How Can We Help?
Schedule a Guaranteed Initial Consultation with expert Austin Divorce Lawyer, Cristi Trusler. Get help deciding what your next step should be.
Get an overview of the topics you will face in divorce as well as an explanation of the divorce process in Texas.
Learn how child support amounts are determined and get an estimate for your own situation.
Find out about the most common custody and visitation arrangements for couples with children.
Learn what is community property, what is separate property and who gets what in a divorce.
Spousal maintenance in Texas is often misunderstood. Learn what is fact and what is fiction.
The law in the area of LGBT relationships is changing rapidly. Find out what your options are.
This alternative to litigation focuses on reaching an agreement without going to court.
Our one-of-a-kind process for handling agreed divorces using our No Nonsense® Divorce Workbook.
Get a free copy of The Smart Texan's Guide to a No Nonsense Divorce
Get Help With Family Law Matters
Like it or not, there are times in the life of your family where you may find that you need the help of a lawyer. You may find yourself needing to make decisions that can impact the future of your family. At times like these, you need to have an Austin Divorce Attorney that you have confidence in and that you can trust.
Cristi Trusler and the team at Trusler Legal PLLC specialize in helping families find civilized solutions to their family law issues.
A lot of legal matters can be hard to deal with and painful. It can be difficult even under “good” circumstances. You need guidance that can be customized to the needs of your family – not a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Inflexible approaches often make complicated situations worse.
You won’t find that at this family law firm.
We know that we have to be creative and flexible to meet the wide-ranging needs of our family law clients. We have to have more than one approach to get results.
How Varied Are the Needs of Our Clients?
Every day, we help people just like you that are facing a wide range of difficult situations...
Divorce, including when one party is living abroad
Property division for simple and complex estates, including Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO)
Child custody and visitation
International child custody issues
Child support, child support enforcement, and modification of child support orders
Spousal support (alimony)
Establishment of legal paternity
Guardianship cases and custody cases for grandparents or other relatives
Prenuptial and Postnuptial agreements
Same sex couple separation agreements
Adoption
Estate Planning and Probate
Some of Our Divorce Lawyer Reviews from Real Clients
Cristi has helped me deal with an impossible situation. You're not just a case file with her. You're a real person dealing with a real situation. Whether it's assets or children, you're in the best hands possible.
Brian B
Google.com
I can definitely recommend Trusler Legal. My husband and I were no longer compatible after 2 kids and being married for 14 years. The divorce process is complicated, but the staff was very understanding, compassionate and patient with me. Cristi fully understood my concerns for my children and made sure I completely understood the consequences of my decisions. She never pressured me or tried to talk me into a decision that I wasn’t ready to make.
Audrey
Avvo.com
I work in the family law field, and have for more than a decade. So when I was faced with needing to hire an attorney to represent my family, I knew exactly who I wanted for the job. Cristi Trusler and her staff are courteous, responsive, and always kept me and my husband informed about what our options were. When you are fighting for something as important as your children, it is imperative that you feel heard, and that you know you are getting the best possible advice from someone with real trial experience. My husband and I could not be more pleased with the work of Trusler Legal, and would recommend Ms. Trusler to anyone needing sound legal advice and representation.
Rebekah D
Google.com
We Understand What You’re Going Through
We understand that this may be a difficult and uncertain time in your life.
You want to know you have made the best decision you could make. The family law attorney you choose to work with can make all the difference in how you feel about the outcome of your case.
Choose your divorce attorney wisely.
There is a ton of family law information on our site. While it’s a good way to educate yourself about your options, the only way to get real answers about how the law applies to you is to talk with an attorney.
After you’ve been through the information on our site, you should Request a Guaranteed Initial Consultation with one of our attorneys. If you prefer, you can call us at (512) 481-0330 to make an appointment over the phone.
Our offices are located in Austin, Texas, and we have clients in all of Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell and Comal counties. We also represent a number of clients that are located in other states and overseas when they have legal matters in the Central Texas area.
What happens to my health insurance after the divorce? Well, that depends. If your health insurance is provided through your employer or is a private policy, then probably nothing will happen to your health insurance unless you decide to change it. If you are on your spouse's health insurance, then you will not be allowed to continue on your spouse's health insurance once the divorce is final.
Can get a divorce if I'm pregnant? A Texas court will not finalize a divorce while one of the parties is pregnant. Judges want to make sure that child support obligations are established and that can’t be done until the baby is born. If you or your spouse is pregnant and you want to get a divorce, you can start the divorce proceedings during the pregnancy and then be ready to finalize it as soon as the pregnancy ends.
What counties do you practice in? We serve clients in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell and Comal counties. If you live outside one of these areas, we recommend that you use
FindLaw to search for an attorney online or call the State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral Service at 800-252-9690 or 877-9TEXBAR. If you live in a metropolitan area, your county may also have a local Lawyer Referral Service.
Can we hire just one lawyer? The Texas State Bar says that it’s unethical for an attorney represent both spouses. There’s a good reason for this. It’s a conflict of interest to give advice to both parties in a case. With that said, we’re often the only attorney in a case. We represent one of the spouses and the other spouse represents himself or herself. Just to be clear, in this situation, we’re not going to try and take advantage of the spouse that is representing himself or herself by trying to get a one-sided deal. Many families choose to use one lawyer in an effort to save money. It’s a good option if you can find the right lawyer. We’ve created options specifically designed for couples that want to save money. Take a look at some of our
No Nonsense™ Divorce options.
What is a retainer? When a client meets with an attorney for the first time to discuss a divorce, that attorney will estimate how much money they believe the retainer will be. The retainer works like a checking account in that the money is deposited into a trust account and the funds are drawn on as they are earned by the attorney for work that is done. Any interest earned while the money sits in trust is collected by the Texas State Bar and used to help fund legal services for the underprivileged.
