Uncontested and Agreed Divorce in Austin

The gentlest legal path through divorce

An uncontested divorce means you and your spouse have already agreed on every term: property, debts, children, support. Nobody is asking a judge to decide anything. Our job is to turn that agreement into documents a Texas court will sign.

In Texas this is more often called an agreed divorce, and it is the same thing. We file them in Travis and Williamson counties. The work is drafting and procedure rather than argument, which is what makes it the calmest way out of a marriage.

And if you agree on everything except one item, the house, one account, the summer schedule, that does not send you to a courtroom. A half day of mediation is the kind of session built to close a gap like that.

Uncontested, agreed and default are not the same thing

These three get used interchangeably, and the difference matters. They describe different situations, and which one you are in changes the whole path.

Agreed. Both of you want the divorce and have settled every term. You sign a decree together and nobody argues anything.

Waiver. Your spouse will not fight, but does not want a constable at the door either. They sign a waiver of service after the case is filed. That last word carries weight. The waiver has to acknowledge a petition that has already been filed, not a draft sent over beforehand. Texas is strict about the rest of it too: sworn before a notary who is not a lawyer in your case, or signed as an unsworn declaration under section 132.001 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code; never with a digitized signature; and it has to carry the mailing address of the spouse who signs it. The notary requirement does not apply if the person signing is in custody.

Default. Your spouse has gone silent, or cannot be found. This is the one people most often mistake for uncontested. Texas treats a divorce differently from an ordinary lawsuit here. The petition may not be taken as confessed just because nobody answered, so you still have to prove your case.

Tell us which of the three you are actually in at the first conversation. It is the single fact that sets your timeline.

Uncontested vs litigation

How long it takes, and when the clock starts

A Texas court cannot grant a divorce before the 60th day after the petition is filed. There are only two exceptions and both involve family violence. Agreement between you is not one of them.

One thing to plan around after that: neither of you can marry someone else until the 31st day after the judge signs, unless the judge waives that for good cause. You can remarry each other at any time.

The part nobody explains is when that clock starts. It runs from the day the petition is filed with the district clerk. Not from the day you separated, not from the day you agreed, and not from the day anything was signed.

So a case that is fully agreed on the day it is filed still takes two months. What fills the space between day 60 and the day you finish is court scheduling, and getting the second signature.

Agreeing before you file is what shortens the whole thing. Every term settled in advance is a week you do not spend later.

What you need to have agreed before we start

Property. Who keeps the house, and how the other person is bought out or released. The same question for vehicles, accounts, and anything either of you owned before the marriage.

Debts. Who pays what, and by when. A decree that assigns a debt does not tell your lender anything, which matters more than most people expect.

Children. Conservatorship, the possession schedule, child support, and the child’s medical and dental support. Texas requires orders for those last two, so they are not items you can leave out.

Support between you. Whether either of you pays the other, how much, and for how long.

Retirement. Whether any account is being divided, and if so which. An employer plan, a 401(k) or a pension, takes an order of its own, separate from the decree. An IRA does not: it moves on the decree plus a transfer request to the custodian.

Can one lawyer represent both of us?

No. In Texas a lawyer may not represent opposing parties to the same litigation, and divorcing spouses are opposing parties. It does not matter how friendly the divorce is.

It is also not a rule the two of you can waive. The usual consent exception does not reach this prohibition, and it applies to everyone in the firm rather than one lawyer.

What actually happens is simpler than it sounds. One of you is our client. The other is unrepresented, and we say so in writing rather than leave it unclear.

The unrepresented spouse is free to have their own lawyer read the decree before signing, and we think that is a good idea. If you are the one being asked to sign a waiver and a decree drafted by somebody else’s lawyer, have it read.

What it costs, and what changes it

We quote the fee at the first conversation, once we know which case you have. What is more useful here is what moves that number, because it is the part that is easiest to overlook.

Inside the work. Drafting the petition and the decree, filing with the district clerk, and the waiver of service.

Outside it. The clerk’s filing fee is a court cost rather than a legal fee. If your spouse has to be served instead of signing a waiver, that carries its own cost.

What adds work. Dividing an employer retirement plan, a 401(k) or a pension, takes a separate order; an IRA does not. Transferring real property usually involves a deed alongside the decree. A business, or a spouse living in another state, adds steps.

What ends a fixed quote. If the case stops being agreed, it stops being an agreed divorce. We tell you the moment we think that is happening, rather than afterwards.

What the decree does not do

This is the part people find out later, and it is worth knowing before you sign.

It does not divide an employer retirement plan on its own. A 401(k) or a pension takes a separate order, and the court keeps jurisdiction to make one and to fix one a plan administrator rejects. An IRA is different: it moves on the decree plus a transfer request to the custodian.

The house. A decree that carries a full legal description and awards the property to one of you does pass title, and it can be recorded in the county real property records. We still normally prepare a special warranty deed as well, because title companies and lenders expect to see one and it keeps the chain of title clean.

It does not take your name off the mortgage. Only the lender can do that, usually through a refinance. A decree saying your spouse pays the note does not change who the bank can chase.

It does change your name back, if you ask for it. The court is directed to grant that, and the clerk can issue you a change of name certificate.

When an agreed divorce is the wrong instrument

Almost everything written about uncontested divorce is written to make it sound frictionless. Usually it is. Sometimes it should not be.

If you do not know what your spouse owns, an agreed decree locks in a division built on incomplete information. Where one of you has always handled the money, that is the situation to slow down in.

If you are agreeing because it is easier than the argument, that is not agreement. A decree is very hard to undo, and exhaustion is not consent.

Where there is family violence or financial control, an agreed decree is not the right first step. We will say so rather than take the file.

The judge is not a rubber stamp either. A Texas court can decline property terms it does not find just and right. It can also reject a parenting plan it does not find to be in the child’s best interest.

If you disagree on one thing

One open item does not turn an agreed divorce into litigation. It usually turns it into a half day.

Mediation is where the last item closes, and our rates for it are published on this site rather than quoted on a call. A mediated settlement agreement that meets the statute binds both of you once it is signed. On terms about the children there is a narrow exception, where family violence or an abuse history is involved and the judge also finds the agreement is not in the child’s best interest.

That is the route back onto the agreed path, and a single disagreement is the kind of thing it is designed to resolve. Every case turns on its own facts, so no outcome can be promised.