El Paso Local Area Business Talk
El Paso Local Area Business Talk
Trusted Family Lawyer in El Paso, TX | Laine Law Firm, PLLC
đ¨ââď¸ El Paso Family Lawyer: Divorce, Child Custody & Support Help from Laine Law Firm, PLLC
If youâre going through a tough time at homeâlike a divorce, a fight over child custody, or problems with child supportâyou donât have to go through it alone. At the Laine Law Firm, PLLC, we help families just like yours deal with serious legal issues, and we do it with care, experience, and results.
Whether youâre ending a marriage or need to change a custody order, our experienced family lawyer is here to guide you through every step.
đď¸ Why Hire a Family Lawyer in El Paso, Texas?
Legal matters involving your family are emotional and personal. Thatâs why having the right family lawyer in El Paso can make all the difference. At Laine Law Firm, PLLC, we focus on keeping you informed and protected throughout your case.
We help with:
- Divorce (both contested and uncontested)
- Child custody agreements and disputes
- Child support setup or changes
- Custody modifications for changing life situations
We serve all of El Paso and the surrounding area.
đ Need a Divorce Lawyer? Weâre Here for You
Divorce is hardâeven if both people agree itâs time to move on. You may have to deal with money, property, and most importantly, the care of your children. Our experienced divorce attorney will help you protect your rights and get a fair outcome.
We can help with:
- Dividing property and debt
- Spousal support (alimony)
- Temporary or emergency orders
- Keeping things peaceful, or fighting for your best interests when needed
đś Child Custody and Visitation Help
When children are involved, things get even more serious. Child custody cases can be emotional and confusing. Weâll help you understand your rights and fight for a parenting plan that puts your childâs needs first.
We represent both mothers and fathers in custody cases. Whether youâre just getting started or need to change an old agreement, our team is here to help.
đľ Child Support Help Assistance
Child support helps make sure your child has everything they needâfrom clothes and school supplies to food and medical care. If youâre owed support or canât afford what youâre paying, we can help.
We work with clients to:
- Set up new child support orders
- Enforce unpaid support
- Request a child support modification when your job or income changes
đ Child Custody Modifications: When Life Changes
Sometimes, things change after your original court orders are made. Maybe one parent moves away, or a new job affects the visitation schedule. You canât just ignore your current court orderâyou need a child custody modification.
We help you file to:
- Change parenting time
- Update custody arrangements
- Keep your child safe and cared for under new life circumstances
Donât wait until things get worse. If your custody agreement no longer works, talk to us today.
đ Why Choose Laine Law Firm, PLLC in El Paso?
At Laine Law Firm, we focus on family lawâbecause we know how important these cases are. Weâre local, experienced, and deeply familiar with El Pasoâs family court system.
Hereâs what makes us different:
- Personalized attention to your case
- Affordable legal help with payment plans
- Quick response to your questions
- We handle the stress so you can focus on your family
If you need a family lawyer in El Paso, call today
Laine Law Firm, PLLC
Address: 700 N Stanton St #200, El Paso, TX 79902
Website: https://lainelawfirm.com/
Phone: (915) 200-4316
All right. It's another episode of El Paso Local Area Business Talk. We're here with Abby Lane of Lane Law Firm in El Paso, Texas. How are you?
SPEAKER_00:Good. How are you?
SPEAKER_01:Good. Good. So, you know, basically what I always like to do is when we talk about these podcasts is we just want to talk about what you do and we're just going to have a conversation. So what kind of law do you practice?
SPEAKER_00:Mostly just family law.
SPEAKER_01:So you're a family lawyer here in El Paso. That's pretty cool. So as a family lawyer, what kind of... fields does that include? So I'm guessing like child support, divorce. Go into that.
