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Texas Family Code - Section 159.313. Costs And Fees

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§ 159.313. COSTS AND FEES.  (a) The petitioner may not be 
required to pay a filing fee or other costs.
	(b)  If an obligee prevails, a responding tribunal may assess 
against an obligor filing fees, reasonable attorney's fees, other 
costs, and necessary travel and other reasonable expenses incurred 
by the obligee and the obligee's witnesses.  The tribunal may not 
assess fees, costs, or expenses against the obligee or the support 
enforcement agency of either the initiating state or the responding 
state, except as provided by other law.  Attorney's fees may be 
taxed as costs and may be ordered paid directly to the attorney, who 
may enforce the order in the attorney's own name.  Payment of 
support owed to the obligee has priority over fees, costs, and 
expenses.
	(c)  The tribunal shall order the payment of costs and 
reasonable attorney's fees if it determines that a hearing was 
requested primarily for delay.  In a proceeding pursuant to 
Sections 159.601 through 159.608, a hearing is presumed to have 
been requested primarily for delay if a registered support order is 
confirmed or enforced without change.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 20, § 1, eff. April 20, 1995.  
Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 607, § 12, eff. Sept. 1, 
1997.

Last modified: August 11, 2007