Every Travis County divorce is filed with the District Clerk and heard at the Civil and Family Courts Facility, 1700 Guadalupe St in downtown Austin, by one of twelve civil district courts or an associate judge. A 2020 standing order binds both spouses from the day the petition is filed. The filing fee is $350, plus $15 with children. For divorce records, call the clerk’s Family Division at 512-854-9457.
County facts on this page were checked against traviscountytx.gov on September 26, 2026. Courts change their procedures; the links go to the official source so you can confirm.
Travis County divorce records are kept by the District Clerk. Cases filed in 2006 or later can be viewed free online. For an official copy, send the clerk’s online Court Records Request Form, mail a request, or go to Room 3.200 at 1700 Guadalupe. A certificate of divorce is $10; a certified copy is $5 per document plus $1 a page.
Start with the right office and the right number. Divorce records belong to the District Clerk, Family Division: 512-854-9457. The 512-854-9420 number you may find online is the Criminal Division, in a different building.
The clerk’s online court records portal shows public family and civil cases from 2006 to the present at no cost. Search by name to find the cause number, which you will want for any request. If the portal copy is all you need, you may be done. A certified copy still has to come from the clerk.
| Certificate of divorce | $10 |
|---|---|
| Certified copy (per document, plus $1 a page) | $5 |
| Records search, if you have no cause number | $5 per name |
| Plain electronic copy (first 10 pages, then $0.10) | $1 a page |
| Viewing on the online portal | free |
Card payments carry a 3% convenience fee. See the clerk’s fee page and records page.
Need a decree from a different county? Our guide to decree copies across Central Texas covers the others.
Travis County’s family cases, the District Clerk, the Law Library and the Domestic Relations Office are all in the Civil and Family Courts Facility at 1700 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701. The building is open weekdays 8 to 5; the clerk’s windows close at 4:30.
Every Travis County divorce is heard in this building, along with the District Clerk, the Law Library and the Domestic Relations Office. Expect airport-style screening run by the Sheriff’s Office. Items confiscated at security are not returned. Contested hearings and trials are in person unless the parties agree otherwise and announce it properly, or the judge says otherwise.
The District Clerk, Velva L. Price, files and keeps every Travis County divorce, whichever of the twelve courts it is filed in. Records and payments are handled in Room 3.200. The clerk’s help email is districtclerkhelp@traviscountytx.gov.
Metered parking is on every street around the building (county meter map). The county’s courthouse page names the public lot one block south: the University of Texas Guadalupe Garage, 1616 Guadalupe St. UT lists it as open around the clock with a 6-foot-2 height limit, no elevators, and payment at a machine when you leave. Some older county pages still show lots from the old courthouse; go by the courthouse page.
Travis County has no separate family courts. Its twelve civil district courts hear every divorce, and the clerk spreads new cases among them in rotation. But under the county’s central docket, the court number on your petition does not decide who hears your case. Each hearing goes to an available judge, and you usually learn who the week before.
The twelve civil district courts, all at 1700 Guadalupe:
Under Local Rule 1.3, “the District Court number identified in the style of the case does not mean the judge of that court will conduct the hearings or trial.” The county’s overview of practice says a hearing or trial may be heard by any of the twelve district judges, by an associate judge in a family case, or by one of the two civil County Court at Law judges.
Hearings are set through the Court Administrator (512-854-2484, option 0), not the judge’s staff. The parties send the notices; the court does not. The Court Administrator generally assigns a judge at the end of the week before a hearing, and about 10 days before a jury trial. Emergencies go to that week’s Duty Judge, whose name is posted with the weekly docket.
A Standing Order on the Master Calendar took effect July 1, 2026. For every case not kept by one judge under Local Rule 2.6 or 10.2, the Court Administrator assigns and sets hearings and trials on the Master Calendar. Any court that did not sign the order keeps all cases filed in it. Having one judge keep your whole case is, in the local rules’ words, “the rare exception”: both sides must ask the Local Administrative Judge, and only for judicial economy.
Associate judges may hear any family matter. A party can file a written objection to an associate judge hearing a trial on the merits within 10 days of receiving the notice of setting, and can ask for any other matter to go to a district judge. After an associate judge rules, a party can request a de novo hearing before a district judge. Local Rules ch. 22.
Child support cases brought by the Attorney General’s office go to Child Support Court #19, a Title IV-D court on the 6th floor.
Hearings are in person unless all parties agree to a remote hearing or the court finds good cause.
Every Travis County divorce and custody case comes with the Standing Order for Family Law Cases, a set of rules for both parties that starts the moment the petition is filed. The current order covers cases filed on or after January 1, 2020. Unlike some neighboring counties’ orders, it also applies to modification and paternity cases.
