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Nov 29
1999
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Ask a Lawyer: Can affairs affect financial settlement punitively?Posted by: Dads Divorce on Nov 29, 1999 Tagged in: TX , Property , misconduct , Infidelity , Infidelity , fees , division , assets , Ask A Lawyer , affair
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Question:
My brother is going through a divorce. His wife is bound and determined to take him to court and put on a show with a parade of "witnesses" to publicly humiliate him with claims of an affair. She is actually exacting a type of extortion on my parents and my brother to get him to agree to take all the bills and sell his horses and personal property to give her more money OR ELSE she will take him to court where he will surely lose and be punished by having to pay everything! It's hard to stand up to something when you don't really know how things work in our court system. I understand that affairs or claims of affairs can not adversely affect custody unless it can be shown that it interferes with the ability to parent. But, his soon-to-be-ex-wife wants to saddle him with all the debts and lawyers' fees as a just punishment. And believe me, she could put on quite a show... I think she is a professional victim! She makes more money than he does, and neither one of them makes more than 45,000. Do you have any words of wisdom?
Answer:
I cannot answer your question specifically to the laws of Texas as I am not licensed in that State. In some jurisdictions, misconduct does not affect any aspect of the divorce. In my jurisdiction, the Court can consider the misconduct of a party when dividing the property and debt. Not all affairs are misconduct. The affair (or other misdeed such as excessive drug use, alcoholism, abuse, etc.) must be shown to have contributed directly to the breakdown of the marriage. Therefore, if a relationship begins after the parties have filed for divorce, it is an affair (as they are still married) but not misconduct. If misconduct is shown, the successful party will get a higher percentage of the net assets. For example, instead of a fifty-fifty split it will be sixty-forty or seventy-thirty.
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