Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

On a Texas divorce petition, if you are using a current Texas form, now only basic information is included because the Texas legislature recognized several years ago that identity theft was a problem.

However, if your purchased a form from an on-line kit or are using an out-of-date form that is asking for your Social Security number, home address, date of birth, etc. then I would be worried -- your form is not current!

So your question alarms me -- if the petition you are using is asking for a lot of "personal information" the red flags are going off in my head -- WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - it sounds like you have a bad form in your possession!

If you purchased an office supply kit, a kit off the television, off the internet or from a "friend" or a paralegal, you probably got "ripped off".

Once again, I encourage people to hire a competent family law attorney to do their divorces. People think that they can save money by not hiring an attorney but often they spend MORE money by trying to save money.

Please don't call me -- I used to offer Do It Yourself Kits but I quit because they were not worth the hassel & I don't "fix" bad kits -- garbage in equals garbage out!

If you made a typo on your petition, don't worry about it, unless it is your mailing address -- then the court will mail your future mailings to the wrong address and you won't receive notice of future court dates which could be a major problem for you and your case could be dismissed without you knowing. So if there is a typo in your mailing address, you need to file a First Amended Petition for Divorce with the court, which is FREE. And send a copy of the changed petition to the other party.

Good luck...hire an attorney & do it right!