Read the Standing Order for Family Law Cases (PDF) itself; it binds you, and anyone acting with you who knows about it. In plain terms:
The order works as a temporary restraining order for 14 days. If nobody challenges it at a hearing within those 14 days, it continues as a temporary injunction until the final order or a dismissal. A protective order, a CPS order or any other active order that conflicts with it controls. Violations can be punished as contempt, and the court can order the violator to pay the other side’s attorney’s fees.
The petitioner must attach the order to the petition and every copy. If it is missing, the clerk attaches it.
The Travis County Local Rules (amended November 15, 2024) put family cases on a Family Docket with set days, require written pretrial forms before trial, and send every case with a trial setting to mediation.
The rules and the other standing orders are posted on the county’s local rules and standing orders page. The pretrial forms are in one county PDF.
Family settings expected to take more than three hours go on the Monday Long Docket at 8:30 am. Settings of three hours or less are heard Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at 8:30 am. Motions for continuance are heard Thursdays at 1:30 pm. Local Rules 21.1–21.3.
Before a final trial, each side files a Proposed Property Division, a Proposed Support Decision, a Proposed Parenting Plan and a Proposed Disposition of Other Issues. The deadline is 5 pm on the Monday two weeks before the trial week, and nobody can extend or waive it. Missing forms can mean sanctions or issues deemed waived. Local Rules 23.3–23.8.
Every case set on the jury docket or the Non-Jury Long Docket, including cases before an associate judge, is automatically referred to mediation, which must be finished before the announcement period. A case already mediated is excused. A party can object, and the rules allow special consideration where there are allegations of domestic violence. Local Rules ch. 13.
For a temporary orders hearing, each side brings the same kinds of proposed forms, plus the last four pay stubs and the prior year’s tax return. These are handed to the judge at the hearing, not filed with the clerk. Local Rule 23.4.
The clerk does not forward documents to judges. If a judge needs to read something before a hearing, you deliver a courtesy copy to the judge’s staff yourself. Local Rule 1.3.
A case with no answer after 180 days, or one on file more than 18 months with no trial setting and no activity for 180 days, can be dismissed. A motion to retain is due at least 14 days before the dismissal date, and a retained case is sent to mediation. Local Rules ch. 8.
Besides the four pretrial forms, each side brings two years of tax returns and current-year pay records, unless income is agreed. A motion to confer with a child has to be set the same day as the related hearing, and the rules discourage bringing children to the courthouse.
Child support, and maintenance ordered together with child support, is paid to the Texas State Disbursement Unit, P.O. Box 659791, San Antonio, TX 78265-9791. Maintenance ordered without child support is paid through the Travis County Domestic Relations Office, P.O. Box 1495, Austin, TX 78767. Local Rules ch. 24.
Neither the local rules nor the standing order requires a parenting class in every case. A judge can order a 4-to-12-hour parent education course when it serves the child’s best interest, under Texas Family Code § 105.009. The Domestic Relations Office runs a free Cooperative Parenting Program: six 90-minute classes, in person on the 5th floor or online. Register at 512-854-9690.
A new Travis County divorce costs $350 to file, plus a $15 Domestic Relations Office fee if you have children. Lawyers must e-file. If you are representing yourself, you can file through eFileTexas.gov, by mail, or in person by appointment.
One spouse must have lived in Texas for the last six months and in Travis County for the last 90 days (Texas Family Code § 6.301). If you and your spouse live in different counties, either county can work as long as one of you meets the 90-day rule there. See § 08 if your Austin address might be in Williamson or Hays County.
| New divorce, no children | $350 |
|---|---|
| New divorce, with children ($350 + $15 DRO fee) | $365 |
| Issuing a citation (for service) | $8 |
| Service by certified mail through the clerk | $85 |
| Service by a Travis County constable | $90 |
| Later motions in a custody case (modification, enforcement) | $30 |
Every filing fee includes a $35 Law Library fee, which helps fund the free services in § 09. Credit cards carry a 3% fee with a $3 minimum. If you cannot afford the fees, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs. Source: the clerk’s 2026 filing fee schedule (PDF).
An agreed divorce is one where you and your spouse have settled every decision by the end: property, debts, and, if you have children, custody, visitation and support. In Travis County it can finish on paper, without a hearing, after Texas’s 60-day wait. You do not have to agree on everything on day one. You have to agree by the time you finish.
The statewide forms are on TexasLawHelp.org. If neither of you has a lawyer, the Law Library’s free Family Law Case Review (step 6) sends you the forms your case needs.
The petition is just an ask. It tells the court the divorce has started and what you would like to happen. We think of it as a plain vanilla petition: it does not need to accuse anyone of anything.
Filling it out: the person who files is the Petitioner; the spouse is the Respondent. Use full legal names, spelled the same way on every form that follows. Leave the cause number and court blank; the clerk fills those in. Answer the residency questions honestly, since they are what give a Travis County court the power to hear your case. If you have children, list each one.