How can a military or civil service person stationed overseas get a divorce? If the person serving overseas is served with divorce papers, they have the right to invoke The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 ("SSCRA") in order to postpone the process. This is a federal statute that was enacted to "protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation."
If the person overseas wishes to file for a divorce, they may do so in whatever county of Texas in which they reside.
Are we required to go to mediation? Mediation isn't necessarily required, but it's highly recommended because most cases that go to mediation will end in a settlement. If one party requests that mediation be ordered, the court will most likely order it. So, if one of you wants to mediate, it will probably end up being court ordered. In some counties, such as Travis County, the local court mandates a mediation if the hearing will last more than 3 hours. Other counties, like Williamson, Hays and the surrounding counties don’t have the same requirements, however they all encourage mediation.
Can I make my spouse pay my legal fees? Judges typically require each party to be responsible for their own legal fees. There are some situations, however, where the court may allow you to use community property to cover legal expenses during the divorce.
When can I get remarried after my divorce? According to the Texas Family Code, you must wait at least 30 days after your divorce is completed before you can get married again. In some cases, you can ask the Judge to waive this waiting period and allow you to remarry sooner.
Can I get my marriage annulled after a divorce? In Texas, there are two ways to end a marriage. One is annulment and the other is divorce. You can do one or the other of these two, but not both. You can either get a divorce or you can get an annulment. You can’t annul a marriage that’s been divorced and vice versa.
When can I start dating? Very few people actually bother to ask their lawyer this question before they do it. Probably because they won’t like the answer. When you start dating is entirely up to you. However, there’s a good chance it will have an impact on your divorce. Casual dating probably won’t affect how a court will decide child custody or award child support. But what the court thinks may not be your biggest concern. How do you think it will make your soon to be ex-spouse feel? Do you think it will make them more, or less cooperative? This is particularly important if your spouse doesn’t really want the divorce. If you’re trying to come to an agreement over the issues in your divorce, how do you think your spouse will react if they find out you’re dating? I’ve never seen this help the situation. Feelings are generally raw in a divorce and openly dating before everything has settled can often aggravate the situation. With all that said, it's not unusual for one or both parties to a divorce to start dating before their divorce is final. We can deal with it, but you just need to be aware of the potential impact it can have.
How can I stop my divorce? If your spouse wants a divorce, there isn’t much you can do to stop it - from a legal standpoint. In Texas, marriage is a contract that can be terminated by either party. The most obvious thing for you to do might be to try and convince your spouse to go to marriage counseling. There’s no way for you to force them to do this if they don’t want to, but it doesn’t hurt to try. However, if you have started your divorce proceedings and you and your spouse have both decided that you want to halt the proceedings, then you’ll need to “nonsuit” your divorce. The person that filed the Original Petition for Divorce will need to file a Motion to Nonsuit in the county in which you filed.
Can I do my own divorce? Yes, you can. However, if you have children or property, you can cause yourself a lot of trouble by doing it yourself. When we draft a divorce decree for you, it will cover custody, visitation, child support, property division, and more. A complete and comprehensive divorce decree can be up to 45 or more pages long because there are a lot of complicated issues involved when you're dissolving a marriage. The do-it-yourself divorce forms may not address everything that's necessary for your situation. You may want to take a look at some of our
No Nonsense™ Divorce options. Our packages offer a unique combination of affordable fees with guidance from experienced lawyers. If you're unsure,
schedule some time to talk with us.
How long will it take to get divorced? After you've filed for divorce, Texas requires a 60 day "cooling off period" before the final divorce decree can be filed. If you and your spouse are in agreement, the final decree can be filed on the 61st day.
How much will a divorce cost? If you and your spouse are in agreement about the division of property and there are no children, a divorce can often be done for as little as $1,200 to $1,500. This includes filing fees and an attorney will accompany you to court to prove up the final divorce decree. However, the costs for your specific situation may be more or less. We can give you a better idea of the cost during an initial consultation. All of our work is billed by the hour in 6 minute increments instead of industry standard 15 minute interval. That means if you have a 6 minute phone call with us, you get billed for 6 minutes instead of 15 minutes. We understand that you want to finalize your divorce without breaking the bank. We use Associates, Paralegals and other support staff for as much of the work as possible to keep the costs down. We also offer a flat fee option for agreed divorces. Check out our
No Nonsense™ Divorce to see if it makes sense for your situation.
What are the grounds for divorce? Texas is a "no-fault" divorce state. That means that you can file for divorce simply because "the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities between you that has destroyed the legitimate ends of the marriage." There are other reasons for divorce in Texas, such as adultery, cruelty, felony conviction, abandonment, etc. We encourage our clients to choose the "no-fault" option because it's much harder to reach an agreed settlement after you've called your spouse an adulterer or something else in public. It also makes it much harder to co-parent in the future after a combative divorce.
How do I know if I'm common law married or not? Texas has a 3 question test for common law marriage. If you can answer "yes" to the 3 questions, you are common law married. If you answer "no" to any of them, you probably aren't. Both parties must have intended to be married. You must have lived together as husband and wife. You must have held yourself out to others as married.
Do all divorce cases go to trial? No, in fact most divorces settle out of court and don't go to trial at all. Out of court settlements can be accomplished either through settlement conferences, mediation, or collaborative law. Some situations may ultimately require you to go to court, but it's often preferable for you and your spouse to decide how to divide your assets or determine visitation instead of having a Judge do it for you. Many good divorce lawyers in Austin are able to keep you and your family out of court if you prefer.
