Pinehurst, TX Divorce Law Firms & Lawyers

In hindsight, it was obviously a mistake to give him 3 years and you should have insisted that he refinance immediately or have the property sold. If the court order provides for 3 years, you're pretty much stuck.

The short answer is yes. If kids are involved, then I highly recommend you have an attorney draft your final divorce decree. If you do not, then you are likely to have costly issues come up in your future. Often, those costs can exceed the price of hiring an attorney to draft paperwork correctly in the first place.  For instance: Your final decree may be rejected by the judge and you will be forced to try to figure out why plus miss additional days of work to come back for another prove-up.  An experienced family law attorney can help draft language that you might not think of on your own or find in any standardized forms. Most standardized forms do not contain everything you should have in a final decree.  If your agreement has ambiguities, then future disagreements can lead to costly modifications.  Finally, there is no such thing as legalized separation in Texas. During all the time you have been living separately, you are still accumulating community property assets/debts.  If these assets/debts are not divided in the divorce decree, then they are subject to future just and right division.   While it is possible you could do this correctly on your own, it is extremely unlikely.  I would expect to spend some quality time researching Texas Family Code and in your local law library if you decide to do it on your own. If you and your spouse are truly in agreement, then an attorney should be able to discuss your case in a consultation and give you a price to draft agreed paperwork. 

Yes, you can file an emergency motion for continuance at any time, including three days before your trial begins.  You will need to describe in detail the emergency and support the factual allegations with an affidavit or declaration.The fault issues and domestic violence issues should be raised in your pleadings and do not need to be raised in the motion unless they are germane to the emergency requiring a continuance.  To be clear, only learning recently that you have grounds for a fault-based divorce based on past conduct you witnessed or experienced does not constitute an emergency.  Past domestic violence that you experienced or witnessed, similarly, does not constitute an emergency.An example of a good ground to support an emergency motion for continuance might be that you have recently been hospitalized and do not expect to be released from the hospital before your trial is scheduled to begin.  If you have been hospitalized because of a recent domestic violence incident, then that incident would be germane to the emergency.