August 2001 - Law Firm The Law Office of Zoe Meigs, P.C. Attorneys Fort Worth, Texas

1,800 FAMILY LAWYERS CONVERGE ON SAN ANTONIO

I just returned from the 2001 Advanced Family Law Seminar in San Antonio, Texas.

Seminars were held Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on topics ranging from "Getting the Biggest (or Best) Piece of the Community Pie" to "Blue Sky or Book Value? Complex Issues in Business Valuation."

Experienced family lawyers spoke and provided written articles on dozens of topics. It was great to be exposed to the top legal minds in the family law area and to exchange ideas. I came back with three hefty volumes of great material, and a lot of good ideas to improve the service I provide to clients.

New Law:
Many Changes as of September 1, 2001

PROTECTIVE ORDERS

The Texas Legislature expanded the protection of the Protective Order provisions of the Texas Family Code to include dating violence for the first time. Beginning September 1, 2001, persons who are victims of dating violence may seek a protective order under Chapter 71 of the Texas Family Code. Previously, only persons who had been married, lived together or had a child together could come within the Family Code protective order sections.

CHILD'S CHOICE CHANGES

Also new is the change from age 10 to age 12 as the age that a child may express his or her preference as to where to live. The age change to 12 makes sense to me. Ten seemed very young for such an important decision.

COLLABORATIVE LAW RECOGNIZED AND SUPPORTED

The Texas legislature formally recognized the relatively new method of resolving family law cases (particularly divorces) by enacting Section 6.603 of the Family Code, which explains and establishes rules for the collaborative law process.

The Code sections defines collaborative law as follows:

Collaborative law is a procedure by which the parties and their counsel agree in writing to use their best efforts and make a good faith attempt to resolve their dissolution of marriage dispute on an agreed basis without resorting to judicial intervention except to have the court approve the settlement agreement, make the legal pronouncements, and sign the orders required by law to effectuate the agreement of the parties as the court deems appropriate. The parties' counsel may not serve as litigation counsel except to ask the court to approve the settlement agreement.

Please see the related article below about the training I received recently in Collaborative Law.

If you have any questions regarding these or the other many changes to the Family Code and how they may affect you, please contact me by phone at (817) 336-2325, or by email at zoemeigs@msn.com.

Other links that may be helpful in getting the text of the new laws are www.sbotfam.org, which is the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section Website, and the Texas Legislature's homepage at www.capitol.state.tx.us/.

Zoe Meigs Trains in Collaborative Law

I recently attended a day and one-half seminar on Collaborative Law with other Tarrant County attorneys who have formed a group in order to learn more about practicing collaboratively. Our trainer was from Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been practicing collaborative law there for a couple of years.

The group attending was small, so we had the opportunity to try some new skills with each other as we learned how to handle a divorce case as a collaborative law case.

I will provide more information on this topic in my next newsletter. In the meantime, please see the following links for more information: www.aboutcollaborativelaw.com, the new site for the Tarrant County collaborative law group, and www.collaborativelaw.com, which is a national site.

MULTI-STATE ISSUES

I have been getting many calls and emails from people who are in states other than Texas, but who have issues involving Tarrant County, Texas. I welcome these types of cases, as well as cases involving multiple jurisdictions and child custody. I have been working with the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) on several of my cases.

Prior Newsletters