Few things are more private than your marriage and subsequent divorce. If you do divorce, it is important to know that court records are a matter of public information, which makes putting some work into keeping your private information private worth the effort.
Fortunately, there are important steps you can take to help accomplish this, and one of the most beneficial is working closely with an experienced Round Rock divorce attorney from the start.
Your Divorce Certificate
There are different levels of privacy and different needs when it comes to information about your divorce, and at the most basic level is your divorce certificate, which contains very little personal information other than the following:
The names of both spouses involved
Where the divorce took place
The date the divorce was finalized
You will need this certificate if you choose to remarry or to change your name after divorcing, and you may need it for tax purposes. Your divorce certificate will remain easily accessible for you and your ex, and you will likely be the only parties who can access it.
Your Divorce Decree
Your divorce decree contains far more information and is an entirely different matter. This document includes all the terms that you and your divorcing spouse negotiated between yourselves or that the court handed down on your behalf, and it includes precise information that defines each term.
Your Child Custody Arrangements
Child custody in Texas is separated into both legal and physical custody. Both are determined in accordance with the children’s best interests, which generally means that both are shared by the parents.
Legal Custody
Legal custody sets the stage for making big-picture parenting decisions related to your children’s upbringing. This includes matters related to their schooling, health care, extracurriculars, and religious education.
Physical Custody
Physical custody establishes the parenting time schedule. Prevailing wisdom holds that it is in every child’s best interest to have both parents in their lives – as long as there is not an adverse reason for ruling otherwise – which means that both parents can expect a significant amount of time with the kids.
Parenting time can be divided evenly or nearly evenly, but another option is one parent taking on the primary custodial role while the other has a visitation schedule. The primary custodial parent receives more time with the children and has the authority to determine where they make their primary home – within the geographic limits set by the court.
Child Support
When parents divorce, they’re both required to continue supporting their children financially, and this generally translates to one parent making child support payments to the other.
Texas has a standard calculation process in place, and while Texas courts have the discretion to deviate from this standard when warranted, the parent who earns more generally has the child support obligation – even when parenting time is shared evenly.
The Division of Marital Property
The State of Texas categorizes all assets that are acquired over the course of a marriage as community property – regardless of the specifics. The only exceptions to this rule are gifts and inheritances that either spouse received in their name only and compensation for pain and suffering that either spouse received in a personal injury claim settlement during the marriage.
Marital property must be divided fairly between the spouses upon divorce—in the context of the relevant circumstances. While this can mean an equal split, it does not always.
Separate property must also be factored in. Separate assets refer to property that either spouse owned when they married and that they kept strictly separate from marital assets throughout the marriage. While separate assets remain the property of the original owner, any commingling of separate and marital property can make distinguishing between the two more difficult.
Alimony
Alimony – or spousal maintenance – has limited application in the State of Texas. Only when the divorce leaves one spouse without the means to cover their own reasonable needs and leaves the other with the financial ability to help will alimony be awarded.
In Texas, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years before alimony is considered in most cases, and there is also a cap set for alimony payments.
In other words, the details of your divorce terms are all front and center in your divorce decree, and most divorcing couples would prefer to keep this information private. Generally, only the involved spouses and their respective divorce lawyers have access to this highly specific information.
Your Divorce Record
Your divorce record includes everything that was filed with the court in relation to your case.
This means that it contains the bulk of the information related to your divorce, including sensitive information related to the motions both sides filed, detailed information about marital assets, and even details about your shared minor children. If privacy is a concern in your case, which it is in most, you will want to focus on your divorce record.
All the information in your divorce record is public information, which means it can be accessed by those interested in learning more. To see your divorce record, however, those searching for it must determine which county processed your case and must pay a fee to the district clerk’s office in that county before access will be allowed.
Taking Proactive Steps to Keep Your Case Private
There are key steps that you can take to help keep your confidential information private in your divorce, and exploring your best options with your dedicated divorce lawyer is advised.
Restricting Documents
A good initial approach when it comes to protecting your privacy in divorce is simply restricting specific documents, which easily adds a basic layer of protection. This process involves your focused Round Rock divorce attorney designating specific pleadings in your case as containing sensitive information and requesting that it be restricted by the court.
