Texas Family Law Attorney Offers Smart Financial Strategies for Divorce

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Divorce involves a separation of two lives that were joined together, and that includes separating the money and assets that a couple owns. Texas is a community property state. Everything that one or both spouses came to acquire during the marriage is considered part of the community property that gets divided in the divorce. Whether you and your soon to be former spouse settle on the issue of dividing your property or a judge decides that for you, the result will be an equitable division of the property.

As you navigate the financial discussions and decisions of your divorce, the following three financial strategies will help you come through your divorce in the best possible financial position. The first strategy is not a strategy per se. It’s a reminder and an important one at that. When listing assets or discussing money in your divorce, you are legally obligated to be one hundred percent honest. If you attempt to conceal or hide assets in any way, the penalty for being found out can cost you even more than you would gain if you had gotten away with it. This means no hiding money in offshore accounts, no giving expensive items “away” to friends or relatives, no lying about whether the oil or gas lease that you bought is productive, or anything else that is not the truth. Don’t run the risk that you could get penalized with a lopsided divorce decree or criminal charges for concealing assets.

Hiring a divorce attorney is another financially sound strategy for your Texas divorce. This seems counterintuitive because lawyer fees are an expense, but you get what you pay for regarding the expertise and efficiency with which your attorney can help you understand your financial situation in the context of your divorce. Your Texas divorce attorney will also help you understand your options are for creating a divorce settlement that is equitable in light of you and your soon to be former spouse’s priorities. Settling a divorce costs far less than litigating it, and divorcing couples who work with attorneys are well-served by the attorneys’ ability not only to communicate and help them negotiate a settlement but to create an agreement that a judge is likely to approve.

Managing debt is another good financial strategy for divorce. When you know that you are getting a divorce, do not take on new debts. Try to pay off some of your smaller or higher interest debts during the divorce process. It’s true that apportioning responsibility for paying marital debts is part of your property settlement, which must have the overall result of being equitable.  However, the after-effect of what appeared to be an equitable division of debt may not work out as planned. If your soon to be former spouse gets assigned responsibility for a debt as part of the divorce decree and they fail to pay it; the creditor may try to collect payment from you. In contrast, paying off debts before the divorce ensures that they are gone forever.

A Texas Family Law Attorney can guide you in understanding your options for dividing your property and in all matters regarding your divorce. Call (903) 753-7499 today, to set up a consultation with Texas Family Law Attorney Alex Tyra. Alternatively, visit our web page anytime and submit an online contact form.

 

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Talks About Teens, Guns, and The Law

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A student at Texas’s Santa Fe High School recently brought two of his father’s guns to school and used them to kill eight students and two teachers and to wound twelve other people. Since the shooter was seventeen years old at the time he opened fire on his schoolmates and teachers, under Texas law, his father cannot be held accountable for having made the guns accessible to him. The teen’s father legally owns the guns, so no charges related to illegal gun ownership can be brought either.

The legal definition of “child” in Texas state law as a person who is age sixteen or younger controls the outcome of this situation. Had Dimitrios Pagourtzis been sixteen years old or younger at the time he committed the school shooting, his father could have been prosecuted under Texas’s “negligent storage law.” Texas has a law that enables prosecutors to hold gun owners criminally liable for gun crimes committed by their children. As noted above, since Pagourtzis was not a child when he committed the crime, his father cannot be charged.

Thirteen other states have similar laws to the Texas “negligent storage law.” It is estimated that criminal charges against an adult are brought in approximately half of the reported incidents where children under the age of twelve have obtained a gun and used it to kill themselves or someone else. Data on children in other age groups, particularly teenagers, are not as readily available. Based on the Texas situation described above, it is reasonable to assume that the percentage of times that charges get pressed against adults when teens and kids over the age of twelve commit gun crimes vary according to the language of those laws and the ages of the people to whom they apply.

Whether you reside in a state that has a “negligent storage law” or not, the more significant issue is that gun owners should be locking their guns away safely so that nobody – not children, and not anyone else – can get their hands on them. It is reported that approximately one-third of all households in America contain at least one gun. Safe storage of firearms is a much bigger problem in our nation than many of us may be aware of, as a study recently published in the Journal of Urban Health recently revealed that a little over our and a half million American children live in homes where one or more guns are stored unlocked and loaded.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Uncompromising Support for Texas Defendants

Have you been charged with a gun-related crime, or with any other type of crime in Texas? Whether you are accused of having committed a felony or something less severe, there is a lot at stake, including your freedom. Protect the things that you value most by seeking the aid of a Texas Criminal Defense Attorney. Your attorney will help you understand the rights that you have, and they can help you resolve your Texas criminal law matter in the best possible way. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.