Every Williamson County divorce is filed with the District Clerk at the Justice Center, 405 Martin Luther King St in Georgetown, and randomly assigned to one of six courts. A county standing order is attached to every petition. The filing fee is $350. After Texas’s 60-day wait, many agreed divorces finish on paper, without a hearing. Certified decree copies are requested by email at DCrequest@wilco.org.
County facts on this page were checked against wilcotx.gov on September 26, 2026. Courts change their procedures; the links go to the official source so you can confirm.
Email a Records Request Form to DCrequest@wilco.org with the cause number or both spouses’ names. The District Clerk handles record requests electronically and asks for up to three days. A certified copy cannot be emailed. The clerk mails it First Class to the address on your form, or you pick it up in Georgetown.
Start with the right office. Divorce records live with the District Clerk. People searching for Williamson County divorce records often land on the County Clerk’s page, which handles marriage licenses, birth and death records and deeds. That office cannot help with a decree.
The county’s fee schedule effective February 1, 2026 lists paper copies at $1.00 a page, digital copies at $0.10 a page with a $1.00 minimum, and an additional $5.00 for each certified copy. The clerk’s FAQ still lists certified copies at $1.00 a page with no separate certification charge. The two sources disagree, so confirm the total with the clerk before you pay. See the fee schedule and the clerk’s FAQ.
The clerk accepts cash, money orders and credit cards. It does not take personal checks or American Express. Card payments carry a $2 convenience fee and a $5 minimum.
Need a decree from a different county? Our guide to decree copies across Central Texas covers the others.
Williamson County’s family courts and the District Clerk share one building: the Justice Center at 405 Martin Luther King St, Georgetown, TX 78626. The clerk’s office is on the first floor. Mail for the clerk goes to P.O. Box 24, Georgetown, TX 78627.
You may see two addresses online. Both are right. 405 MLK is the building you walk into; P.O. Box 24 is where mail goes. County pages print that box with two different ZIP codes, 78626 and 78627. We use 78627, the ZIP on the clerk’s own records form and its Family page.
Every Williamson family court sits in this one building. The public entrance is at the corner of 4th Street and MLK. Expect Sheriff-run security screening with bag searches. Recording is prohibited, children should not come without the court’s prior approval, and the dress code rules out shorts, hats, flip-flops and sunglasses.
The District Clerk files and keeps every divorce in the county, whichever court the case lands in. Divorce records are District Clerk records. Marriage, birth, death and deed records belong to the County Clerk, one floor up. The clerk cannot give legal advice and does not hand out divorce forms.
Since August 1, 2026, the District Clerk’s office has been closed to walk-ins after 4:30 pm, and it does not take payments after 4:30. Emergency filings such as TROs and protective orders are still accepted. The office also closes from noon to 1 pm. Plan to arrive early in the afternoon, not at the end of the day.
You do not choose. When you file, the District Clerk randomly assigns your case to one of six courts with a family docket and stamps the court and cause number on your petition. Under the local rules, half of new family cases go to the three district courts and half to the three county courts at law.
Texas law gives Williamson’s county courts at law the same power as the district court in family cases, and it makes the District Clerk the clerk for all of them (Texas Government Code § 25.2482). So there is one clerk, one filing counter and one records office, whichever courtroom you end up in.
County Court at Law No. 2 lists no family docket. Once a court has decided a case, later changes to that order, such as a custody or support modification, go back to the same court.
The court you draw matters, because each one finishes an agreed divorce a little differently (see step 7 below) and each sets its own hearings through its court administrator. Look up your court’s page as soon as the case is assigned.
Every Williamson County divorce comes with a standing order, a set of ground rules for both spouses that takes effect the day the petition is filed. The current version took effect November 1, 2023. The petitioner must attach it to the petition, and the clerk returns an e-filed petition that arrives without it.
Read the Standing Order Regarding Children, Property, and Conduct of Parties (PDF) itself; it binds you. In plain terms, here is what it covers:
The order starts as a 14-day temporary restraining order. If nobody challenges it at a hearing within those 14 days, it continues as a temporary injunction until the divorce is final. A protective order or CPS order overrides it. It applies to every divorce and every original custody case filed in the county, but not to modifications of an existing final order. It is enforceable by contempt.
