You're already divorced.
Now what?

What “post-decree”
actually covers.

Post-decree work is anything that happens after the divorce is final. Three categories cover most of it: modification (changing an order because life has changed), enforcement (making the other side comply with an order they are ignoring), and recalculation of child support when the numbers no longer match reality. Texas treats each one differently, with its own statute and its own burden of proof.

You are not reopening the divorce. The divorce is over. You are asking the same court that issued the decree to update or enforce a piece of it. The case number is the original case number. The judge is often the original judge. The standard for changing anything is higher than it was the first time around. Texas presumes the order was right when it was signed, and the burden is on you to show why it should not be right anymore.

Modification:
when Texas allows
a change.

A Texas court will modify a conservatorship or possession order under one of three triggers in Texas Family Code § 156.101: a material and substantial change in circumstances since the last order; a child age 12 or older who has expressed in writing a preference for which parent has primary custody; or a parent who has voluntarily relinquished primary care of the child for at least six months.

The first trigger is the one most modifications turn on. The second and third are narrower and fact-specific.

There is also a timing rule. If the original order is less than one year old, § 156.102 requires an affidavit explaining why an immediate change is needed. Usually that means the child’s present environment endangers their physical health or emotional development, or that the parties have already agreed to the change. Without that affidavit, the court will not even hear the request inside the first year. After the one-year mark, the standard one-trigger rule from § 156.101 applies on its own.

A documented pattern of one parent restricting or undermining the other’s relationship with the children can qualify as a material change as well. Courts respond to facts they can see — message logs, missed exchanges, the kids’ own words in age-appropriate settings — more than to the labels we put on them. We walk through what gets treated seriously in Alienation and coercive control in Texas divorces, and what to do about it.

The “material and
substantial change” standard,
in real terms.

“Material and substantial” is the cornerstone phrase, and it does most of the work in modification cases. The statute does not define it; the case law has filled in the edges. What courts treat as qualifying: a significant income change, a relocation that affects the existing schedule, a child’s developing needs (medical, educational, behavioral), a parent’s incarceration, sometimes the remarriage of either parent when it affects the household.

What courts generally do not treat as qualifying: ordinary disagreement with the order, a new partner you dislike, a single bad weekend, or “they moved on with someone I don’t approve of.” Lifestyle disapproval is not a change in circumstances.

The burden lives with the moving party. Whoever files the modification has to prove the change occurred since the last order, and that the proposed new arrangement is in the best interest of the child. Two separate showings. Both required. Most modifications are won or lost on whether the first one is well-documented enough to take seriously.

Child support:
recalculation in
real terms.

Child support has its own modification rule under § 156.401, with two independent paths. Either one is enough. The first is a material and substantial change in circumstances of the child or one of the parents. Most often that is a significant income change for either side. The second is a numerical trigger: at least three years have passed since the last order AND the amount that would be ordered under current Texas guidelines differs from the existing order by either 20% or $100, whichever is less.

That second path is the one most people do not know about. You do not need any change at all if the math has drifted far enough on its own.

The current Texas guideline percentages (20% of net resources for one child, 25% for two, up to 40% for five or more) are applied to the obligor’s first $11,150 of monthly net resources. Above that cap, the court can order more based on proven needs of the child. We run the numbers before filing so you know whether asking is worth what it costs.

If they
served you.

A piece of paper showing up at your door — a citation, an enforcement motion, a temporary restraining order — changes the calendar before it changes anything else. The first question is the deadline. The second is what kind of filing it is. The third is what doing nothing would cost.

In a Texas divorce or modification case, the answer to a citation is due at 10 a.m. on the first Monday after twenty days from the date you were served. Miss it and the other side can take a default judgment against you. The deadline for an enforcement motion is shorter, and the deadline for a temporary restraining order can be measured in days. The deadline is almost always on the first page of what you were handed, near the top. If it isn’t, assume the shortest one and call someone.

Filing a response does not concede anything. It preserves your right to be heard. Most defensive cases land somewhere between the worst the petition asked for and the best the other side will accept; the response is what gets you into that range. Doing nothing keeps you out of it entirely.

Enforcement:
when the other side
stops complying.

Enforcement is the legal tool for an order someone is ignoring. Chapter 157 of the Texas Family Code governs it, and the remedies are real: contempt (§ 157.166), money judgment for unpaid support (§ 157.263), wage withholding, license suspension (driver’s, professional, hunting, fishing) under § 157.317, and in serious cases, jail.

A few procedural points that decide most enforcement cases before the merits do. The order has to be enforceable on its face, meaning specific enough that a person could read it and know exactly what they were supposed to do, when, and how. Vague decrees (“the parties shall cooperate”) rarely support contempt. The motion has to allege each violation with specificity: the date, the amount, the act required, the act not done. And the person on the other side has constitutional rights to counsel if jail time is a possible outcome. Opposing parties often do not know that until we tell them.

Contempt vs.
money judgment:
two very different remedies.

These two get confused often. They are not the same.

A money judgment (§ 157.263) reduces unpaid child support to a civil judgment. It accrues interest, it can be collected like any other judgment, and it does not require proving willfulness. The other side owes the money. The court confirms how much. That is the entire question.

Contempt (§ 157.166) is different. Contempt punishes the violation itself: fines, jail, or both. It requires the moving party to prove the violation was willful, and it requires the alleged contemnor to have had the ability to comply. Contempt also has the limitations periods in § 157.005: six months on each missed child-support payment, two years on most property-division enforcement.

Which remedy fits depends on what you want. Money owed? Money judgment. A pattern of deliberate noncompliance you want the court to address? Contempt. Sometimes both, in the same motion. We pick the path that matches what is actually going on.

If you (or they)
have moved out of Texas.

Jurisdiction is its own question once a state line is involved. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, codified at TFC Chapter 152, controls where a custody case can be heard. The general rule: the state that issued the original order (Texas, in your case) keeps “continuing exclusive jurisdiction” as long as the child and at least one parent still live in Texas. Once the child and both parents have all left, Texas loses it, and the new home state takes over.

Child support is governed by a different statute, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA, TFC Chapter 159). Support orders generally follow the obligor (the person paying) and can be registered and enforced in the new state, with Texas often retaining authority to modify only while one party still lives here.

The order of operations matters. Filing in the wrong state delays everything by months. We sort which court hears what before anything goes on a docket. If the case belongs elsewhere, we say so.

Inside Texas, the original court keeps the case as long as one parent and the child still live in the state — regardless of which Texas county that is. A decree out of Travis County stays in Travis even if you have since moved to Williamson or Hays. Local practice does vary: Williamson and Hays courts run tighter procedural calendars than Travis, and the Hays courts default toward 50/50 conservatorship more readily than their neighbors. We file where the order lives and prepare for the local conventions; we do not “shop” Texas counties for friendlier rulings, which is neither ethical nor effective.