News - Alex Tyra Law Office

Texas Family Law Attorney Says Economic Concerns Are Forcing Some Texas Couples Who Want to Remain Married to Consider Divorce

July 15, 2018/in Texas Divorce Cases/by LS_admin

Most divorces happen because the spouses have decided that they do not want to be married to each other. Unfortunately, some couples in Texas are considering or who have considered divorce even though they want to be married to each other. Economic pressures associated with caring for disabled children have pushed some couples to think about divorce when the topic would never get discussed for any other reason.

For example, one couple reports that the Social Security Administration has informed them that they earn too much income to qualify for assistance from the United States government that would help them pay for the medical care that their daughter needs. Their daughter has Rett Syndrome, a rare, non-inherited genetic disorder, which requires a great deal of specialized care, support and resources for everyday living. The girl cannot speak, nor can she eat solid food. She needs specialized equipment to help her walk. The expenses associated with the care that the girl’s condition requires go well beyond what the family pays out of pocket for their private health care. The government’s reply to their request for financial assistance is that they must get divorced, earn less money, or have another child.

The parents of a three-year-old girl with cerebral palsy face a similar situation. Her parents have had to consider divorce to obtain the long-term care benefits that she will need throughout her lifetime. The benefits that would be available to the girl’s mother as a single parent would be adequate to provide what her daughter needs. The couple wants to remain married, and they have decided against divorce, trusting that they will find some other way to care for their daughter beside doing what, for them, is not an option.

Instead of divorce, some couples are choosing to move out of state to places where the help they need is easier to get. Others are paying for what therapies and treatments they can while knowing that there’s more they could be doing for their disabled children. Many of these families are working to influence lawmakers to change the rules that place couples in the position of feeling like they have to choose between their marriage and the health care needs of their disabled kids.

Aside from forcing couples who want to remain married to think about divorce, there is another equally troubling facet to the idea of considering divorce to obtain health care benefits for an ill or disabled child. Doing so might be fraudulent. Under Texas law, a couple can divorce if they can show that their continued marriage is insupportable due to discord or personality conflicts between the spouses that have destroyed the purpose of the marriage relationship and prevent any reasonable expectation of reconciliation. If a couple wants to be married, and their reason for divorce is to enable one of them to qualify for health care benefits, they are not truthful if they state on their divorce paperwork or in court that they are divorcing because of marital discord. In other words, their divorce filing would be fraudulent.

If you are considering divorce, a Texas family law attorney can help you understand whether your reasons for wanting a divorce fall within the law’s guidelines for when a Texas divorce will be granted. Call (903) 753-7499 today, to set up an initial consultation with Texas Family Law Attorney Alex Tyra. You can also visit our web page anytime to submit an online contact form.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Reminds Drivers That Repeat DWI Offenders Face Harsher Penalties

July 5, 2018/in Criminal Defense/by LS_admin

Three recent incidents serve as reminders that if you have been convicted of driving while intoxicated one or more times, the penalties increase with each subsequent conviction. Some drivers get one DWI charge and leave drinking and driving behind for good, whether they are convicted or not. Other drivers continue to get behind the wheel after they have been drinking, for whatever reason. Some of those drivers get caught and convicted a second time, and others go on to continue drinking, driving, and racking up more DWI arrests and convictions. Those decisions are not without significant personal costs, and, unfortunately, they sometimes affect the lives of other people, too.

An Upshur County grand jury recently indicted a driver on his fifth first-degree Driving While Intoxicated charge. He could get sentenced to life in prison if he gets convicted in connection with his May 5th DUI/Habitual offender charge. DWI convictions add up, regardless of where you get them. This particular defendant had three prior DWIs in Texas and one in Illinois. He has served five years out of a total of twenty years that he got sentenced to for his proper DWIs, and before this most recent arrest, he was on parole that was scheduled to end in 2026. A conviction on this most recent charge is sure to lead to even more time in prison.

An Arkansas driver who has at least five prior DWI convictions recently got indicted two counts of murder in connection with a Texas DWI wreck. Two people died in the crash, and both were passengers in a truck that he was driving. The man swerved off of the road as he was driving, and collided with a tree. He was arrested at the accident scene, and his blood alcohol content was over the legal limit. Since the deaths happened while the driver was committing the offense of felony DWI, he can be charged with murder.

Another Texas driver who has five prior DWI convictions recently got arrested and charged with DWI and evading arrest. His arrest occurred after authorities eventually stopped him, sometime after a critically injured woman who had fallen out of his vehicle was found lying in the road. This man’s most recent DWI charge has been enhanced to a third-degree felony.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Trusted Support for Texas DWI Defendants

Are you charged with DWI or a related crime in Texas? Whether you are accused of having committed your first DWI, a repeat offense DWI, a felony DWI, or something even more severe, you are likely very concerned about the penalties you are facing. A Texas DWI defense attorney is equipped to help you protect the people and things that matter most to you. Your attorney knows your rights and can help you understand them. They can also help you develop a strategy for resolving your Texas criminal law matter. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.

Texas Family Law Attorney Offers Smart Financial Strategies for Divorce

June 22, 2018/in Texas Divorce Cases/by LS_admin

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

June 2, 2018/in Criminal Defense/by LS_admin

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.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Urges Those Who Were Wrongfully Accused To Remain Hopeful

May 31, 2018/in Criminal Defense/by LS_admin

A man who went to prison for nineteen years for a murder that he did not commit continues to work through the process of clearing his name. John Nolley’s most recent step towards victory came earlier this month when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his murder conviction. Nolley has been out of prison since the combined efforts of the Innocence Project, and the Conviction Integrity Unity in the Tarrant County district attorney’s office secured his release two years ago.

One of the bases for John Nolley’s murder conviction was jailhouse informant testimony, a form of evidence that proved to be so problematic that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office, and eventually the entire state of Texas, had to reform the way such testimony is handled. In Nolley’s case, not just one, but two informants gave false testimony which tainted Nolley’s trial so severely that the district attorney’s office agreed that his pleas for relief were valid. The new law will help other defendants avoid wrongful convictions. There is also the possibility of relief for people who are currently in prison who were wrongfully convicted.

Texas’s new law on jailhouse informant testimony was passed last year, with the aim of improving accuracy in the Texas criminal justice system by calling for the more careful handling of testimony given by jailhouse informants. False testimony like the kind that kept John Nolley behind bars for almost twenty years is the most common reason for death row inmates to be exonerated.

One of the dangers of jailhouse informant testimony is that people who are incarcerated have an incentive to lie to potentially obtain a personal benefit. In the interest of catching informants who do try to lie their way to a better deal, the new law requires county and district attorney’s offices to keep records of various types of information about the informants who provide testimony against others. For example, each informant’s criminal history, as well as the details of any benefits informants receive in exchange for their testimony, and records of any previous cases in which they testified must be shared by prosecutors with defense attorneys.

In passing the law requiring transparency and careful handling of jailhouse informant testimony, Texas took a step forward in making its criminal justice system more accurate. Since jailhouse informant testimony is used to secure many convictions across America, it is essential that other states follow Texas’s lead and take a careful account of how that testimony is obtained and used in their own courts so that they can correct problems with their state laws and move in the direction of increased accuracy.

In addition to moving through the process of fully exonerating John Nolley, the district attorney’s office is continuing its investigation into the murder in the hope that the person who did commit the murder will be brought to justice. If John Nolley is exonerated, he will be able to access a state benefits program that compensates the wrongfully accused.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong Advocacy for Texas Defendants

A Texas Criminal Defense Attorney can help you resolve your Texas criminal law matter. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.