SPEAKER_00:It encompasses anything relating to his family. So that would be divorces, anything with kids, custodies, modifications, enforcements, setting child support, setting paternity, anything related to that. Even what is it called? When you want to divide your assets before you get married. So like prenuptial
SPEAKER_01:agreements? Yes, thank you so much. Prenuptial agreements. Do you guys do postnuptial agreements? Is that a thing in Texas? You can do that. Okay. Well, let's start off with like divorce because I know a lot of people get divorces. So as a divorce attorney, kind of just explain what the process is. Let's just pretend I'm coming into you and I'm getting ready to get a divorce and I need to hire you. What does that typically look like to you? And I'm sure there's all sorts of things, but let's go ahead one by one, just kind of describe that to you. So I'm coming to you, hey, I'm getting a divorce, been married for whatever amount of years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so then you set up a consultation, we schedule an hour, that way we can really talk about all the issues and figure out what you would need in your particular case, because it depends if you have children or... no children and it's just a property issue, then we have to really look at the property and try to figure out how to protect your assets as much as you can, but also be fair and reasonable in the process.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Do you ever get people that just are in total agreement of what they want to do? What do they call those divorces?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:uncontested. We
SPEAKER_00:have a lot of those. People come to us with an agreement and then we draft their order for them and make sure that it has all the legal things that it needs to have to protect you in the future.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Typically, how long does it take from beginning to end? I'm sure it varies, but when you have a client coming in for a divorce settlement or a when they get their final divorce decree, how long does that typically take? So I'm going to come see you. I need a divorce. And the other lady, the wife has a lawyer too. They're kind of battling it out.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So that's a good question. That's a question a lot of people ask and they want to know. So when you file a divorce, there's a mandatory 60-day waiting period. It's called a cooling off period in Texas in case people get back together and they want to remain married. That does happen a lot too. and so the quickest you can get it done is 60 days and that's like if the conditions are ideal you guys have an agreement on everything then 60 days would be the soonest but then realistically if you're fighting about children or property it's going to take you a few months expect expect anywhere from like six months to a year
SPEAKER_01:okay
SPEAKER_00:it's depending on how complex if they have an attorney and Then we have to have several hearings, and yeah, it took up to a year.
SPEAKER_01:What's the longest divorce you've ever had to deal with?
SPEAKER_00:Well, right now I have one that was filed in 2022, and they're still going through it pretty hard.
SPEAKER_01:That's three years?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Going on four years? Is there an end in sight?
SPEAKER_00:There's an end in sight, but I'm hopeful, but I'm not sure if it's going to end. I don't know. I feel like some people, they're not really ready to move on and they're not really ready to get divorced. And so that can complicate the process a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Well, without naming names, can you go into some detail of what that entails, why it's taking so long? Are they dividing their property, their community property, things like that? Is it a child's custody type of battle, things like that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think most of the time when it drags out like that, it's because of assets. like a large estate that needs to be divided fairly. Sometimes it's not even a large estate. Sometimes, like I said, it's just like parties are so kind of bitter towards each other that it prevents them from really being reasonable, either one or the other or both. So then it just prolongs the whole process.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so when you're dealing with the opposition counsel, so their divorce attorney, how do you communicate with them? You just kind of just... what does that look like like when you're communicating back and forth with their attorney
SPEAKER_00:mostly emails and then you know sometimes we have informal settlement conferences over zoom or mediation over zoom phone calls just depends on the attorney some attorneys are really um hard to get a hold of so the email is the best way to get a hold of them but preferably you talk to them and you can work something out
SPEAKER_01:wow that's a long time so That's good when people can just do it uncontested. Is that what a simple divorce is? I see that all the time. At traffic stops, you just see these little homemade signs that say simple divorce. That's basically the same thing, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's what I think that's intended for. But I feel like those are really dangerous because there's really never, hardly ever a simple divorce. You might think it's going to be simple and agreed, but then it becomes complicated. And then it's really hard to go back and fix that. You know,
SPEAKER_01:once it's already. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And then the other thing is sometimes you think it's going to be simple and then you get this divorce decree done by some person that's going to do it for thirty five dollars. And then 10 years later, you realize they never split up the house properly. So then your wife's now coming to get your house and she can because it wasn't done right. It
SPEAKER_01:wasn't stated in the.
SPEAKER_00:It wasn't stated in the.
SPEAKER_01:So let's just kind of go so. They're going to go, you're going to battle it out. Child custody, asset division, things like that. Now, once everything's agreed upon, what's the next step? What do you tell your client? Hey, look, everything seems like it's in order. We're going to go ahead and move forward with the agreement. What happens next?
SPEAKER_00:Then we just draft the decree. It's going to be about 40 pages, very detailed. And I just go through it with the client. And then we present that to the judge. Simple.
