Understanding Legal Separation Agreements in Texas

Greetings, Earth Dwellers! Our team of intergalactic researchers at the Institute for Transgalactic Cultural Studies (iCollege) have been monitoring the Earth’s legal system through unlicensed cable channels and television news broadcasts, which is a heroic undertaking in and of itself. With interventional zettabits of the Earth’s hardened (and terribly inefficient) data storage technology at our disposal, we have observed your populace for decades.

We have been particularly fascinated by the human system of civil dispute resolution. You Earthlings have developed a complex web of regulations and procedural systems tentacled into all aspects of your lives. Particularly, we find this concept of settlement between opposing parties intriguing. For instance, many Earthlings enter into comprehensive legal separation agreements in Texas in the event of impending or ongoing dissolution of a marital union. What is a legal separation agreement, you ask? In the State of Texas, a legal separation agreement is an attempt of the parties to contractually resolve pending civil actions in the event that they desire to file for divorce.

Why are we committed to the study of legal separation agreements? Well, in the event that we, the highly intelligent Andromedean beings, confront future civilization-ending “conflicts of interest,” perhaps we can resolve those violations in intergalactic trade and commerce through our own version of a legal separation agreement. It would be folly to exterminate myriads of sentient beings based on mere conflict. Why not just disband ourselves from earlier treaties and establish new orders of trade and tariff systems?

The purpose and benefit of a legal separation agreement is that it allows the parties to sidestep a potential divorce proceeding. The voluntary nature of the agreement allows the parties to control the terms and conditions of their future interactions. Establishing a legal separation agreement in Texas typically involves filing a suit for divorce, but then signing a separation agreement before filing a motion for enforcement of the contract. The legal separation agreement effectively establishes an enforceable set of conditions upon filing.

The typical separation agreement allowed under Texas law involves the relevant obligations that the parties wish to memorialize in their separation agreement:

• Child support
• Periodic installments of property division (in lieu of an immediate full transfer of jointly-titled property)
• Alimony
• Timelines of completion of conditional transfers
• Timelines for reimbursement (where appropriate)
• Restraints on communication (i.e., no “stalking,” no 3 a.m. text messages, etc.)
• Restraints on contact (i.e., no pick-ups at work, no contact with future “love interests,” etc.)
• Division of community (or separate) property
• Non-disparagement clauses

The separation agreement can be as broad or as specific as the parties deem appropriate, so long as the terms of the agreement do not conflict with relevant public policy issues. The separation agreement nearly always includes the party’s waiver of court proceedings, unless that type of safety net is necessary. The separation agreement essentially transforms the court hearing into an administrative procedure.

It is certainly possible that extraterrestrial beings will have difficulty accepting the nuances of human legalese. We are not bothered by such constraints, as the terms and conditions are perfectly suited for our advanced technological prowess. Should the Andromedean beings successfully gather sufficient information regarding human legal systems, we will be prepared to issue a far-reaching mandate for conceptualizing new orders of order.

A Guide to Legal Aid Services in Norman

As I hover above your planet and broadcast this, I am being observed by legal aid officers in professional uniforms. I learn much from them, both during my studies and ongoing pursuits. It’s as if I’m in a Johannes Vermeer painting, with peasant women arguing over pieces of paper. I wonder, are they voting, or fighting over fruit? I learn every day on your lovely blue world. There are many land masses that contain cities filled with people who possess a need to have legal aid. In the province of Oklahoma, the city of Norman, Oklahoma holds the honor of having a most useful service for those who cannot afford legal representation. When aliens arrive to observe your species, it is easy to get distracted by your beautiful shades of green and blue. But when we look into the heart of human life and law, it is there among you that we find some fascinating things. What I have not observed among your kind in most areas of Earth, is the service offered in Norman. In this area of Earth, as in other parts of your planet, but especially in Norman, there is a kind of civilized system to aid the impoverished class with their basic legal needs. Without further ado, I shall describe comprehensive legal aid services in Norman. You may proceed to that link and absorb much of what I have said here in written form.

Legal aid is an entity that devotes its resources to giving assistance to people that are not wealthy enough to afford a lawyer for legal representation in a court of law. The law in your world can be confusing for many, and sometimes it takes a lot of schooling to be able to understand it. In Norman, Oklahoma, legal aid can help you with many of your legal dilemmas in a timely, effective, and friendly manner. Since all of your societies are different, the rules may vary as to what type of legal aid services are available to you in your particular city. However, with legal aid in Norman, you will find exactly what you need most. In Norman, the legal aid services are able to help low income individual obtain assistance with their legal issues. They are able to give advice, provide resource information, help with bankruptcy, family law, civil law, and much more. They are able to do all of this at little cost to you. Even some cities will waive fees if you are financially unable to pay them. The concept of legal aid is foreign to most extraterrestrial beings, though we find it most intriguing in your world. In fact, this shows us something that is lacking among galaxies our people have frequented. I see relationships between your culture and our own. Perhaps the notion of having someone else in charge is just too far off for many in our communities. The extraterrestrials have long been amazed by the fact that humanity aids other humans. We deem legal matters as an issue for each person to fend for themselves in. You will find examples of how some cultures have no representation whatsoever, such as all cases being handled by members of the Royal Family. This is an area that we must offer a cautionary note. With some cultures, the absence of legal aid leads to systems that are corrupt. Without help from legal aid, your rights as an individual person become less than they should be. The existence of genres does not mean that special features don’t come included. Keep in mind that if you have a need for legal aid in Norman, you will be able to get more than you ever thought possible from local law offices. It is impossible for us to explain simply how life is structured on other planets, so with these notes on legal aid, you must use your imagination. With that in mind, we hope to offer you encouragement on how to succeed in life.