If you are filing without a lawyer, the clerk adds the standing order for you. The order also encourages, but does not require, mediation.
Williamson County’s Local Rules of Court (2024 revision) add a few requirements that surprise people. The biggest: before any family hearing, each side must exchange written pretrial forms, and any issue left off them is waived.
The rules and the standing order are both posted on the county’s Local Rules and Standing Orders page. An older 2012 version still circulates online; the 2024 revision is the one every court links to.
At least one day before any family hearing, each side hands the other a Proposed Property Division, a Proposed Support Decision (if support is in play) and a Proposed Disposition of Issues. Bring printed copies; do not file them. Anything left off those forms is treated as waived unless there is good cause. Local Rules II.D.
The local rules let each court require mediation before a final trial under its own procedures. A case that skips it can lose its trial setting. A request to skip mediation has to be heard at least 60 days before trial. The 480th says most people do not have to mediate, though it recommends it.
Before asking for any setting, both sides, lawyers or not, must confer and try to agree on a date. Once the other side has a lawyer, an opposed pretrial motion also needs a certificate of conference showing you tried to work it out. Family-violence matters, TROs, habeas and contempt are the exceptions. Hearings are set through the assigned court’s administrator.
Anyone who uses artificial intelligence to prepare a filing, lawyer or not, has to check its work and attach a “Certificate Regarding Use of Artificial Intelligence” (Exhibit A to the local rules). If a chatbot helped you fill out your divorce forms, this rule applies to you.
A case with no activity for more than 180 days can land on a dismissal docket. If nobody shows up at a trial setting, the case is dismissed. Filing and then waiting it out is a real way to lose your place.
If the divorce divides a 401(k) or pension, the QDRO has to be presented when the decree is signed, not months later. Written orders after any ruling are due within 30 days.
Hearings are in person by default. A court may allow video or phone appearances but cannot force remote testimony without agreement or good cause. The 480th requires final trials in person unless both sides agree.
Parenting classes: neither the local rules nor the standing order require one county-wide. A judge can still order a 4-to-12-hour parent education course when it serves the child’s best interest, under Texas Family Code § 105.009.
The filing fee for a new Williamson County divorce is $350, with or without children. Lawyers must e-file. If you are representing yourself, you can file through the state portal, eFileTexas, by mail, or in person at the District Clerk’s first-floor counter.
One spouse must have lived in Texas for the last six months and in Williamson County for the last 90 days (Texas Family Code § 6.301). If you and your spouse live in different counties, you can file in either one, as long as one of you meets the 90-day rule there.
| New divorce, with or without children | $350 |
|---|---|
| Issuing a citation (for service) | $8 |
| Service by certified mail through the clerk | $70 |
| Employer wage-withholding order | $15 |
| Certificate of no appeal | $10 |
| Later family motions (modification, enforcement) | $80 |
Constable fees are set separately; ask the constable. If you cannot afford the fees, the District Clerk’s forms list includes a Statement of Inability to Pay Costs.
If your spouse will not sign a waiver, fill out the clerk’s Request for Issuance form and choose service by constable, private process server or certified mail. If your spouse lives outside the county, the clerk can email you the citation to forward to a private process server. Whoever serves the papers files the proof, called the Return of Service, with the clerk.
An uncontested 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 Williamson County it takes seven steps and at least 61 days. You do not have to agree on everything on day one. You have to agree by the time you finish.
The forms come from TexasLawHelp.org. Williamson’s clerk does not supply divorce forms and points people there. Use the guide that fits your family: divorce without minor children or divorce with children under 18. The 480th District Court also posts a forms page and a video library that walk through the same forms.
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 gives the Williamson court the power to hear your case. If you have children, list each one. If either spouse wants a former name back, say so in the petition.