SPEAKER_01:that's it they approve it they sign it and then typically how long does it take for that to happen once it's
SPEAKER_00:uh well if once the
SPEAKER_01:agreement's made usually what's like the turnaround time
SPEAKER_00:yeah probably i would say at least two weeks to get everything drafted the right way and because we required an inventory and appraisement so that we make sure we're covering everything in the decree that needs to be in there and no properties left out kind of covers everybody's
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, we're going to, let's just talk a little bit more about the divorce. Then we'll go into like some of the other areas that you do, like child custody, the things that we're talking about, but prenuptial agreements. So that's basically, can you just kind of explain to the audience what that entails and what it does cover, what it doesn't cover? Like maybe there's some kind of clause, like a no cheat clause or something like that.
SPEAKER_00:Is
SPEAKER_01:there something like that?
SPEAKER_00:So the prenuptial is kind of like the divorce process where you have to do an inventory and appraisements. Everybody has to know what property they have and then you're dividing it before you get married. So then once you're married, whatever property is yours and the prenup is yours, you keep it no matter what. And then same for the other side. So it's kind of the same lengthy process of like giving a property just ahead of time.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like a reverse divorce kind of thing. Okay, well, so let's say you agree to that, and then you get married. Are they entitled to like half of your income as you're making money, or can you put that in the prenuptial agreement as well?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you can include that, whatever provisions you want for community property that accumulates during the marriage. You can put that in the prenup.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, cool. And then postnuptial agreements, what does that look like? Is that even possible? Is there such a thing here
SPEAKER_00:in Texas? I've never done one of those, so I can't really speak about it too much, but I would assume it's kind of like a prenup.
SPEAKER_01:Just after the fact?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's like preemptive to getting divorced, I guess. It's like I don't know what else you'd want.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so like in a prenup, can you decide the child's custody rules as well beforehand?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, no problem. So when they are going through the divorce process and they go through like a child's custody process, battle, I imagine, if there's kids of all 50 50, because, you know, what are some of the, I guess, parameters that a judge looks at, when they're trying to determine who gets majority custody or how you split it 50-50. Can you kind of go into that a little
SPEAKER_00:bit? Yeah, that's a good question. I think the courts really want to make sure that the child's life is not disrupted as much as possible. So if like one parent was the primary caretaker, that parent's probably going to remain the primary caretaker. And then it just depends also on the schedule. So if one parent is available and then the other parent has like an overnight shift schedule, it's going to be hard for that parent to get custody. To kind of really just look at the situation on a case by case basis and kind of determine, you know, what would be in the best interest of the child.
SPEAKER_01:Got you. Does a judge really try to do it as impartially as possible? Because I hear a lot of stories about how fathers don't have rights. I see posts online. Fathers have rights too and things like that. Is there some truth to that?
SPEAKER_00:So I think that's a big misconception because I think like maybe a lot of years ago that was true where the mother was favored. all the time, no matter what, over the father. But I think now, especially in El Paso, I can't speak for anywhere else, but the judges are trending more towards the fathers actually, or just being equal. And some of the courts actually just, their baseline is 50-50 for both parents.
SPEAKER_01:Gotcha. And so being here in El Paso, Texas, obviously your office is located What is it? Would you call this the west side, downtown? What area would you call this?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I guess it's central west, probably west side because we're close to Utah, close to downtown.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a great location here in El Paso. Is the divorce rate... Do you know what the divorce rate is here? It's higher than normal in other cities, right?
SPEAKER_00:That's a good question. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I think it is. I think I read something like that. The divorce rate in El Paso County is higher than... most other counties in Texas.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder why that is. It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't know either. Especially because it's not such a wealthy city. I think people stay together more, keep their resources intact.
SPEAKER_00:I do notice a lot of divorces from Fort Bliss. I don't know if that makes the numbers go up more. There's a military base and I think a lot of the military members, there's a lot of factors I think that would make divorces more common for military people because most of the time they're young and I don't know, there's just a lot of
SPEAKER_01:factors. Yeah, so Fort Bliss has to file in El Paso County as well. What about the residents in Horizon City?
SPEAKER_00:Also El Paso County.