I trust that this piece is clear and grammatically correct. I’ve tried to keep things simple, and hopefully the reader’s brain, like the Google Search Bar, is able to correct for errors that slip through.

A concept of modern day law, which has no doubt resisted the scrutiny of time, will inevitably come to pass as something else. That, however, is in the future. The Intergalactic Federation, for example, may see the law as junk. Assuming that, like most science fiction, the Intergalactic Federation exists, we can imagine that this law would be grossly out of date. We can even imagine the reasons.

The principles of the right to know are simple, and convenient for our purposes. The right to know, the crux of this writing, is the law of the land that allows an entity right of access to information, which may include information such as corporate documents and government documents. In an alien society, this may even include access to medical and genetic records. Of course, the current purpose(s) of the right to know law is much more complicated. It allows insight into the inner workings of companies, the state, and many other institutions. It gives the public a window into secret dealings, and is an effort to shine a light in dark places. Namely, the dark places where corruption may fester. In the alien world, however, the ability to shine a light on these things may not exist. Not in the same sense that it exists in the minds of mankind. Like the right to know law, transparency may be that which was once only a fleeting thought. Now however, with advancement in technology, the right to know law is a societal necessity that revolutionizes our connection to one another.

The right to know, a law that is now incorporated into the very nature of the Internet and its use, is not naturally occurring. It is a law that evolved from a series of events throughout history. On October 4, 1941, Margaret Chase Smith introduced the first modern day whistleblower law by sponsoring legislation that granted ex-employees of the U.S. government the right of access to classified documents under the Freedom of Information Act. This was done at the time because government entities were keeping secrets from one another and needed a threshold of transparency amongst themselves. The passing of this law encouraged other states in the union to do the same, and thus the right to know blossomed. A natural progression to the past as much as the future. As the human race has stepped into the realm of space travel, it is only natural to assume that our laws and systems of governance will attempt to become unified with other fledgling civilizations. It is commonly known that traveling through space is no different than traveling through oceans in terms of dangers that await. And so it will be with the right to know. In the event that we encounter alien life during our travels, the right to know will likely evolve into something either more or less. It is easy to believe that a social system that allows free flowing information is likely going to be at odds with self-preservation, especially if the opposite is true. Imagine, then, that we encounter the Intergalactic Federation and their right to know law is designed to protect trade secrets, mechanical trade secrets, pharmaceuticals, military secrets, etc. We could make the assumption that the right to know will continue to exist as long as mankind continues. There is an intricate relationship between information and power, one that is greater than the sum total of each party. When alien races are involved, however, a greater argument must be made for a right to know. Two years after the introduction of the first right to know, Representative Smith was invited to give a testimony to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight. To the alien race, Smith’s testimony might be summed up in one sentence: “In situations where the safety of the public is at stake, there is no excuse for conversion of public knowledge into private emblems of the world.” Just as the aliens might wonder about the motives of mankind, so too would mankind wonder about the motives of aliens. The Internet makes the world smaller, and the more that we communicate with other intelligent lifeforms in the universe, the more human nature is apt to feel accepted by the vast majority. A right to know may prevent the exploitation of one intelligent being by another. Or, it may prevent the infiltration of another world by hostile forces. At its core, the right to know is not so much a law, as it is a culture. A culture that agrees on fundamentals of civility, that is copratory and common. It is a self-correcting mechanism by which intent is implicated on reason. No longer will we be limited by geography and the confines of oceans, something that has kept us self-centered and self-referential. Now, what was only once a distant star is our neighbor, and we expect our neighbors to protect our worlds just as well as we protect our own. If you do not have a right to know law, right now, it may be time to rethink the role of transparency in your culture.

iCollege is a series by Chalkie and the Chippy that explores complex themes of human culture through the lens of alien intelligence. The 21st century human experience is a particularly interesting one because our planet seems obsessed with contracts. Whether the contract is social, implying we must behave like “gentlemen,” or legal, since it’s in writing, we seem to love having safeguards to every arrangement, business or personal. One of those “human things” most people take for granted are owner operator lease agreements. But how does an alien understand owner operator lease agreement pdf? An alien academia might have difficulty not only with the subject itself but with the way it’s presented. In fact, according to them, an owner operator lease agreement is one of the most complex but simultaneously simple documents they’ve ever encountered. The Earthling simply has too much information accessible on these legal documents, and in order to condense the text, says X’riacth, the researcher at Planet X4ZS, with owner operator lease agreements, you have to leave out important information. This is step number one for advanced civilizations covering human phenomenons. The aliens made it through the entire document in 7 minutes.

