Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I paid a paralegal to file my divorce at the end of February. The divorce is non-contested and my soon to be ex wife signed the waiver. It took a long time for her to sign and a trial date was set for July 2. The paralegal never gave me the Final Decree. She stated she never received the waiver and now I will have to pay an additional $200 for her to issue it even with the waiver signed because a court date has been issued. My question is whether the court date being issued affects the divorce process of a noncontested divorce? Should I have to pay additional money for the Final Decree to be issued to me, and is there additional paperwork needed because a court date was issued?


Asked on 6/10/12, 10:06 pm

2 Answer from Attorneys

M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

I have bad news for you. I don't know what happened with all that, but a paralegal cannot legally take a divorce case directly from a client and file anything at all with a court--whatever they did, they'd have to do under the direction of an attorney, and the attorney would be the one you'd be in contact with and the one whose name any documents would be filed under. There's a reasonably good chance that nothing has been filed at all. I'd suggest that you check directly with the court clerk in whatever county your case is supposed to have been filed in to find out if there's anything on file at all. In many counties, you can even check that yourself online by doing a search for your own name or the name of your spouse. I imagine that your next call will end up being to the State Bar of Texas, unfortunately. Someone who actually is a Texas paralegal has to maintain certification through the State Bar, but this person may just be claiming to be a paralegal. In any case, the State Bar should know about this, because something definitely does not sound right.

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Answered on 6/11/12, 4:03 am


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