Obtain Free Ft Bend County Divorce Records & Verify Status

Search free Ft. Bend County divorce records to view information about anyone’s marital history or obtain documents on your own dissolved marriage.

This information can be looked up even if the only reason for doing so is to satisfy a curiosity. The right to access divorce information is granted under the Texas Public Information Act. While this law mandates government agencies to provide this access, the agencies are free to set up their own process for making these details available.

If you’re seeking the best and most efficient ways to access divorce records for free in Fort Bend County, Texas, follow the steps outlined in this resource. You’ll be provided with various tools that will assist you in making this a smooth process.

This resource was written by Attorney Robert Bailey Jr, who holds a Juris Doctorate from Widener University School of Law.

How Do I Look Up Free Ft Bend County Divorce Records?

There are free ways to look up divorce information in Fort Bend County. To access public divorce records in Fort Bend County, a citizen can search through the District Clerk. The District Clerk’s Office provides an online Case Records Search Tool, which is the quickest way to obtain information on a divorce record.¹

Using this tool, a citizen can search by party name, case number, date filed or attorney. Since this search tool provides access to a variety of case tools, you can focus your search by selecting “divorce” under the case types options. You can also choose a case status (open or closed) and a filing date range.

Once you have set your parameters, you can enter your search criteria and view the matching results. The summary results will provide a citizen with the names of both parties to the divorce, the date filed, the location, and the status. On the far left-hand side of the screen is also the case number, which you can click on to view the complete divorce record available online.

In addition to the information on the summary results, the online record will provide additional party information (address, attorney, employer) and a list of all events and orders that were issued for a particular divorce case. Here, you can view every action taken in a particular case, from when someone filed a petition for divorce to when the judge finalized everything. If you want, you can also view financial information related to the case.

If you need a copy of a divorce record and you cannot find it yourself, you can submit a Search Request Form with the District Clerk.² For $5.00, you can have the district clerk search divorce records from 1991 to the present.

To request a copy of a record, you can complete the District Clerk’s Copy Request Form.³ Here, you can provide the case number and the party’s names. You can also provide your contact information and the type of record you are requesting.

Completed request forms can be sent to the address below;

Fort Bend District Clerk
1422 Eugene Heimann Circle, Rm. 31004
Richmond, Texas 77469

The cost of a certified divorce record is $5.00 per document plus an additional $1.00 per page. For non-certified records, the cost is $1.00 per page. However, you can request electronic non-certified records for $1.00 for up to 10 pages and $0.10 per page for documents 11 pages or longer.

For questions about viewing or requesting divorce records in Fort Bend County, feel free to contact the District Clerk’s Office via email at [email protected] or by phone at 281-341-4515. The office hours for the district clerk are Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

There are other options for accessing information on divorce records in Fort Bend County. One of those options is state government agencies, as will be discussed next. However, there is no option at the city or town level in Fort Bend County to request a divorce record.

How To Go Through the Department of State Health Services To Find Texas Divorce Information

This section will help you expand your search from finding divorce records in Fort Bend County to accessing this information throughout the entire state of Texas. Using a statewide agency for accessing this information can save you a significant amount of time if you are performing several searches or are not sure about the particular county in which a person was divorced.

If you need official proof, you can also request a divorce verification letter from the Vital Statistics Section.⁴ Like the divorce indices, a request can be made for any dissolution starting in 1968 to the present.

The cost for a divorce verification letter is $20.00 per copy. While this is formal documentation verifying dissolution, if you need the decree or divorce certificate, you will have to contact the district court that was responsible for handling the matter.

To make a request for a verification letter, there is a major caveat. Unlike the divorce indices, you have to be considered a qualified person to request a record.

This includes the people listed on the record and certain family members (e.g., spouse, grandparent, child, sibling, parent or guardian). A person with a legal interest or a representative for a person listed on the record (or their estate) can also submit a request.

