Texas Divorce & Case Timelines

Texas imposes a mandatory 60-day waiting period from the date the original petition is filed before a divorce can be finalized (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.702). Uncontested divorces where both spouses agree on all issues can typically close in roughly 2–3 months. Contested divorces — especially those involving children, business interests, or substantial assets — routinely take 9–18 months, and high-conflict cases can stretch past two years. See our full Texas Divorce Timeline for a stage-by-stage breakdown.

Timing depends heavily on whether the case is a misdemeanor or felony, whether it resolves by plea or trial, and the current backlog in the court where it's filed. Misdemeanor pleas often resolve in 3–6 months. Felony cases that go to trial routinely take 12–24 months or longer. Our Criminal Defense Case Timeline maps every stage — arrest, magistration, grand jury, pretrial, and trial.

A Texas DWI runs on two separate clocks: the criminal case (typically 6–12 months from arrest to resolution) and the Administrative License Revocation (ALR) process, which starts the moment of arrest. You have only 15 days from the arrest to request an ALR hearing — miss that deadline and your license is suspended automatically. See our Texas DWI Case Timeline for both tracks in detail.

Sometimes — but the biggest accelerators are outside a single attorney's control: cooperation of the other party, willingness to mediate, the complexity of the underlying facts, and the court's calendar. What a skilled attorney can do is remove avoidable delays: file on time, move quickly through discovery, push for early mediation when it makes sense, and avoid procedural errors that cost weeks to fix.

The absolute fastest is approximately 61 days: one day to file the petition, 60 days for the mandatory waiting period, and a prove-up hearing on day 61. That pace requires the other spouse to waive service, a full agreed decree, no contested property or custody issues, and a court with availability to hear the prove-up. In practice, even well-agreed uncontested divorces usually take 2–3 months once paperwork and court scheduling are factored in.

Our policy is simple: you should never be in the dark about your case. We reach out whenever something meaningful happens, and our attorneys and staff respond to client calls, texts, and emails on evenings, weekends, and holidays. If weeks go by with nothing scheduled — which happens naturally during certain phases — we still check in so you know where things stand.

Yes. In family law, early counsel prevents the kind of missteps (improper filings, missed temporary-orders hearings, avoidable concessions) that cost months to unwind. In criminal defense, the investigative phase before indictment is often where cases are won or lost — and the 15-day ALR clock in DWI cases starts the instant you're arrested. Waiting is almost always the most expensive choice you can make.

The statutory deadlines — the 60-day divorce wait, the 15-day ALR request, limitations periods, and so on — apply statewide. Local court practices, dockets, and judicial preferences vary significantly between counties. Our team practices primarily in Bexar County out of our downtown San Antonio office and also serves clients from our Austin and Corpus Christi offices.