File through eFileTexas.gov or by mail. Attach the Travis County standing order; if you forget, the clerk attaches it. The 60-day clock starts now (Texas Family Code § 6.702), and so does the standing order.
Write down the cause number and the court number. Every form from here on needs both, and the court number decides where you email your paperwork in step 6.
If your spouse is cooperating, they can sign a waiver of service or file an answer. If not, have the clerk issue a citation ($8) and serve it by certified mail through the clerk ($85) or by a Travis County constable ($90).
The Final Decree of Divorce is the document that matters. It is the order the judge signs and the one you will show a bank, a title company or a school for years. A property item or a debt left out of the decree is a problem later.
Filling it out: list every account, vehicle, piece of real estate, retirement plan and debt, and say who gets each one. If you have children, the decree covers conservatorship, the possession schedule and child support. Title it an Agreed Final Decree, and have both spouses sign it “Agreed as to Form and Substance.” The county’s submission order requires both.
Travis County accepts an agreed divorce without a hearing only if it comes with sworn written testimony filed with the District Clerk. That sworn statement stands in for what you would otherwise tell a judge in person. File it before you submit the decree.
This is the Travis-specific part. You have two routes:
The local rules also allow a judge to hear agreed divorces in person “at the times and days posted … if any.” We could not find a currently posted time, so check with the Court Administrator before planning on it.
Once the decree is signed, order a certified copy or a certificate of divorce from the clerk (see § 01). If the decree orders child support, it is paid through the State Disbursement Unit; maintenance without child support goes through the Domestic Relations Office.
If you agree on some things but not others, the case moves to the Family Docket: temporary orders, the pretrial forms in § 05, and mediation once there is a trial setting. That is where people tend to call us.
The City of Austin describes itself as located in Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. So an Austin address does not guarantee a Travis County divorce. Where you file depends on the county you live in, not the city on your mail.
Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander and Pflugerville also sit partly in Travis County and partly in Williamson, per the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 place-by-county file. If you live on the Williamson or Hays side, you file in Georgetown or San Marcos, not at 1700 Guadalupe, and that county’s standing order and local rules apply instead. None of Travis County’s central docket, submission emails or Family Docket days carry over.
Source: City of Austin ordinance backup, File ID 26-2115 (August 6, 2026).
North of the Travis line. The District Clerk randomly assigns each family case to one of six courts with a family docket: three district courts and three county courts at law. Williamson has its own standing order (effective November 1, 2023), and certified decree copies are requested by email.
South of the Travis line. Six district courts sit in Hays County, and an associate judge presides over the Family Court of Hays County, which hears agreed final orders by default. By statute, Hays’s three county courts at law share family jurisdiction with the district courts. Hays’s standing order covers cases filed on or after October 1, 2019.
The Travis County Law Library & Self-Help Center, on the 2nd floor at 1700 Guadalupe, is the main free resource in the building for people without lawyers. Call 512-854-8677, weekdays 8 to 5.
See also our list of free and low-cost legal resources.
Request it from the Travis County District Clerk, online with the Court Records Request Form, by mail to P.O. Box 679003, Austin, TX 78767, or in person in Room 3.200 at 1700 Guadalupe, weekdays 8 to 4:30. A certified copy is $5 per document plus $1 a page, and a certificate of divorce is $10. Cases filed in 2006 or later can be viewed free on the clerk’s online portal first.
Call the District Clerk’s Family Division at 512-854-9457. The 512-854-9420 number is the Criminal Division.
The base filing fee is $350, plus a $15 Domestic Relations Office fee if you have children, so $365. Serving your spouse costs extra: $8 to issue the citation, then $85 for certified mail through the clerk or $90 for a Travis County constable. If you cannot afford the fees, you can file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs.
Usually you will not know until shortly before each hearing. New cases are spread across the twelve civil district courts in rotation, but under the county’s central docket any available judge, including an associate judge, may hear a given hearing. The court number on your petition does not mean that judge will hear your case.
Yes, by submission. An agreed divorce can be submitted without a hearing if sworn written testimony has been filed with the District Clerk. The file-stamped papers are emailed to the court named in the case style. If neither spouse has a lawyer and the case is simple, the Travis County Law Library’s free Family Law Case Review can check your forms and help submit them.
Not necessarily. The City of Austin reaches into Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. You file in a county where you or your spouse has lived for the last 90 days, and that spouse must also have lived in Texas for the last six months. Your county, not your mailing city, decides the courthouse.
Plenty of Travis County couples finish an agreed divorce with the forms above, the Law Library’s review and the court’s own instructions. When it gets complicated, with a house or a retirement account to divide, a spouse who stops answering, or children and a schedule you cannot settle, that is usually when a lawyer earns the fee. Trusler Legal PLLC is at 3701 Bee Caves Rd #102 in Austin. If we can help, let us know.