Most of what separates one family law attorney Austin residents might hire from another sits on the public record. Texas Government Code § 81.115 requires the State Bar to publish a profile for every licensed attorney, and it specifies what that profile must contain. The Board of Legal Specialization publishes its certification standards. The disciplinary rules publish what an advertisement may say.
None of it requires a phone call. Five checks follow, ordered by how long each takes.
Check one, thirty seconds: what a family law attorney Austin profile must disclose
Section 81.115(b) lists six mandatory items. The profile must carry each law school attended and the graduation date, the date of Texas licensure, any specialty certification the bar recognizes, and the attorney’s primary practice location.
Then the two that matter most. Item five requires any public disciplinary sanction the State Bar has issued. It goes further, “including a link on the attorney’s online profile to the full text of the disciplinary judgment.” A district grievance committee or district judge enters that judgment. Item six requires sanctions from another state’s discipline authority. So the profile does not summarize a sanction. It hands you the judgment.
Subsection (c) is a different animal. Other state licenses, courts of admission, translating services and accessibility appear only if the attorney supplies them. Subsection (d) has the bar tell each attorney that (b) is mandatory and (c) voluntary. A blank in the optional fields means nothing.
One caveat. Under (f) the bar sends each attorney a profile copy annually and allows one month to correct factual errors, so a recent change may not have landed.
Check two, two minutes: board certification and the number 835
The State Bar of Texas Attorney Statistical Profile, reporting data as of December 31, 2025, counts 118,430 active Texas attorneys. Of those, 6,762 hold board certification in any area — about six percent. In family law specifically, the figure is 835.
That is roughly seven attorneys in a thousand, so the credential narrows a family law attorney Austin search fast. It is also easy to confuse with State Bar section membership, a separate and far larger number that requires nothing but dues.
What the certification actually required
The board publishes its family law standards, and they read less like a credential than a docket. An applicant must have practiced law full-time for at least five years, not necessarily consecutive. For the three years before applying, the applicant must have kept a Texas office and personally worked there an average of three days a week. Family law must have filled at least 35 percent of the applicant’s time during each of those three years.
Then the trial record. Within the five years before applying, the applicant must have handled nine contested final trials or binding arbitrations in Texas family law cases, with oral testimony taken and issues decided by a fact finder. At least four must have involved property division, and at least four conservatorship. Add 30 contested court appearances disposed of before any final trial. Then add two of three categories. One is a jury trial, another a brief on the merits in a family law appeal. The third is 25 mediations, arbitrations or collaborative cases.
The reference requirement is worth pausing on. An applicant submits five names. Four must be Texas attorneys substantially involved in family law in the applicant’s geographic area — and the applicant must have faced one of them as opposing counsel in litigation, a hearing or a negotiation. The fifth must be a judge of a Texas court of record before whom the applicant tried a family law matter as lead counsel.
The exam runs three hours of essays worth 100 points each, then three hours of multiple choice worth two points each — 500 in all. The passing score is 350. Certification then lasts five years.
Check three, five minutes: what a family law attorney Austin advertisement may claim
Disciplinary Rule 7.02(b) governs claims of special competence, and it is restrictive. A lawyer who advertises may say what fields he or she practices in. But the rule forbids any claim that an organization has certified the lawyer as possessing special competence, with two exceptions.
The first exception is exact. A lawyer awarded a Certificate of Special Competence by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization may state, for each such area, “Board Certified, area of specialization — Texas Board of Legal Specialization.” The second permits a factually accurate claim of membership or certification from another organization, but only where the Texas Board of Legal Specialization has accredited that organization.
Rule 7.01(a) sits behind all of it. A communication is misleading if it is “substantially likely to create unjustified expectations about the results the lawyer can achieve.” Rule 7.01(g) makes that concrete. An attorney who advertises a verdict, knowing it was later reduced or reversed or the case settled for less, must state what the client ultimately received with equal or greater prominence.
Check four, one careful reading: the fee agreement
Two widely repeated claims about Texas fee rules are wrong. Rule 1.04(c) does not require a writing. It says the basis or rate of the fee “shall be communicated to the client, preferably in writing.” The mandatory-writing rule is 1.04(d), and it applies to contingent fee agreements.
