Military Divorce
I get a lot of questions from folks about military divorce. In general, these questions revolve around child custody with an active duty military parent, military retirement, service of process on a member of the military who is on active duty and child support. Military divorce has many of its own issues that you don't find or which are handled differently than a regular divorce.Service of Process
There are laws to protect service members who are deployed or on active duty. In the civilian context, when you serve divorce papers on someone you can have them served at home or at work. If you have them served at home there is not a requirement that they personally are served. Anyone over 18 years of age in the household can be served the papers and that is effective service. Once they are served, they have twenty days to respond to the complaint or a default may be taken against them.Active military personnel are protected against this with the Service Members Civil Relief Act (previously known as the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act). Not only can they not be served divorce papers, no divorce action may be taken against them while they are on active duty or immediately after the return from active duty.
Exercising Custody and Visitation While Deployed
Idaho allows a soldier to delegate their right to visitation and custody to another party by power of attorney. What this means is that if a member of the armed services is deployed they can give their visitation rights to whomever they want (obviously within reason). While it can and does cause irritation with the other parent, particularly if the right of visitation is given to a new partner or significant other, this allows a proxy to exercise regular and frequent contact while the service member is away on active duty.Military Retirement
Military retirement and how it is divided is one of those things that have changed over time. While a military spouse is entitled to half of the retirement acquired during their marriage, it hasn't always been that way. At one point, maybe more, in Idaho law, military retirement belonged to the service member alone.The division of military retirement requires specific paperwork to be divided correctly and for the proper accounting to be made.
Child Support
Believe it or not, there are issues with child support and military personnel. These often revolve around the actual income of the soldier. A soldier's income will include their regular pay, any disability the receive as well as any vouchers, housing or otherwise, that they receive.If you need a divorce and want to speak with a Boise Divorce Attorney, give us a call at (208) 472-2383. You will be glad you did.
