QUESTION
Found out divorce wasnt finalized and now in a bit of a jam
Asked on May 16th, 2013 on Family Law - Texas
More details to this question:
Seperated on March 2010, went through a divorce at the sametime and had all the paperwork, appeared twice for it in June, made my 3 payments to the exspouse and exspouse left the state of Texas late August 2010, divorce was suppose to be finalized on September 15th and just recently found out (April 2013) it was never finalized. Haven had any contact with the exspouse since March 2010. Never got contacted by my lawyer about my divorce proceedings, tried calling, emailing and going to the office and nothing. No call backs, no email responses and no one at the office. Situation we're in now is that remarried September 2012, we have 2 kids together and again, just found out that I'm still "legally married" to the exspouse who I haven't seen nor spoken to for 3 years now, while I was under the impression that the divorce was finalized. Went to the subcourthouse to find out the divorce case was dismissed, found this out Aptil 2013. Now the "first wife" has called my work to drop all this on us 3 years later. Me and current girl friend married on September 2012 in good faith all divorces were final and now I have this situation and need help badly
1 ANSWER
From the facts you stated, it appears you are still married to original spouse. You can only be married to one person at a time. Therefore, your second marriage is currently void. In order to correct the situation, you need to file for divorce from current spouse. Once you are divorced, there is case law stating that second marriage automatically becomes valid upon divorce from first spouse ("springs" into existence). However, to be on the safe side and give your second spouse peace of mind, you might want to have a simple JP ceremony renewing your marriage vows once your divorce from your original spouse is final.
Answered on May 16th, 2013 at 7:01 PM