File online through eFileTexas or on paper at the District Clerk’s office (original plus two single-sided copies). The clerk assigns the cause number and the court. Attach the Williamson County standing order; if you are filing on your own, the clerk adds it. The 60-day clock starts now (Texas Family Code § 6.702). The only exception is certain family-violence cases.
Write down the cause number and your court. Every form from here on needs both, copied exactly.
If your spouse is cooperating, give them a copy of the file-stamped petition along with either a Waiver of Service or an Original Answer. The 480th’s instructions call for the waiver to be signed in front of a notary after the petition is filed, then filed with the clerk. Signing a waiver does not mean your spouse agrees to your terms; it means they do not need a process server.
If your spouse will not sign anything, have them formally served (see “Serving your spouse” above).
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. It must be complete. 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. Use last-four digits for account numbers rather than full numbers. If you have children, the decree covers conservatorship, the possession schedule and child support. The 480th’s instructions say to attach the possession schedule as an exhibit; a Standard Possession Order is the usual starting point, and you are free to customize it. If a retirement account is being divided, the QDRO has to be ready when the decree is signed.
Most Williamson courts accept a sworn written statement instead of live testimony for an agreed divorce. The 480th calls it a Sworn Statement of Evidence; the 395th and 425th use their own Statement of Evidence form; County Court at Law No. 3 uses an Affidavit of Prove-Up. It covers the same ground a judge would ask about in person: residency, the grounds for divorce, whether anyone is pregnant, the children, and why the property division is just and right. Both spouses sign it in front of a notary. For lawyer-represented cases on submission, County Court at Law No. 4 requires a notarized statement and does not accept unsworn declarations.
The clerk requires a Vital Statistics form with every final decree. If the decree orders child support, add the Record of Support Order. If a spouse is restoring a former name, add the one-page Order Restoring Name so they have a separate document to use with other agencies. If AI helped you prepare any of it, attach the local-rule AI certificate.
This is the Williamson-specific part. Each court has its own final step:
Check your court’s page before this step. Procedures change, and the court’s own page is the final word. The fastest agreed divorce the 480th describes lands just over 60 days after filing.
If your spouse was served and never responded, the path is a default: after day 60, you file a proposed decree. In the 480th that means a short hearing where you testify; the 395th takes defaults on submission. Check your court’s page. If you agree on some things but not others, the pretrial-forms rule in § 05 kicks in before any hearing. Both are where people tend to call us.
Your county is set by where you live, not by the city on your mailing address. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander and Pflugerville each sit partly in Williamson and partly in Travis County. Austin reaches into Williamson too. A Round Rock address can mean a Travis County divorce.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2020 place-by-county file.
Not sure which side you are on? Your property-tax bill or voter registration card names your county. When in doubt, check before you file, since a petition filed in the wrong county may have to be refiled.
Williamson County court staff cannot give legal advice or refer you to a lawyer, but the courts publish a lot of free help. The 480th District Court’s step-by-step pages walk through every stage, and TexasLawHelp.org has the forms.
See also our list of free and low-cost legal resources.
Email the District Clerk’s Records Request Form to DCrequest@wilco.org with the cause number or both names. Allow up to three days. Certified copies are never emailed; the clerk mails them First Class or you pick them up at 405 MLK St in Georgetown.
The District Clerk, on the first floor of the Justice Center. The County Clerk keeps marriage licenses, birth and death records and deeds, but not divorces.
The District Clerk’s filing fee for a new divorce is $350, with or without children. Service costs extra: $8 to issue a citation, and $70 if the clerk serves by certified mail. If you cannot afford the fees, the clerk lists a Statement of Inability to Pay Costs.
Often not. The 395th, 425th and 480th District Courts and County Court at Law No. 3 can sign an agreed decree on paper. County Court at Law No. 4 uses a walk-in docket for self-represented parties, and County Court at Law No. 1 sets a final hearing date.
It depends on your street, not your city. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander and Pflugerville each sit partly in Travis County, and so does Austin. You file in a county where you or your spouse has lived for the last 90 days, and that same spouse must have lived in Texas for the last six months.
Plenty of Williamson County couples finish an agreed divorce with the forms above 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.