New Ulm, Texas · Family Law

You built a life between two places. Now you're afraid of losing both.

The hardest part was never the arguments. It's the pretending. Waving the same trucks by on FM 109, breakfast at the Texas Star Cafe like nothing's wrong, a normal face at church and out at the club, while both sides of this small town start to wonder.

And underneath it sits the question you won't say out loud. What happens to the land, the country place, the kids, and everything the two of you built between here and the city?

There's a way through this. Let's talk it through.

Call Law Office of Dana Baker, P.C. → (979) 356-2295

What this looks like for New Ulm families

Your case handled in the right county for where you live, filed at the Bellville courthouse on the Austin County side, or in Columbus on the Colorado County side, not handed to a stranger.
A custody plan built around real life, including which district your kids land in, Columbus ISD or Bellville, and a schedule that works between here and Houston.
An honest read on the country place: whether you keep it, what it's really worth against the Houston home, and how the rest of the estate balances out.
A quiet, respectful process, so this doesn't become the talk at St. John, the Texas Star Cafe, and out at The Falls all at once.

Divorce in New Ulm isn't like divorce anywhere else.

Here's the thing about a town that's really two towns at once. New Ulm runs on old German land, families who've farmed the country around FM 109 and FM 1094 for generations, and it runs on the newer crowd the wineries and The Falls brought out from Houston. Plenty of families sit in both. So word doesn't travel one way here, it travels two, through the pews at St. John Lutheran and the counter at Heinsohn's, and through the club and the tasting rooms. A marriage coming apart gets noticed on both sides at once.

The reality is you're not fighting over ordinary things. You're trying to protect a life you built out here on purpose. Land that's been in the family longer than anyone can remember, or a country place you drove out to on weekends until it quietly became the point. Time with kids who are rooted in their schools. A Houston career or a business that a divorce could throw into question. None of that is small, and all of it deserves someone who treats what you've built with the respect it's earned.

It tends to come on the drive out. The last stretch of FM 109 or FM 1094 as the traffic falls away and the hills open up, the country you married into or bought your way back to on the weekends. You slow through the little crossroads that is town, maybe pass the lights on at the Texas Star Cafe or the porch at Heinsohn's, and everyone you see knows you, or knows the family name, or has waved you into a booth before. That used to be the whole point of coming out here. Tonight it just feels like being watched by people who care. You turn in at the country place, the one you both said was the plan, and you sit in the truck a minute longer than you need to. Because you already understand that whatever happens to your marriage is going to happen to all of it, the land, the place, the two lives you built between here and the city. And in a community this small and this rooted, you need someone in your corner before the story gets out on both sides of town.

What you're really protecting

This was never really about the paperwork. It's about the handful of things that hold your family steady, and the fear of watching them come apart while you're stretched too thin to think. Here's what I hear from New Ulm clients most.

"I need to know if I can keep the country place, or the land, whichever one is really ours."
"We have the Houston house and the place out here. How does that even get divided?"
"My kids can't get uprooted from their school in the middle of all this."
"So much of what we have runs through my business or the land. What happens to it?"
"I don't want to be the talk at church and out at The Falls before I've told my own family."

Look, none of these are impossible problems. They're problems that need the right approach, in the right order, from someone who understands land, two-property estates, and the way a small community talks.

What your case will actually involve

Your case is handled in the right county for where you live, filed at the Bellville courthouse on the Austin County side, or in Columbus on the Colorado County side, and we handle both. Here's the good news. Most families out here settle long before a trial date. But settling well means knowing exactly what's on the table first.

The country place and the Houston home For a lot of New Ulm families the biggest question is the two-property estate. The country place usually carries weight far beyond its price tag, because it's the refuge the whole family was built around. We look honestly at what each property is worth, what's separate and what's community, and how to let one of you keep the place while the other is made whole.

The land and the operation If your family's land came down through generations, it may be separate property, but community money or years of your work can create a reimbursement claim, and ag valuations and old survey lines all move the number. If there's a working operation, cattle, hay, or hunting leases, the goal is usually to keep it running, not to liquidate it.

The county line and the school question New Ulm sits right on the Austin and Colorado county line, so your exact address can decide both which courthouse hears your case and which district your kids attend, Columbus ISD or Bellville. When custody is close to fifty-fifty, that one designation can matter a great deal, so it's worth planning around early.

Keeping it private Mediation isn't only faster and cheaper. In a town this small, where you'll see the same people at St. John and out at The Falls, it's strategy. A negotiated settlement keeps your finances and your family out of an open courtroom, and out of both sides of the conversation.

You want someone who knows this country.

Family law across Austin County and the counties around it, Colorado County included, isn't a sideline for me. It's the work I've built my practice on, in the same Bellville and Columbus courthouses your case will move through.

Early on I learned that the cases that go wrong aren't the loud ones. They're the ones where someone rushed. A country place handled without doing the math first. Land divided without tracing what was separate. A page signed just to make the discomfort stop. So I got precise, especially with land and property, where a shortcut today can cost a family for a generation. I would rather ask you the hard questions now.

"I don't measure a case by how fast it closes. I measure it by whether the land and the place are still in your family, and your kids still know their way around them, a year later."

When you hire us, you get a team of well-trained paralegals and attorneys behind you.

Family Law Estate Planning Probate Serving Austin & Colorado Counties

Questions New Ulm families ask me

Where do I file for divorce if I live in New Ulm?

New Ulm sits in Austin County, so most New Ulm residents file at the Bellville courthouse, about 30 minutes away, and we represent clients there.

Here's the wrinkle. New Ulm straddles the Austin and Colorado county line, so a place on the Colorado side files in Columbus instead. We handle both, and we confirm the right county by your exact address before anything is filed.

We have a home in Houston and the country place in New Ulm. How is that divided?

Both properties are part of the marital estate and have to be characterized and valued.

The reality is the country place usually carries more weight than its price tag, because it's the refuge the family is built around. Deciding who keeps it, and how the other side is made whole from the Houston home and the rest, is often the heart of the case.

My family's land has been ours for generations. Is it protected?

In Texas, land you owned before your marriage is generally separate property and stays yours.

It's rarely that clean, though. If community money or years of your work improved that New Ulm acreage, your spouse may have a reimbursement claim, and any mineral interest on old Austin County land has to be found and valued too. Proving what's separate takes documentation, not just the family story.

Which school district will my kids be in, Columbus or Bellville?

New Ulm is split between Columbus ISD and Bellville ISD along the county line, so your exact address decides which one your kids attend.

Most of the community is zoned to Columbus ISD, with the eastern edge in Bellville ISD. When custody is close to fifty-fifty, the primary residence designation can determine which district your children stay in, so it's much easier to plan around early than to fight over later.

How do custody schedules work when one of us is in Houston during the week?

For most settled cases, the schedule is built around your real life, not a courtroom's.

Look, a lot of New Ulm families split the week between a Houston job and the country place. A custody plan can account for that, but it takes planning, and it's far easier to structure up front than to renegotiate later.

How do I keep this private in a town where I'll see everyone at church and at the club?

A negotiated settlement or mediation keeps your case out of an open trial and off the public record.

In New Ulm the fear isn't only legal. It's the story reaching the pews at St. John and the tables out at The Falls at the same time. Settling quietly is how you keep your business your own.

You don't have to have it figured out before you call. That's what the call is for. Book a conversation →

You've been carrying this quietly, on both sides of town.
You don't have to carry it alone.
Call us.

One conversation. By the end of it you'll know what you're actually dealing with, what your options are, and what your next move should be. Not reassurance. A plan.