Obtain Free Comal County Divorce Records: Verify Status

Look up free Comal County divorce records on anyone who has finalized this type of separation within the county. Divorce records are generally public in Texas; most details regarding any divorce case can be readily accessed by those interested.

The right to access divorce details is valuable because it brings transparency and accountability to the community. Therefore, no one should ever hesitate to reach out for public records.

This resource will assist anyone seeking information about divorces in Comal County, Texas; it also covers all the resources available to do so, both online and in person.

How Do I Find Comal County Divorce Records for Free?

Uncovering information about someone’s marital status, in particular, if they have or have not been through a divorce, isn’t a difficult task in Comal County. In fact, general information about divorces handled in Comal County is available through the Case Records Search tool provided by the District Court.¹

This system is free to use and allows users to search all cases handled under their jurisdiction. Searchers using the Case Records Search tool to find facts about a divorce case should choose to search Civil Family Case Records among the available options. When taken to the search page to get started, they must include the name of one of the parties.

In this system, inputting only a last name will work, which is helpful in some cases. However, adding a first name (or at least a partial one) is more likely to lead to relevant results. Searches using the Comal County tool can be narrowed down by including a filing date range or by choosing, for example, to only look at closed cases – which would exclude ongoing divorce proceedings and exclusively present cases that have already had a determination by the judge.

The results will appear in the form of a list, which includes the case number, names of the parties and type of case (among other things). Searchers should look at the type of case to find divorce cases since they’ll be searching among all family and civil cases.

When users click on the case number, they’re taken to a page that provides more details about the divorce they seek. What this page will reflect depends on a few variables: how old the case is, how complicated it was to resolve it, etc. More importantly, it’ll show when the divorce decree was finalized – which is helpful if a paper copy of the divorce is needed and the Clerk’s Office needs to be contacted.

After searching this divorce index, whenever copies of public divorce records are needed, they can be requested with the Comal County Clerk’s Office by email, by phone, by mail, or in person.³

Requests by phone and in person can be made using the following contact information:

Comal County Clerk’s Office
Main Office
150 N Seguin – Suite 1037
New Braunfels, TX 78130

Phone: 830.221.1230
Fax: 830.620.3410

Citizens interested in placing a request must call the office or appear in person. Those individuals will be assisted on the spot and walked through the process of obtaining the records they desire.

Mail and email requests must include all the information available about the divorce case in question, such as names of parties, dates, and the case number. It’s also mandatory to send a payment confirmation for the request.

For payments, Comal County works with a third-party service called Certified Payments. Users should access their website and input the following identifiers when making a payment:

• Bureau Code: 9912934
• Ticket Number: The case number (which can be found with the Case Search Tool)

After the payment is collected, a receipt with a transaction number is provided, and that can be used to let the Clerk’s Office know the payment was properly finalized. This information must be sent with the letter or email.

Regardless of how the order for records is placed, regular printed copies cost $1 per page, while certified copies are $5 per page. The Comal County Clerk’s Office also has a full fee schedule available online to be checked, and when in doubt, citizens can call and check ahead of making a payment how much is due in total.⁴

It’s important to keep in mind that email responses only allow for uncertified records. If certified copies are needed, the copies must be picked up in person or mailed out (in which case, mailing fees may apply).

Review Divorce or Dissolution of Marriage Information via the Clerk’s Satellite Locations Within Comal County

Local municipal courts in Comal County are responsible for handling mostly tickets and misdemeanors, and not family and civil cases. Consequently, reaching out to them would likely prove to be unproductive.

However, it’s known that dealing with a local, smaller office may turn out to be more convenient. Especially when concerned citizens need help and guidance, being able to contact a team that is engaged with the community and more willing to help may be the way to go.

The Comal County Clerk’s Office offers its services at local, smaller offices.⁵ Around the county area, citizens can conveniently contact alternative locations where they can be assisted in obtaining divorce records.

The general instructions on how to go about requesting a record are the same as mentioned in the previous section, and those are the addresses people can go to:

Comal County Clerk’s Office
Sattler Office
160 Oak Drive
Satler, TX 78133

Phone: 830.387.7704

Comal County Clerk’s Office
Bulverde Office
30470 Cougar Bend
Bulverde, TX 78163

Phone: 830.387.7620

Whenever reaching for divorce records in Comal County doesn’t lead to relevant information, citizens might need to broaden their search and consider looking at dissolutions that happened in different counties in Texas. Below, searchers will find information on how to do that.

How To Find Statewide Divorce Information via the Texas Department of Health & Human Services

By law, certified copies of divorce records can only be obtained at the county where the case was handled. However, the Texas Department of Health & Human Services, through the Vital Statistics Office, offers a solution so that searchers don’t have to visit or search county by county for information.⁶

The Vital Statistics Office provides interested people with letters of verification of divorces that happened anywhere in the state. Verification letters are informational and can’t be used for official matters, as a divorce certificate would but they’ll include all data related to the divorce: names of former spouses, dates, county where the case was handled, etc.

Divorce verifications can be obtained by ordering online, by mail, or in person for divorces recorded starting in 1968.⁷ Mail orders must be sent to the following address, along with an Application for Marriage or Divorce Record:

Texas Vital Statistics
Department of State Health Services
P.O. Box 12040
Austin, TX 78711-2040

In-person orders can be placed at the Vital Statistics main campus as follows:⁹

Texas Vital Statistics
Department of State Health Services
Austin Office
1100 West 49th Street
Austin, TX 78756

Phone: 512.776.7111

Each verification letter costs $20, and free USPS mail delivery is included in the price. Expedited shipping is available starting at $12.50, and in those cases, an expedited processing fee may apply at $5.

After finding out which county handled the divorce of interest, citizens can obtain certificates and decrees from the Clerk’s Office. To find out the contact information of each local Clerk’s Office in Texas, there’s a full list available on the Vital Record Office website.¹⁰

Are Divorce Records in Comal County Publicly Accessible?

Divorce records are public in Texas unless sealed by a court order. In other words, in general, anyone can search and find information related to most of the divorce cases in the state. The Texas Family Code governs divorce rules.¹¹

Divorce records are the full set of documents related to a marriage dissolution, including pleading and hearings, as well as everything else that was included or happened while the divorce was being handled by the court. Whoever gets a copy of the divorce records usually gets every document related to it.

A decree for a divorce, on the other hand, is the document signed by the judge determining the end of a marriage and establishing all the terms that the former spouses must meet. Often, searchers don’t need to have the full records and only request a copy of the decree.

Also, it’s valuable to know that a divorce pleading is the initial filing for a divorce and just shows the reasoning behind the filing (and not a decision or determination on a judge’s part). Pleadings initiate a divorce proceeding, nothing more. Someone who’s served divorce papers is given access to the arguments contained in the divorce pleading.

Those papers don’t mean a dissolution was finalized and, ideally, anyone served with papers would start working with a lawyer to assist them in getting all the details resolved, seeking the best outcome possible for the divorce.

At the same time everyone can access divorce information, it’s important to keep in mind the Texas stance relating to common law marriages and divorces. This state recognizes common law marriages, and people living together who follow certain standards are considered to be informally married. However, Texas doesn’t recognize common law divorces.

This means that any Individuals in an informal marriage (as the state often names it) will need to formally file for a divorce if they choose to separate. Likewise, they’ll have to go through the same proceedings any married couple would, and consequently, those dissolutions will show on searches, and there will be records for it at the Clerk’s Office.

Comal County divorce records are readily accessible, so people can readily seek and uncover valuable information about individuals around them; having access to information makes people feel safe and informed, and everyone should feel comfortable taking advantage of the tools available to them to accomplish that goal.