Fair market value vs. Intrinsic value: Which one to use?
I received a question from a client today asking how the court would determine the value of the piece of property in the community estate.  Often times, the parties will litigate over the value of a piece of property, so it is important to know how, in the absence of an agreement, the court will determine a property's value. As a general rule, property is valued according to its fair market value as of the date the marriage is dissolved.  Texas courts have routinely defined fair market value as the price the property will bring when it is offered for sale for one who desires, but does not need to, sell, and is bought by a person who desires, but is not required to, buy.

More Fathers Are Getting Custody In Divorce
The New York Times reports today:  More Fathers Are Getting Custody In Divorce by Lisa Belkin. Working Mother Magazine published a package of articles on Tuesday called “Lost Custody,”

Will it be held against me if I get another woman pregnant before my divorce is final?
I frequently get questions from potential clients about what are the effects of adultery in the outcome of a divorce.  Recently I was asked: "Will it be held against me if I get another woman pregnant before my divorce is final?"  This post will be one of several where I'll answer questions I receive from the trenches. Texas is a no fault divorce state which essentially means that neither party necessarily has to prove the other did something "wrong" causing the divorce.  However, fault grounds often arise in divorce proceedings and the court will consider them in dividing the community property. The division of property under the Texas Fami

Co-parenting Goes Online
Parents can now coordinate parenting time schedules, health records, immunization histories, expense sharing, school information, virtual document storage and much more on a website specifically designed to deal with the issues that arise in co-parenting situation.  OurFamilyWizard.com is intended to remove conflict and improve the lives of children. In fact, judges in at least 35 states order families to utilize the site in contested cases to reduce conflict. The OurFamilyWizard website has quickly become the leading way parents coordinate all of their vital information, divorced or not.

Dallas Court of Appeals grants mandamus: trial court imposed greater burden for relocation than law
Last Friday, November 12, 2009, its opinion styled In re Cooper, No. 05-09-00995-CV, the Dallas Court of Appeals conditionally granted wife's petition for mandamus relief, holding the trial judge abused her discretion by imposing a residency residency restriction pending final trial in a divorce case that  required wife, temporary primary conservator of the parties two children, to relocate from North Carolina, where she had secured employment and owned a house, to Dallas and contiguous counties, where she had neither. In Cooper, wife testified at the hearing on her motion to modify agreed temporary orders, that she had applie