# Texas divorce timeline and what happens at each stage

> How long a Texas divorce takes: the 60 day waiting period, temporary orders, discovery, mediation, and what decides whether you finish in months or years.

Everyone asks how long this takes, and the answer they get back is "it depends," which helps nobody. Texas has one hard number and a set of stages that each have their own realistic range. Put them together and you can see your own case in the calendar.

The hard number is 60 days. Everything after that is about how much the two of you disagree.

## How long does a divorce take in Texas?

A judge cannot sign your decree before the 60th day after the petition was filed. [Family Code section 6.702](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.6.htm) says the court may not grant a divorce before that day, and adds that a decree rendered in violation of the rule is not subject to collateral attack, which is a quiet way of saying the mistake is not worth trying to unwind later.

The 60 days run from filing, not from service and not from the day you separated. Waiting to serve your spouse does not pause it.

Beyond the floor, here is what actual cases look like:

- **Agreed, no children, no real property:** 60 to 90 days
- **Agreed, with children or a house:** 3 to 6 months, mostly spent on drafting the decree and any related orders
- **Contested but settling at mediation:** 6 to 12 months
- **Contested through trial:** 12 to 24 months, longer with a business valuation or a jury demand

## When can you skip the 60 day waiting period in Texas?

Only for family violence. [Section 6.702(c)](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.6.htm) removes the waiting period when the court finds either that the respondent was finally convicted of, or received deferred adjudication for, an offense involving family violence against the petitioner or a member of the petitioner's household, or that the petitioner has an active protective order or magistrate's order for emergency protection against the respondent based on family violence committed during the marriage.

There is no hardship exception, no agreement exception, and no exception for a couple who separated three years ago. If neither of those findings applies, you wait.

## What happens in the first 60 days of a Texas divorce?

More than people expect, which is why the wait is rarely the thing holding up your case.

- **Filing and the standing order.** Most large counties attach a standing order to every new divorce, which freezes unusual spending, stops either parent from moving the children out of the area, and bars cancelling insurance. It binds you the moment you file. The [filing guide](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/filing-guide) covers what your county's order says.
- **Service and the answer.** Your spouse is served and has until 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after 20 days to answer, or signs a waiver instead.
- **Temporary orders.** If you need support, exclusive use of the house, or a possession schedule for the children while the case runs, this hearing is where you get it. In many counties it happens inside the first month.
- **Document gathering.** Nothing is automatic in Texas discovery, so the useful work in month one is pulling your own records and working out what you need from the other side.

## What are the stages of a contested Texas divorce?

1. **Petition and service.** Weeks 1 to 4.
2. **Temporary orders.** Weeks 2 to 8. These often set the tone for the final deal, because a possession schedule that has been working for six months is hard to argue against at trial.
3. **Discovery.** Months 2 to 8. Requests for disclosure under Rule 194a, production, interrogatories, depositions, and any court-ordered sworn inventory. The [discovery chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/financial-disclosure-and-discovery) explains why this stage carries more weight in Texas than in states with automatic disclosure.
4. **Experts and valuation.** Months 4 to 10 if there is a business, a professional practice, a pension, or a serious dispute about what an asset is worth.
5. **Mediation.** Months 6 to 12. Most courts want it done before they will give you a trial date, and a signed agreement there ends the case that day.
6. **Trial.** Months 12 to 24. Bench or jury, depending on what either of you demanded.
7. **Entry of decree and follow-up orders.** Weeks after the ruling, plus however long a qualified domestic relations order takes the plan administrator to approve.

## What makes a Texas divorce take longer?

In rough order of how much time each one adds:

- **A business or self-employment income.** Valuation and income determination are slow, and the numbers drive both the property split and support.
- **A jury demand.** Texas is unusual in allowing juries in divorce, and a jury setting adds months to the calendar before anything else happens.
- **Discovery fights.** Motions to compel, sanctions, and the second and third rounds of requests that follow an incomplete production.
- **Custody evaluations.** An amicus attorney or a court-ordered evaluation runs on its own schedule and rarely a fast one.
- **Hidden or moved money.** Tracing takes as long as it takes, and it is the one delay that usually pays for itself.
- **Court congestion.** In the biggest counties, a contested final trial setting can be months out even when both sides are ready.

## What makes a Texas divorce go faster?

- **Agreeing on the children first.** Once possession is settled, the money conversation gets shorter and calmer.
- **Producing your own records early.** The side that hands over a clean, complete set of statements spends far less time in discovery motions.
- **Using a waiver of service.** It removes the constable, the fee, and a week or two of scheduling.
- **Going to mediation before positions harden.** Early mediation with real financial information beats late mediation with better lawyers.
- **Drafting the decree as you settle.** Many "finished" cases sit for weeks because nobody wrote the final language.

## When is your Texas divorce actually final?

When the judge signs the final decree of divorce, not when you reach agreement and not when you have your last hearing. Until that signature, you are married, and the standing order and any temporary orders still bind you.

A few things usually outlive the decree:

- **Retirement division.** Splitting a 401(k) or pension takes a separate qualified domestic relations order, which the plan administrator has to approve. Start it before the decree is signed, not after.
- **Deed and title transfers.** Real property and vehicles need their own paperwork.
- **Name change.** It goes in the decree if you ask for it, and it is simpler to include than to add later.
- **Support enforcement.** Wage withholding orders go to the employer and take a pay cycle or two to start.

If your case involves a business or years of commingled accounts, expect the back half of the timeline to be dominated by the questions in the [high-asset chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/high-asset-divorce), because characterization arguments are the ones that survive right up to the courthouse steps.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/process-timeline