What to Know About Divorcing an Abusive Partner

 Posted on March 21, 2022 in Divorce

If you are in an abusive relationship, getting a divorce can be a powerful way to protect yourself and your children. Intimate partner violence tends to escalate over time, so the sooner you leave that type of marriage, the better. When there is violence at home, you may be afraid to take the important step of filing for divorce. You may fear that your spouse will retaliate, or that you will not have a way to support yourself. There are steps an attorney can take to help you stay safe during this process and to help reduce your stress during the time your divorce is in the courts. Make sure you work with a lawyer who has experience with divorces involving abuse. 

4 Things to Be Aware of When You Divorce an Abusive Spouse

When your marriage has become unsafe due to abuse, you might be worried about how the divorce process will go. While you probably cannot expect much cooperation from your spouse, you can get divorced whether they like it or not. Some things you should know about divorce after abuse include: 

• Restraining orders - A Protective Order can help you stay safe during your divorce. These orders can force your spouse to leave the marital residence and not return, so that you can stay safely at home with any children. These orders can also forbid your spouse from contacting, stalking, surveilling, or otherwise bothering you, or from going to your workplace or your children’s school. If you have children, the order can protect them as well. Your spouse can be arrested if they violate the order. 

• Spousal support - Texas courts often consider domestic violence a valid reason to grant alimony. If one of your fears is that you would not be able to financially support yourself and your children were you to leave, knowing this may help. An attorney will be able to help give you a better idea of how getting alimony based on domestic violence would work. 

• Child custody - The court will put your children’s safety and wellbeing first when deciding custody issues. If spending time alone with your spouse would endanger the children, the court is not likely to allow it. Supervised visitation is an option courts often used in cases like these. 

• Timeline - It may take a little longer to finalize a divorce if your spouse abused you. They are unlikely to behave reasonably during attorney-facilitated negotiation, which could draw out the process. 

The bottom line is that there are steps your lawyer and the courts can take to make sure that you are safely able to exit the marriage along with any children. 

Call a North Texas Family Violence Attorney

Pfister Family Law is committed to helping victims of spousal abuse safely end their marriages. Our Collin County family violence lawyers will do everything in our power to make this process safe for you. Call 972-954-6455 when you are ready to start with an initial consultation. 

Source: 

https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1449964/protectiveorderkit-english.pdf