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Texas Family Code - Section 8.057. Modification Of Maintenance Order

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Family Code > Texas Family Code - Section 8.057. Modification Of Maintenance Order

§ 8.057. MODIFICATION OF MAINTENANCE ORDER.  (a) The 
amount of maintenance specified in a court order or the portion of a 
decree that provides for the support of a former spouse may be 
reduced by the filing of a motion in the court that originally 
rendered the order.  A party affected by the order or the portion of 
the decree to be modified may file the motion.
	(b)  Notice of a motion to modify maintenance and the 
response, if any, are governed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 
applicable to the filing of an original lawsuit.  Notice must be 
given by service of citation, and a response must be in the form of 
an answer due on or before 10 a.m. of the first Monday after 20 days 
after the date of service.  A court shall set a hearing on the motion 
in the manner provided by Rule 245, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.
	(c)  After a hearing, the court may modify an original or 
modified order or portion of a decree providing for maintenance on a 
proper showing of a material and substantial change in 
circumstances of either party.  The court shall apply the 
modification only to payment accruing after the filing of the 
motion to modify.
	(d)  A loss of employment or circumstances that render a 
former spouse unable to support himself or herself through 
appropriate employment by reason of incapacitating physical or 
mental disability that occur after the divorce or annulment are not 
grounds for the institution of spousal maintenance for the benefit 
of the former spouse.

Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 7, § 1, eff. April 17, 1997.  
Renumbered from § 8.008 by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 807, § 1, 
eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

Last modified: August 11, 2007