Denton County divorce without children: forms, the standing order and the AI certificate
Denton County adds two county documents to the statewide Set 1 forms, and one of them has a certificate only you can sign. Here is the sequence and the county-specific traps, from the county's published orders.
Updated 2026-10-15 · Sources: txcourts.gov Divorce Set 1; Denton County standing order (Feb. 27, 2025) and AI-use order (2026); Denton clerk filing handout; Tex. Fam. Code §§ 6.301, 6.702
What makes Denton different
The four-page standing order travels with the petition. Denton County's Standing Order Regarding Children, Property and Conduct of the Parties (February 27, 2025) applies to every divorce, including no-children cases. Section 7.1 calls for all four pages to be attached to the petition and its copies. For e-filed petitions, the stated consequence of leaving it off includes the clerk declining to issue citation.
The district courts' AI order has a certificate you sign personally. The 2026 Standing Order Regarding Use of Artificial Intelligence covers self-represented litigants, not only attorneys. Page 3 is the case-specific certificate you complete and sign yourself; page 4 is attorney-only. Software — including ours — cannot certify this for you.
Court-specific instructions apply only once a court is assigned. The 393rd District Court publishes self-represented litigant instructions and a list of common reasons orders are rejected. Those govern that court's later review and prove-up; they are not countywide filing requirements for the petition.
The Denton clerk's filing-without-an-attorney handout is the current procedural contact point; older handouts contain dated fee and pandemic material.
Texas basics that apply in every county
Residency: one spouse has lived in Texas for 6 months and in the county for 90 days before filing (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.301).
Waiting period: the court cannot grant the divorce until at least 60 days after the petition is filed (§ 6.702), except in family-violence cases.
The forms: the Texas Supreme Court's Divorce Set 1 (no children, no real property): Original Petition, Waiver of Service, Final Decree. The petitioner files the petition first; the respondent signs the waiver before a notary after it is filed; the decree is signed at the prove-up.
Empty boxes: Set 1's instructions say to complete the spaces unless directed otherwise; the decree says to write "none" for a separate-property category that is empty. The cause number and court are the clerk's. See what to write in empty boxes.
VS-165: the Texas DSHS vital-statistics form is completed separately by the parties (its instructions say "0" children when there are none) and submitted when the court's final-stage procedure calls for it.
Fee: paid to the district clerk; the amount is on the clerk's current fee schedule and is not quoted here. A Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs can be filed instead if you qualify.
Five ways a Denton packet comes back
Standing order pages missing from the petition or its copies.
Cause number or court number filled in by the petitioner.
Waiver signed before the petition was filed, or the notary block incomplete.
AI certificate missing, or filled in by someone other than the party.
"N/A" in signature, notary or court boxes.
Prepare the unsigned petition, waiver and decree free; pay $129 only when the packet is ready.
FilingFoundry asks each spouse separately, transcribes the answers into the court-original Divorce Set 1 forms, keeps the cause number, court, judge and notary boxes empty, attaches the county orders where required, and checks the packet before download. You still sign, pay the district clerk's fee, file, complete the respondent's notarized waiver after filing, and attend or arrange the prove-up.