The second error runs the other way. Texas does not flatly prohibit contingent fees in divorce. The categorical ban in Rule 1.04(e) covers criminal defense only. What governs family law is Comment 9, which states that “contingent fee arrangements in domestic relations cases are rarely justified.” Such fees, the comment reasons, may tend to promote divorce and may conflict with a lawyer’s obligation to encourage reconciliation. In custody and adoption matters, it adds, no res exists to fund a fee.
Strongly disfavored is not the same as prohibited. If an Austin divorce lawyer proposes a contingent structure, 1.04(d) requires the writing. It must state the method of calculation and any percentage that shifts at settlement, trial or appeal. And it must say whether expenses come out before or after the fee. So a family law attorney Austin engagement letter is prudence, not rule.
Rule 1.04(a) supplies the backstop: a fee is unconscionable when a competent lawyer could not form a reasonable belief that it is reasonable. Subsection (b) lists eight factors, among them the customary local fee, results obtained, time limitations, the length of the relationship, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent.
Check five, the local question: where a family law attorney Austin case is heard
Searching for a Travis County family court attorney turns up a phrase the statute books do not recognize. Government Code Chapter 24, Subchapter D designates family district courts across Texas — in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, Collin, Fort Bend, El Paso and a dozen more counties. A full-text search of that subchapter returns no occurrence of “Travis.”
Travis County instead sends divorces to its 12 general civil district courts: the 53rd, 98th, 126th, 200th, 201st, 250th, 261st, 345th, 353rd, 419th, 455th and 459th. The county describes their jurisdiction as original in all divorce cases, title to land, election contests, and civil matters over $200. It designates no family subset.
That changes what “experience in Travis County” means. Elsewhere a family court judge hears family matters all day. Here the same bench takes a commercial dispute, a land title case and a divorce in one week.
What filing costs, and the order that starts automatically
The District Clerk’s civil and family divisions sit at 1700 Guadalupe Street, third floor, Room 3.200 — the same building as the courts. Mail goes to P.O. Box 679003, Austin, Texas 78767-9003.
For cases filed on or after January 1, 2026, the base filing fee totals $350. That splits into a $213 local consolidated fee and a $137 state consolidated fee, itemized down to a $50 clerk’s basic filing fee, $35 for the law library and $3 for language access. A party unable to pay may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs.
One more public document. The Travis County Standing Order for Family Law Cases, effective for cases filed on or after January 1, 2020, binds the parties in every divorce and suit affecting the parent-child relationship filed in the county. Nobody requests it. It takes effect when the original petition is filed, runs as a temporary restraining order for 14 days, and may be enforceable by contempt. The petitioner must attach a copy. Among its prohibitions: do not access another party’s email, financial or social media accounts, and do not harm or interfere with a pet’s care.
The bottom line
The checks above narrow a family law attorney Austin shortlist on evidence, not adjectives. They do not tell you whether the call comes back on a Friday. The statute governing online attorney profiles and the board’s published certification standards are precise about credentials and silent about judgment. That is the honest limit of the public record. It narrows a list well and decides nothing.
Frequently asked questions
835, out of 118,430 active Texas attorneys reported as of December 31, 2025, with 6,762 holding board certification in any area. That is roughly seven attorneys in a thousand, and it is easy to confuse with State Bar section membership, which is far larger and requires nothing but dues.
Not prohibited. The categorical ban in Rule 1.04(e) covers criminal defense only, while Comment 9 says contingent fee arrangements in domestic relations cases are rarely justified. If one is used, Rule 1.04(d) requires a writing stating the method of calculation, any percentage that shifts at settlement, trial or appeal, and whether expenses come out before or after the fee.
No. Government Code Chapter 24, Subchapter D designates family district courts in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, Collin and a dozen more counties, and a full-text search of that subchapter returns no occurrence of Travis. Divorces go instead to the county’s 12 general civil district courts, which also hear commercial disputes and land title cases.
Yes. The Travis County Standing Order for Family Law Cases binds the parties in every divorce and suit affecting the parent-child relationship filed in the county, takes effect when the original petition is filed without anyone requesting it, and runs as a temporary restraining order for 14 days. The petitioner must attach a copy, and it may be enforceable by contempt.
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This article describes public records and professional rules a Texas reader can check independently and is general information, not legal advice. Board certification, disciplinary history and advertising rules are not by themselves a measure of whether a particular attorney suits a particular matter.
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