We represent both military service members and military spouses seeking to file a divorce action. Perhaps you live stateside and wish to serve papers upon a spouse who’s stationed elsewhere — even abroad. Or, you might be a deployed active duty service member needing help to understand your rights under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act.
Regardless of your situation, our divorce lawyers can help with a comprehensive strategy to determine the best way to proceed.
Military pay can be drastically affected by divorce. As a service member or military dependent, you likely know that military families often receive additional pay in the form of a Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), which depends on a service member's marital status and number of dependents.
Military retirement benefits can be a substantial asset acquired during your marriage, but also come with very strict rules and procedures for calculation, or division between, spouses. You need an attorney who can help you understand and protect your rights during your divorce.
We can help you start a plan of action to best protect your family and make sure you receive a fair result. If you’re stationed out of the state, we can work remotely to get everything ready before filing with the court.
When children are involved, military deployment and transfers can present unique challenges when crafting a parenting plan. Special considerations and flexibility need to be given to account for the fact that a parent may be involuntarily transferred or deployed away from their children.
In any event, the parenting plan needs to be carefully crafted to maximize the children’s opportunities for good contact and ample time with a parent who has essential military work to do.
A lawyer who’s familiar with military divorce will represent your and your child’s best interests.
This depends on a number of factors like the length of the marriage, years of service, if there are children, etc. That said, an ex-spouse could be entitled to military medical benefits, child support, spousal support, retirement benefits, moving expenses, access to the commissary and other base services and facilities.
This is a rule that determines a non-servicemember spouse’s eligibility for military benefits upon dissolution of the marriage. Eligibility is based on the length of the marriage that occurred while the ex-spouse was actively serving.
It can vary, but usually it takes at least three months. This is because there’s a mandatory 90-day waiting period if one or both parties are active military members.
It’s no more difficult than a non-military divorce. However, there are special rules and requirements governing military divorces that wouldn’t apply for “regular” divorces, which is why it’s important to have a lawyer who specializes in military divorces by your side.
