to the other spouse; otherwise a spouse is personally liable for the other’s debts only when the other acted as his or her agent. In this community property state, the non-incurring spouse’s separate property and sole-management community property are not reachable for the other spouse’s non-tort debts unless both spouses are liable under another rule, such as the necessaries rule.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 2.501, 3.201, 3.202

Chapter 8 of the book explains the three ways states handle this.

If one of you dies (Article 9)

Texas has no elective share. The surviving spouse keeps his or her own half of the community property, and the decedent can leave only the decedent’s half; without a will, the decedent’s half of the community also passes to the survivor unless the decedent has a child or descendant who is not the survivor’s. Texas has no quasi-community property rule at death.
Tex. Est. Code § 201.003

Chapter 9 covers what a will can and can’t take away from a spouse.

Prenups and postnups (Article 12)

One look, under UPAA (1983), modified; Tex. Fam. Code ch. 4, subch. A. A premarital agreement is unenforceable only if the challenger proves he or she did not sign voluntarily, or that it was unconscionable when signed and before signing the challenger received no fair and reasonable disclosure, did not waive disclosure in writing, and had no adequate knowledge of the other’s finances. Unconscionability is a question of law, and these defenses replace common-law defenses. Partition or exchange agreements made during marriage are enforced under the same standard.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 4.006, 4.102, 4.105

What an agreement needs. A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties and needs no consideration; the statute does not require notarization, witnesses, a waiting period or independent counsel. Parties may modify or eliminate spousal support, and the Texas statute has no public-assistance override; a child’s right to support cannot be affected. Partition or exchange agreements during marriage must also be in writing and signed by both spouses.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 4.002, 4.003, 4.006, 4.104

Chapter 29 explains one look and two, and what makes agreements stick.

Children (Article 8)

Child support: percentage of income. Guideline support is a percentage of the paying parent’s net resources: 20 percent for one child, rising to 40 percent for five. It runs to 18 or high school graduation, whichever is later, or indefinitely for a disabled child. The code sets no duty to pay for college, and parents may agree to it in writing.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 154.001, 154.002, 154.124, 154.125, 154.302

Moving away with a child. Texas has no single relocation statute. A sole custodian chooses the child’s home unless the order limits it; a joint custody order must set a geographic area or allow any location. A parent bound by a limit must ask the judge to change it, decided by the child’s best interest. Parties give 60 days’ notice of a move.
Lenz v. Lenz, 79 S.W.3d 10 (Tex. 2002); Tex. Fam. Code §§ 105.006(b), (e), 153.132, 153.134(b)(1), 156.101

Chapter 17 covers the children.

Getting out (Article 2)

How long you must live here before filing: six months. Either spouse must have lived in Texas for the preceding six months and in the filing county for the preceding 90 days. If one spouse qualifies, a spouse living elsewhere may file in that county. Time away in military or other government service counts. The rule does not depend on where the couple married or the grounds arose.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 6.301-6.304

How long it takes. Either spouse can get a divorce without proving fault if the marriage has become insupportable from discord or conflict of personalities; the code does not require the other’s consent. A judge cannot grant it before the 60th day after filing, unless family violence is shown by a conviction or a protective order. Three years living apart is a separate ground.
Tex. Fam. Code §§ 6.001, 6.006, 6.702

The legal minimum for a spouse who moves here alone and files as soon as allowed, with no minor children and the other spouse objecting, is about 240 days from arrival to a final decree (180 days of residence + 60-day wait). Courts often take longer.

If you moved here from another state

Earnings from elsewhere are divided like community property. A divorce court here divides what a spouse acquired while living elsewhere as if it were community property, and it confirms as separate what would have been separate here. In 1985 an appeals court applied this although only one spouse had moved here, because the other had ties to Texas and took part in the case. In 1998 the Texas Supreme Court held that one spouse can’t create that power over the other just by moving.
Tex. Fam. Code § 7.002; Ismail v. Ismail, 702 S.W.2d 216 (Tex. App. 1985); Dawson-Austin v. Austin, 968 S.W.2d 319 (Tex. 1998)

Chapter 22 covers what changes when you move.

Each entry on this page comes from the statute, rule or case it cites, read in September or November 2026, except where the entry says it has not been checked. A rule can change after that, and a rule on paper can play out differently in a particular courthouse. No lawyer reviews these pages.

If you practice family law in Texas and would like to correct or contribute to this page, write to me.

Meanwhile

• The default contract, with the options states choose among. Read it with a Texas lawyer, or paste it into a chatbot along with “I live in Texas” and treat what comes back as a list of questions, not answers.
• Three contracts you could sign instead.
• A worksheet for reading it together, and every state’s Luck of the Draw score.
• Corrections, including changes in the law since the book went to press.
• About the book.