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Important issues surrounding military divorce

by | Dec 16, 2016 | Firm News, Military Divorce |

A military divorce needs to be handled very differently from a regular divorce from a legal perspective. As such, when a military servicemember goes through the divorce process, several important areas need to be considered and addressed either in court or in an out-of-court settlement. At Mercedes R. Wechlser, PA, we regularly help our clients with a variety of military divorce-related issues including:

— Dividing military pensions: Perhaps the most important concern for military members and their soon-to-be ex-spouses relates to the division of military retirement benefits. Under federal law, the spouses of military members are permitted to receive part of the military member’s retirement benefits if there was a 10-year overlap between the marriage and the servicemember’s military career. In addition, Florida law may still allow for division of benefits if the marriage overlap was less than 10 years.

— Child custody and parenting plans: Because many military members must serve duty away from their families and cannot assume their parental responsibilities while deployed away from their hometowns, child custody and parenting plans become more complicated. That said, it is possible to create a plan that is specially tailored to the parents’ needs.

— Calculating military income: The calculation of military income could be a little more complicated than calculating civilian income in terms of making estimates for child support and alimony obligations.

When it comes to a military divorce, two important laws come into play: the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. At the law offices of Mercedes R. Wechlser, PA, we are available to use these laws to advocate for the divorce rights of military servicemembers and their spouses and to ensure that their divorce proceedings are handled fairly and appropriately.