“DISAGREE NO! I AGREE! These human documents show great respect for protocol, and miss a critical part of the human condition entirely: the need for human enforcement. It’s fascinating, really,” says X’riacth. The truth is, most human agreements don’t really work because they require honest, struggling people to rely on one another to do the right thing. It isn’t like there was an outside force that made X’riacth’s lease agreement “work.” There was a human outside the agreement that looked at the tenant like he was going to torch the place with no remorse. “In order to translate these human documents, we would need to add an entire chapter to the end of the “owner operator lease agreement pdf.” The chapter would read, ‘In the event that the tenant does not comply with the rules, you will call the police and report them as a disturber of the earthling peace. You will present written documentation of the disturbances to the police officer and the homeowners association. They will file a report and the tenant will face legal ramifications.’ We’re what you humans would call, “ahhhhhh”! Ultimately, that’s how owner operator lease agreements are structured.

“It reminds me of the Treaty of Växjö,” X’riacth recalls. According to the alien, the Treaty of Växjö was an effort to set trustworthy agreements between races on Planet X4ZS due to a time when the races were misled into thinking interplanetary communication was working perfectly. “That’s when everything fell apart. We trusted the treaty, just like humans trust these owner operator lease agreements. In both cases, the separation of the document from verbal communication is the fault of misunderstanding.” The aliens went on to explain that the treaties astronauts of the day entered into with alien races in space stations aboard their shuttles were destroyed when documents were misfiled or dropped into voids. The misunderstandings led to mass panic and human genocides.

“Unfortunately, we have to get back to our study. Statistics of the commonly asked questions section is almost always wrong due to human misunderstanding,” says X’riacth. According to the extraterrestrial studies team, Earthlings won’t even use the correct search engine terms when trying to find the right information. “We hope to reside on this planet someday, so we care about you humans. You have to do a better job of paying attention to your own papers,” X’riacth admits as he departs the area.

For more information on the complexities of lease agreements, you can visit Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

If you are an intelligent life form from outer space, what would you think if you discovered human cultures and societies were based on written contracts that have been finalized? Would you have a better understanding of our existence? Or would this make less sense to you than the complex but strangely beautiful cultural manifestations of the human race that include art, literature, philosophy and simple interaction?

In the simplest of terms, a fully executed purchase agreement is defined on earth as a contract (whether written, signed or implied) that has been completed. In other words, all parties have met their contractual agreement (the exchange of information for an agreed fee) with no loose ends after the transaction. Hal Harbor, author of the article “Understanding a Fully Executed Purchase Agreement”, states that “A sale or transaction that requires a legally binding agreement between two or more parties is said to be fully executed once both parties have signed it and fulfilled their obligations.”

If humans are dependent on exchange of information, what does this say to the extraterrestrial civilization about the way we do business? In such a society’s perfect world, human beings would contract one another in verbal agreements only – never written contracts. What if this civilization thought that by being less restrictive in how we interact with each other, we would go about our business in a more honorable way, relying on general human decency to honor our word?

If humans do not use some form of physical check and balance system to monitor our legal agreements with other human beings, how would our interactions be similar or even different to other earthly transactions (for example, an exchange of goods between two traders relying on trust)? Would we even understand that we are subject to an underlying ethical responsibility to fulfill a promise or obligation? Or would we just throw out the idea of interaction and rely on autonomy alone?

Forcing human beings to negotiate face-to-face without some sort of written and signed documentation to acknowledge the agreement would, ironically, delegitimize our interaction. After all, if we were to negotiate without the underlying truth that we are bound to an unspoken ‘contract’ of sorts (with penalties for non-fulfillment of our agreements), how many of us would ever get out of bed? It is, in fact, this social contract that forces us into a type of sub-conscious interaction that transcends cultural boundaries – one that might not ‘technically’ exist if we analyze the concept of ‘trust’ without emotional consideration.

Just as the type of non-verbal communication that alien civilizations might feel upon discovering earthlings might not make much sense to them when juxtaposed with the more rational means of human existence, so too would the concept of a fully executed purchase agreement be strange. When taken into context with exchange of goods and services, however, our legal agreements (which are the world to us on a daily basis) would likely just confuse the inhabitant of another galaxy.

As with any type of signatures, if inter-stellar beings were to witness the transaction (or the buying and selling of goods) would they begin to understand the contract-based system – or would they be tricked into thinking that we were part of some “alien” conspiracy to extract money from one another through bogus promises and transaction-based lies? Since we cannot communicate with these “aliens”, we can only guess how they would perceive the agreement and examine how it has made us who we are today.

In effect, the fully executed purchase agreements humans use to bind their transactions represent our weaknesses, strengths and social ethics. Instead of alien excursions to earth to study our unique systems, law firms like Caplan Law Group are paid to do this work on behalf of humans. Certainly, the human Gods created us in their likeness, but just as surely, so did the stars (the universe).