Travis v. Vanderbilt, 03-25-00528-CV, May 01, 2026.
On appeal from 98th District Court of Travis County
Synopsis
A party who signs a divorce-related mediated settlement agreement and an agreed protective order “as to both form and substance,” while also waiving post-order relief and appeal, will have little room to later attack the order’s duration. In Travis v. Vanderbilt, the Third Court held that the respondent could not shorten a lifetime protective order on appeal by arguing the order lacked a family-violence finding, because he had expressly agreed to the order entered and waived further challenge.
Relevance to Family Law
This case matters well beyond stand-alone protective-order practice. In divorce litigation, parties routinely resolve overlapping disputes through global settlements that include property division, injunctive relief, temporary-order clean-up, and agreed protective-order terms. Travis confirms that when protective-order provisions are folded into a compliant MSA under Family Code section 6.602, and the respondent affirmatively approves the resulting order as to form and substance, appellate courts are likely to treat later complaints about the order’s structure, findings, or duration as waived rather than preserved. For family litigators, that has immediate consequences in divorce strategy, firearm-disability advisories, settlement drafting, and any effort to reserve appellate complaints while still striking a deal.
Case Summary
Fact Summary
April Vanderbilt filed for divorce and also sought a protective order against Keith Travis. Her application, using the Office of Court Administration form, invoked allegations including stalking and other serious misconduct. The parties, both represented by counsel, later executed a mediated settlement agreement intended to resolve both the divorce case and the protective-order application.
The MSA stated in the statutorily required manner that it was not subject to revocation and that either party was entitled to judgment on it. The agreement incorporated exhibits, including a proposed agreed protective order. The MSA also provided that the parties would agree to the protective-order terms attached as Exhibit C and that, once the MSA was signed, neither party would pursue additional relief regarding the protective order or the TRO.
The agreed protective order was not an ordinary contested order following an evidentiary hearing. Instead, it was drafted from the OCA form and edited so that the trial court approved the agreement without making a finding of family violence, while also including a duration provision stating that the order was issued under article 7B.003 and would remain effective for the duration of the parties’ lives. The parties later signed the final version of the agreed protective order, including language that it was “APPROVED AND CONSENTED TO AS TO BOTH FORM AND SUBSTANCE.” The order also included a waiver of post-order relief, including appeal, and firearm-related admonitions.
After entry of the order, Travis moved to reconsider and modify it, asking the trial court to reduce the duration from lifetime to two years. His central position was that because the trial court made no family-violence finding, the statutory basis for a lifetime duration had not been properly invoked, and the order should default to a two-year term. The trial court denied the motion, and Travis appealed.
Issues Decided
- Whether a respondent who signed a compliant MSA and an agreed protective order as to form and substance could later challenge the protective order’s lifetime duration.
- Whether the absence of a family-violence finding or other statutory finding made the duration provision sufficiently defective to permit post-judgment modification despite the parties’ consent.
- Whether the respondent’s express waiver of post-order relief and appeal barred appellate review of the complained-of duration term.
Rules Applied
The court’s analysis turned on a combination of family-law settlement-enforcement rules and the longstanding doctrine limiting appellate attack on agreed judgments.
- Texas Family Code section 6.602 provides that a statutorily compliant MSA in a divorce case is binding and entitles a party to judgment on the agreement.
- Under Highsmith v. Highsmith, 587 S.W.3d 771 (Tex. 2019) (per curiam), a compliant MSA is generally binding on both the parties and the trial court absent a recognized exception.
- Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 7B.003 addresses protective orders for victims of sexual assault, abuse, stalking, trafficking, and related offenses, and contemplates findings by the court.
- Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 7B.007(a) provides that a protective order issued under article 7B.003 may be effective for the duration of the lives of the offender and victim, or for a shorter stated period; if no period is stated, the default is two years.
- Texas Family Code section 85.001 addresses findings and issuance of protective orders under Title 4, including family-violence findings.
- The court also relied on the settled principle that a party generally cannot appeal from or collaterally attack a judgment to which he consented, absent circumstances such as lack of actual consent, fraud, collusion, or jurisdictional defect.
- The opinion cited authorities such as Hampton v. Helton, 705 S.W.3d 343 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2024, no pet.), and In re S.M., 658 S.W.3d 876 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2022, no pet.), reflecting the rule that a party who agreed to a protective order without findings cannot later complain that findings were omitted.
Application
The Third Court framed the dispute as a consent problem, not a statutory-construction opportunity. Travis attempted to characterize the lifetime duration as voidable because the order recited no family-violence finding and was not entered after the sort of evidentiary hearing contemplated by the protective-order statutes. But the court focused on what Travis had actually signed.
First, the MSA was undisputedly compliant with Family Code section 6.602. That mattered because it meant the parties were entitled to judgment on their settlement as a matter of law. The MSA expressly incorporated the agreed protective-order exhibit and expressly foreclosed additional relief concerning the protective order after execution of the settlement.
Second, the agreed protective order itself did not merely bear counsel signatures. Travis personally signed the order approving and consenting to it as to both form and substance. That is the kind of record appellate courts routinely treat as fatal to later complaints about non-jurisdictional defects embedded in the agreed judgment.