The kind of information that can be restricted is the private data that helps identify each of us, including:
Birth dates
Social security numbers
Addresses
Driver’s license numbers
Bank account numbers
This is the kind of information we routinely keep private – in protection of our finances and identities.
Restricting this highly sensitive data does not stop the documents they are attached to from becoming public information, but the restricted data itself will not be included on the court’s website. Instead, the last several numbers of each identifier, which are needed to distinguish one party from the other, are generally retained on the restricted documents.
Sealing Documents
Divorce records are public information not to violate participants’ privacy but to help ensure that the courts are transparent about how they operate. When courts are not held accountable, they can wield considerably more power than they’re entitled to, which can negatively impact society.
A Compelling Reason
As such, a compelling reason for sealing official records is generally required. This typically involves a skilled divorce attorney demonstrating that there is a genuine and specific need for sealing a specific document and that this reason offsets the public’s interest in maintaining open court documents.
Once a document is sealed, it usually can’t be unsealed without going through a series of legal steps. These include filing a motion with the court, holding a hearing on the matter, and allowing the court to determine whether unsealing the record in question will be allowed.
Family Law Documents
The process is somewhat different when the document under consideration is related to family law, which doesn’t necessarily require the same sealing standards.
Family law judges have more discretion when it comes to determining the importance of protecting the privacy of a family, which means that the requirements for sealing your divorce record won’t be as legally rigorous as they would be for other kinds of court records.
This said, however, there are no guarantees, and you should carefully address your desire to keep your divorce record sealed with your practiced Round Rock divorce lawyer.
Agreement Incident to Divorce
There is another means of keeping marital assets private during divorce, which tends to be a primary concern. This is an Agreement Incident to Divorce (AID). In most divorces, every asset the couple shares is listed in their divorce decree, which becomes part of the public record.
The Judge Must Sign Off on Your Agreement
If an AID is implemented in your case, you and your ex will list your assets on this separate form, which won’t be filed with the court. You and your divorcing spouse must come to mutually acceptable terms regarding property division and other financial matters that apply to your case based on this list, and the presiding judge will need to review the Agreement and sign off on it.
From here, each of you will receive a copy of the Agreement Incident to Divorce, and the vast majority of the financial information relevant to your divorce will be kept from public view.
An Equitable Division of Assets
In Texas, marital assets must be divided equitably – or fairly, given the circumstances that apply. Texas courts look to factors like the following when they make property-division determinations:
How long your marriage lasted
Each of your contributions to the marriage, including in the form of caring for the children and home
Any fraud on the community estate by either of you, which refers to underhanded attempts to keep more of the assets for oneself
The size of each spouse’s separate estate
Whether wrongdoing played a primary role in the breakdown of the marriage, which can also affect the terms in a no-fault divorce
Any additional factors that the court deems relevant to your case
If the court finds any discrepancies regarding the agreement you and your spouse have hammered out, your AID can be denied. Having a focused Round Rock divorce attorney backing you up is always the best path forward.
FAQ
The answers to the questions that Texas divorce attorneys field most often in relation to keeping divorce data private could help you resolve the issues that you’re struggling with.
What’s the most important step I can take to keep my private information private?
The most important step that anyone facing a divorce can take – in relation to protecting their privacy as well as their parental and financial rights – is consulting with a reliable divorce attorney early. You are looking for a lawyer who has a considerable amount of experience successfully protecting their clients’ privacy, which is a concern you should express upfront.
Will my children’s names become public information?
No, the names of your minor children can be identified as restricted information. To make this happen, however, you’ll need to take the necessary steps, which your seasoned Round Rock divorce attorney is well prepared to do.
Can my divorce record be sealed?
Yes, your divorce record can potentially be sealed. Court records are generally treated as public information as a means of protecting society’s greater interests in relation to legal transparency.
Texas courts, however, take a slightly different view when it comes to family law matters like divorce. While the bar is lower for sealing a divorce record, you still need the court’s go-ahead, which can be a legal challenge in and of itself.
Make the Call to an Experienced Round Rock Divorce Lawyer Today
Brett Pritchard at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard is an esteemed Round Rock divorce attorney who dedicates his impressive practice to protecting the privacy of clients like you and to fiercely advocating for divorce terms that support their parental and financial rights.
Our capable legal team is on your side and here to help, so please don’t put off contacting or calling us at 254-781-4222 to schedule your free consultation and learn more about what we can do for you today.