Can anyone clue me in on separation / divorce in TX?

[dr.girlfriend]

Just trying to figure out some basics here.  My dad has some longstanding mental health issues that he refuses to medicate, and my mom is thinking that it might be time to call it quits on their 40+ years of marriage.  At our encouragement she went for a consultation with a divorce lawyer today (in his angry/manic phases he threatens to leave her penniless), but she is not the most reliable reporter and is very overwhelmed, and I'm not sure that any of us understand fully what might occur.  So, here are my questions:

1.  Does starting a legal separation give any more or lesser protection than starting divorce proceedings?

2.  Is the freezing of assets through a court order part of a standard legal separation, or is it an extra step that might only be enacted if financial shenanigans are likely to occur?

3.  Does anyone have any idea how it works when the majority of assets are in a trust? Could one individual still "drain" the trust prior to enacting separation? 

Thanks!

[wampuscat]

Not in TX, and I only know a little bit about legal separations, but is there a chance your dad would refuse to sign? If so, (from my personal experience), if he just flat out refuses to sign the papers, your mom would be out that money. My stbxh completely ignored the request for a legal separation, so I lost out on the money to my lawyer and ended up having to file for divorce anyway.

[Deleted]

It varies so much by state but I got divorced in NY and you have to start out with a legal separation agreement to even get a divorce. Answer to #2 is no, and #3 I have no idea.

If your mom needs help maybe you can go to the lawyer with her next time?

[mcc]

Answer to 2 is no. There are usually shenanigans involved. I froze XHs assets after written threats to move to CA and leave me broke. I wasn't on any accts and he had um, other issues that showed financial and general risk taking that made a judge more than happy to do it to protect me. It generally isn't the best thing because man it pisses people off!

[starryfish]

I'm in Texas but my divorce was simple. Texas doesn't have legal seperation I think. They just require 60 days from filing before it's official.

Tx is a community property state meaning things acquired during the marriage are split 50/50 except inheritance.

[acr]

There is no legal separation in TX, unfortunately. The best we have is temporary orders. So once divorce is filed, then within x number of days, you will enter into temporary orders, which is sort of like legal separation in that there are agreements (financial and otherwise) that both parties are required to adhere to (like who pays for what in that time, agreements about who has access to certain money, what money can be used to pay).

[onedayatatime]

I am in Texas -- but my divorce proceedings were pretty simple as well. We went straight to divorce, no legal separation (I am not even sure if it is possible).

As starryfish said, TX is a community property state -- and they go by date of title (If a car/house was titled before the marriage it isn't marital property.) I am sure if she had records of money added/transactions during the marriage it would play into the discussion. Documentation will be key.

Good luck -- maybe you can visit/talk to the lawyer with your mom?

[riverpestie]

I honestly don't remember this stuff as my divorce/separation was in 2007/early 2008.

I do remember that we were waist deep in everything and X took out $11K of a joint account that we had and my attorney said that he had every right to do it.