Third, the court rejected the practical maneuver underlying Travis’s appeal: agreeing to a no-findings protective order to avoid litigating the application, then later using the absence of findings as a basis to narrow the order’s duration. The court viewed that position as incompatible with the consent-judgment doctrine and with the parties’ express bargain. In substance, Travis had agreed to the very provision he later challenged.
Finally, the waiver language mattered. The record reflected that Travis had waived post-order relief, including appeal. That waiver reinforced the court’s conclusion that the duration complaint was not reviewable. Whatever tension Travis identified between the no-family-violence language and the lifetime-duration provision, the court treated that tension as a non-jurisdictional issue foreclosed by consent rather than a defect that rendered the provision open to appellate revision.
Holding
The court held that Travis could not challenge the agreed provision making the protective order effective for the duration of the parties’ lives. Because he signed the MSA, agreed that judgment could be entered on it, approved the protective order as to both form and substance, and waived post-order relief and appeal, his complaint about the order’s duration was waived.
The court further held that the trial court properly denied Travis’s motion to reconsider and modify the agreed protective order. The alleged absence of a family-violence finding did not permit him to undo or narrow a non-jurisdictional term of an order to which he had expressly consented. The order was therefore affirmed.
Practical Application
For Texas family lawyers, Travis is a drafting and preservation case disguised as a protective-order appeal. If your divorce settlement includes an agreed protective order, do not assume statutory arguments about findings, duration, or form can be raised later simply because the order was entered by agreement and not after a contested hearing. Once the respondent signs both the MSA and the order as to form and substance, a later effort to recast a negotiated term as a legal defect will likely fail unless the complaint is truly jurisdictional or tied to vitiated consent.
This has at least four practical implications. First, if lifetime duration is on the table, counsel should explicitly address the statutory basis, the client’s informed consent, and the collateral consequences, especially firearm disabilities and future enforcement exposure. Second, if the respondent intends to preserve any challenge to duration, findings, or statutory authority, that reservation must be negotiated into the settlement documents; silence, coupled with broad consent language, is dangerous. Third, lawyers should resist internal inconsistencies in agreed protective orders, because even if those inconsistencies may not support later relief for the consenting party, they can create enforcement complications and malpractice risk. Fourth, family litigators handling global settlements should treat protective-order language with the same precision they bring to property tracing, injunction terms, and possession schedules.
In practice, consider the following scenarios:
- In a divorce settlement resolving both a pending protective-order application and property issues, a respondent should not sign a lifetime agreed protective order unless the duration was a deliberate and fully explained concession.
- In a mediated resolution of a custody dispute involving family-violence allegations, counsel must decide whether to insist on findings, disclaim findings, or reserve a challenge; leaving the issue muddled may still bind the client if the final order is consented to.
- In post-judgment motion practice, a litigant cannot count on plenary power alone to reopen an agreed term that was expressly accepted and accompanied by a waiver of further review.
- When criminal exposure may follow from alleged violations of the protective order, any later effort to narrow the order will be especially difficult if the record shows informed consent to the original terms.
Checklists
Drafting Agreed Protective Orders in Divorce Cases
- Confirm the precise statutory framework being invoked for the protective order.
- Reconcile the findings section with the duration section before execution.
- State clearly whether the order is based on adjudicated findings, agreement only, or both.
- Address duration expressly rather than relying on statutory defaults.
- Include firearm and ammunition consequences in clear written advisories.
- Avoid mixing “no findings” language with remedies that typically presuppose findings unless the parties intentionally choose that structure and understand the risk.
- Make sure the final signed order matches the exhibit attached to the MSA.
Counseling the Respondent Before Signature
- Explain that approval “as to form and substance” usually waives non-jurisdictional appellate complaints.
- Explain that an MSA compliant with Family Code section 6.602 is generally binding.
- Advise the client that waiving post-order relief and appeal may foreclose later correction efforts.
- Discuss criminal-enforcement consequences of any future alleged violation.
- Discuss federal and state firearm disabilities triggered by protective orders.
- Document the advice given regarding duration, findings, and collateral consequences.
Preserving a Challenge If Settlement Is Still Desired
- Negotiate express reservation language for any issue the client may later want to challenge.
- Avoid broad waivers of post-order relief if a legal issue must remain reviewable.
- Consider whether the disputed issue can be severed from the remainder of the settlement.
- State on the record whether consent is conditioned on a particular statutory interpretation.
- Decline to approve the order “as to substance” if substantive objections remain.
- Ensure the MSA does not say no additional relief may be sought if later modification is intended to remain available.
Post-Judgment Review Before Filing a Modification Motion
- Determine whether the complained-of defect is truly jurisdictional or merely procedural.
- Review the MSA for irrevocability, entitlement-to-judgment language, and waiver provisions.
- Review the final order for consent language signed by the client.
- Compare the final order against the MSA exhibits for any genuine discrepancy.
- Assess whether any basis exists to challenge actual consent, fraud, accident, or mutual mistake.
- Evaluate whether the requested modification would contradict the express settlement terms.
- Advise the client candidly about the low odds of success where the record shows informed consent.
Citation
Travis v. Vanderbilt, No. 03-25-00528-CV (Tex. App.—Austin May 1, 2026, no pet. h.).
Full Opinion
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