To obtain a divorce verification letter, you will need to provide the name of each person who was divorced, the county where it occurred, and the date of dissolution. In addition, it would also be helpful if you have the age when divorced and their social security numbers. Beyond that, you will also need to include your contact information and identify your qualified relationship with the people listed on the record.

The quickest option for obtaining a divorce verification letter is to submit a record request online.⁵

If you prefer, you can also complete a hard copy of the Application for Divorce Record.⁶

This completed application, along with your fee, can be dropped off at several different approved offices. You can also mail it to the address below:

Texas Vital Statistics
Department of State Health Services
P.O. Box 12040
Austin, Texas 78711

When it comes to both divorce indices and verification letters, this also includes what some refer to as a common law divorce. In Texas, common law marriage is recognized. This is when two parties who did not apply for a license or follow the other required steps are recognized by the state as married.

When this occurs, and the two people want to end the relationship, they will need to get a divorce. That information is available in the same manner as other types of divorce records.

If you still have lingering questions about what you can search for or how to access this information, you can review the Vital Statistics Section’s Marriage & Divorce FAQ Page or call them at 888-963-7111. They are available to answer any questions you may have Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

A good starting point is to search through the available divorce indices provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Vital Statistics Section.⁷ Here, you can find a year-by-year divorce index, starting in 1968, for the entire state of Texas.

If, for some reason, you are having trouble accessing this information, you can always send an email to [email protected]. These marriage indexes are available to the general public and contain the following helpful information:

• Full name of each party
• Age of each party at the time of divorce
• Date of divorce
• County where the divorce was finalized
• Number of children when divorced (under the age of 18)
• Date of marriage
• File number

The marriage indexes provide quite a bit of information. However, if you need additional information, you can use the information provided in the divorce indices to support your search for the complete record at the county level.

The Availability of Divorce Records in Fort Bend County Texas

Generally speaking, divorce records are publicly available in Fort Bend County. That is why you are able to view this information through various divorce records and indexes. However, this does not mean the general public is privy to every type of divorce record.

The rights to access divorce records derived from Texas’ Public Information Act are not absolute.⁸ There are two primary restrictions to divorce records in Fort Bend County and are as follows:

Sealed Divorce Records: This is a rare exception and results when a party to a divorce files a motion that it would be harmful for a record to be viewed by the general public. They must also demonstrate that this harm outweighs the harm to the general public of not having access to this particular divorce record. The person filing the motion also has to demonstrate that there is no other option to restrict the information.

Sensitive Information in Divorce Records: A more regular exception is the limited restriction of withholding certain sensitive information from the visible divorce record. This can be seen in the redaction of personal identifying information (e.g., driver’s license or social security number) as well as the withholding of certain information on minor children.

There are different types of divorce records you can view, and while they are all generally available, the process is not the same for each. For instance, a divorce decree is a document issued by the court that makes the process final and declares various requirements for both parties to the case. A decree, as discussed earlier, must be requested by the district clerk who issued the divorce.

Divorce papers, or the record in general, can be used to view general information about the dissolution as well as specific filings that may have occurred throughout the process. You can use this to confirm a divorce occurred and other related information. General divorce record information can be accessed more easily than those documents you have to formally request.

When requesting or searching records, it’s important to be able to distinguish between certified and non-certified divorce records. Basically, non-certified records can only be used for informational purposes, while certified records are official proof that can be used in the course of handling business or legal matters. While sometimes certified records are restricted to a certain group of people, that is not the case in Fort Bend County.

Note: While there are not many restrictions at the county level, state agencies have greater restrictions for requesting divorce records. 

If, in the course of your search, you run into any roadblocks searching for a record, you might want to consider using a third-party provider. If they are not endorsed by a government agency, they can only be used for informational purposes. However, they may be able to locate hard-to-find divorce records.

There is a wide range of information you can view when looking up Ft. Bend County divorce records; use the tools outlined in this article to access the divorce record you need.