Texas Supreme Court Drastically Changed Rules of Procedure in Family Law Cases
“NOTICE: The Texas Supreme Court has drastically changed some of the Rules of Procedure in Family Law cases for all cases filed after January 1, 2021!
This will lead to higher Retainers required by attorneys due to increased work in the first 60 days of a case.
These new rule changes are posted below if you want to read them, but the main impact is that DISCOVERY and PRODUCTION of MANY DOCUMENTS automatically have to be exchanged by the parties shortly after a case is filed and the other party responds. While this is designed to move cases along more quickly and save expenses over the long term, it dramatically increases the work for the client and the attorney during the first sixty days of the case and this will unfortunately lead to higher Retainers than previously. Contact us for details.
Excerpts from Revisions to TX Rules Effective January 2021 – FAMILY LAW CASES DISCLOSURES
(c) Content in Certain Suits Under the Family Code.
(1) In a suit for divorce or annulment, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other party a copy of:
(A) all documents pertaining to real estate;
(B) all documents pertaining to any pension, retirement, profit-sharing, or other employee benefit plan, including the most recent account statement for any plan;
(C) all documents pertaining to any life, casualty, liability, and health insurance; and
(D) the most recent statement pertaining to any account at a financial institution, including banks, savings and loans institutions, credit unions, and brokerage firms.
(2) In a suit in which child or spousal support is at issue, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other party a copy of:
(A) all policies, statements, and the summary description of benefits for any medical and health insurance coverage that is or would be available for the child or the spouse;
(B) the party’s income tax returns for the previous two years or, if no return has been filed, the party’s Form W-2, Form 1099, and Schedule K-1 for
such years; and
(C) the party’s two most recent payroll check stubs.
194.3 Response.
The responding party must serve a written response on the requesting party within 30 days after service of the request, except that:
Misc. Docket 20-9101 Page 13