Few events strain a marriage like the events and relocation during active duty deployment. Fortunately, if you face family law issues as a military service person, you enjoy a number of special legal rights and safeguards. For instance:

• Service persons are protected by the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA) which allows for the temporary suspension of legal proceedings and transactions in order to ensure that service persons’ civil rights are not prejudiced during their terms of service.
• Military retirement pay that has been waived in order to receive veterans’ disability payments is exempt from distribution as marital property.
• Service members can exclude a portion of their retirement benefits from the marital estate by converting it to disability payments.

Rights of Military Spouses

But there are always two people in a marriage, and the rights of each must be protected. State and federal law also protect the spouses of service members, including their right to receive military-related property in a military divorce, including:

• Disposable retired pay
• Service members can not defeat an order to pay by converting pay to disability payments once the order is given

Divorce law, already complex, is further complicated by military involvement. For experienced legal assistance in pursuing your family law and divorce law legal rights as a service person or military spouse, contact our firm for a no-charge discussion.

Our lawyers have helped several soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guards with their Pennsylvania military divorce, military spousal support, military child support and paternity, PA child custody and other family law matters while they were serving on active duty in the military in the United States and overseas.

While active duty military divorce involves the same issues as traditional divorce — the division of property, child custody, child support, visitation, and alimony — there are often different rules and challenges for resolving disputes.  An attorney who is unfamiliar with the handling of military divorce issues may not be able to offer the knowledgeable guidance you need.  You need a divorce lawyer who has extensive experience handling military cases.  Our attorneys have represents many clients stationed at military installations worldwide in divorce proceedings.