SPEAKER_01:So anything that encompasses El Paso County is filed here downtown somewhere? Mm-hmm. Okay. Do you practice family law anywhere else other than El Paso County?
SPEAKER_00:No, just El Paso County. We get a lot of calls for New Mexico because we're a border city, but I don't have a New Mexico license. I don't do that.
SPEAKER_01:Got you. Okay. So you basically serve the whole city, the west side, east side, far east, Verizon City, Socorro, Texas, all those. That's interesting. Okay, cool. Okay, so I think we've covered kind of what divorce looks like, kind of child custody. What happens when somebody is not married? You know, they just have a child out of wedlock. Is the child custody type of hearings, is it the same guidelines?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, pretty much. A lot of times those go through the Attorney General's office, but you can always hire your own attorney to represent you. And then again, you're looking at custody, visitation, child support, medical support. Kind of
SPEAKER_01:the same. Okay. So I think we've covered the divorce, child custody issues. What are some of the other services that you offer here in Sun City?
SPEAKER_00:So we offer enforcements. So that can be enforcement, like maybe about father's rights. Who's not getting to see his children. We enforce those orders. Or if somebody was ordered to get child support, they're not getting that. We enforce those. And then modifications are another big one where maybe you're not happy with the custody arrangement that you had and things have changed. So you need to change that. We do a lot of those adoptions also.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you do adoptions. Oh yeah. Let's talk about that. So yeah. Just kind of explain the process of, I'm guessing that's going to be like a stepfather, stepmom that wants to adopt.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of times, we've had a few grandparents also adopting their grandchild. So those are always nice.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's pretty cool. Those are like the fun ones.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, those are the happy ones.
SPEAKER_01:The happy ones,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. Few and far between happy moments.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome, okay. Is there anything else that you want to let the audience know, like, Hey, this is Abby. She sounds like a really sharp family lawyer. Is there any other services?
SPEAKER_00:No, that's pretty much all we handle. We try to focus on that. We do some criminal, because I was a district attorney, assistant district attorney, so I have that criminal law experience. Well,
SPEAKER_01:you're a former DA here in El Paso?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_01:How many years did you work there?
SPEAKER_00:For two years. I did felonies, so mostly the hearts of murders. Oof. child sex abuse cases. Is
SPEAKER_01:that pretty stressful?
SPEAKER_00:Burglaries, things like that. Yeah, it was stressful. I had 900 cases. You
SPEAKER_01:did 900 cases in two years?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that was my caseload. So you continually have 900 cases. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:I
SPEAKER_00:see. The DA's office is always shorthanded.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, but that's kind of why I just wanted to open my own thing and really be able to help people more. And so... That's where I focused on. I could do criminal law, but I think we decided here in the firm to just focus on family law just to make it more like our specialty.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, kind of carve out a niche or whatever. So you left working in the public sector to be a family lawyer, a divorce attorney, etc. How many years have you been practicing family law?
SPEAKER_00:Just about 20 years. 20
SPEAKER_01:years? So you've been doing this for 20 years?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I thought you just recently started.
SPEAKER_00:No, I started in Abilene. And I had my own firm there for about eight years. Then I moved to Lubbock for a little bit. And then I have a lot of family here. I'm from here and have children also. So I wanted them to know my family. So I moved here to El Paso.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome.
SPEAKER_00:I started with the attorney general's office actually doing, I was a special litigator for the child support division for five years. And then I went to the DA's office and then I opened my own.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Okay. Well, that's great. Well, Abby, can you just kind of give us the information for the audience? We'll go ahead and post it on the links and everything on the podcast when we upload it and everything. But go ahead and just do the Lane Law Firm, your address, phone number, things like
SPEAKER_00:that. Okay. Yeah. So we're located... downtown 700 North Stanton, El Paso, Texas. And then the website is lanelawfirm.com. Lane is L-A-I-N-E lawfirm.com.
SPEAKER_01:Phone number?
SPEAKER_00:915-200-4316 is our phone number.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Ms. Lane, it was a pleasure meeting you. And if I ever have any family issues, I'm definitely going to be coming to you. But again, this is a Lane Law Firm located in the heart of El Paso, Texas. If you need any legal consultation from the main law firm here in El Paso, don't hesitate to give them a call.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much. Thank you.