Texas Divorce and Prenuptial Agreement

Appearing on the big and small screen since the mid-1980s, Jon Cryer nowadays stars as Alan Harper on the CBS show “Two and a Half Men.” From 1997 to 2004, Cryer was married to Sarah Trigger, with whom he had a son. He has been fighting with her over child custody and child support for seven years now, and the judge’s latest decision in the case did not turn out well for him. Trigger has received less and less time with the couple’s son after a family law court deemed her an unfit parent. In fact, now, Trigger has custody of her son for only four percent of the time. The remainder of the time, the boy is with Cryer. This disparity in child custody time makes the judge’s decision in the case all the more perplexing to some – the judge ruled that Cryer must continue paying Trigger $8,000 per month in child support. Although we do not know the facts behind the judge’s decision, we suspect it has something to do with the lifestyle that the two led. It may seem unfair for Trigger to continue to receive $8,000 a month in child support while only spending four…
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About two weeks ago, a Houston judge made a decision – one that some consider controversial – that may soon bring national media attention to same-sex issues in Texas. Six states in the country currently permit homosexual couples to marry. The same six, along with a handful of other states, grant divorces to the couples. Texas neither grants marriages nor issues divorces to same-sex couples, so such couples often find themselves uncertain of the law if they marry or divorce elsewhere but then end up living in Texas. This sort of problem led to the case at hand. Jim Evans had been married to a woman for about 12 years. Seven years into the marriage, he told his wife that he was gay, but the two stay married for another five years before divorcing in 2004. Jim and his wife had three children together, and child custody is where the problem of the case lies. This past March, Jim and his partner married in Connecticut, where same-sex marriage is legal. Texas does not recognize the marriage, however, so he had to go to trial to win full custody of his children. A jury decided against him, and then the judge…
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A recent and highly anticipated Tennessee Supreme Court decision will have an important impact on divorce settlements and alimony in that state. The Tennessee case wrestled with the issue of whether alimony was appropriate for a spouse with a substantial income and, if it was, for how long should the alimony last. The case could end up influencing other states as well. When courts rule on new areas of family law, states often look to decisions elsewhere to see how other states have handled the matter. The couple in the case divorced in 2009. The wife makes $72,000 a year working in information technology for the state, and the husband makes over $100,000 as a controller for a large corporation. At the initial trial level, the judge ruled that the woman should not receive any alimony. The woman appealed that decision, and the appeals court found in her favor, ordering her ex-husband to pay her $1,250 a month until she died or remarried. The state’s supreme court had the final say in the matter and came down on the husband’s side. It ruled that lifetime alimony was not appropriate when the spouse has a sufficient salary and received substantial assets…
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For over a decade now, Brad Pitt’s relationships with various actresses have been a hot tabloid topic. Pitt was married to “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston from 2000 to 2005. After remaining silent about the marriage and divorce for a long time, Pitt is opening up in an article appearing in the latest issue of Parade magazine, and some are finding his words about Aniston a bit harsh. Pitt comments about how he was in search of a movie about an interesting life, but that he did not have an interesting life himself. His marriage, he says in the article, probably had something to do with it. He later clarified that he meant that he was responsible for whatever dullness existed in their marriage, and not Aniston. In contrast, Pitt had nothing but glowing comments to say about his current relationship with actress Angelina Jolie, though. He says that having her as the mother of his children was one of the best things he ever did. When asked about plans to marry Jolie, Pitt stuck by his past words that they would do so when same-sex marriage is legal everywhere. “We’ll get married when everyone can,” he says in the article….
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