Tag Archive for: military divorce

Pentagon supports protecting child custody rights of troops

For members of the military, divorce can be a complicated process. Unfortunately, military life is often difficult, and troops are subject to overseas deployment. Because of the difficulties of military life, many family law judges have been hesitant to give soldiers custody of their children in a divorce.

The Pentagon had opposed the idea of a federal law on the issue in the past, but it recently changed its position regarding to child custody issues for American troops. According to an announcement by Robert Gates, the Pentagon and Congress will begin working with each other to create federal legislation designed to protect the child custody rights of military personnel. They are hoping to create a bill guaranteeing that active duty military personnel involved in disputes over child custody are not at risk of penalization due to military service.

Representative Michael Turner, who has been sponsoring this type of legislation since 2006, was thrilled by the news. He sponsored the Service Members Family Protection Act, which would have prohibited the deployment of military personnel from being used as a factor against them during child custody cases.

It is difficult to determine the number of divorced troops that have lost custody of their children as a result of deployment, since the details of family court proceedings are often not public knowledge.

Some feel that federal legislation in child custody issues will complicate family law in state courts. Congressman Turner, however, believes that federal law is necessary due to the often-nomadic lifestyle of active duty military personnel. The state residency of service men and women can vary depending on deployment and where they live, making it difficult to determine jurisdiction in child custody cases.

A federal law would help protect the custody rights of troops regardless of where they are stationed. Turner believes that American service personnel should not have to “worry about losing their children while they defend us overseas.”

Source: Stars and Stripes, “Pentagon to support bill to protect troops’ child custody rights,” Charlie Reed, 2/17/2011

Commission recommends uniform protections for military parents

When it comes to family law, state laws can vary greatly. For example, some Wisconsin laws governing divorce, child custody and child support differ from Minnesota or Michigan’s laws. This can create confusion and turmoil when a divorce or child custody case crosses state lines.

In effort to provide more uniformity between the states, a group called the Uniform Law Commission was created. Most recently, the commission has been working on a set of uniform codes that states can adopt to standardize custody rights for military parents.

The commission, which is made up of about 350 attorneys from across the nation, met this week to approval to the Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act, which addresses child custody rights for parents who are deployed.

Currently, a majority of states have enacted laws that protect the custody and visitation rights of military parents, but the rules lack consistency.

“States are all across the board on those issues, so the impetus for the uniform act was to provide states with a well-conceived piece of legislation that takes the best practices from all the states that we have seen and give them some guidance,” a lawyer for the Uniform Law Commission said.

Some of the issues that will be addressed in the uniform codes include: how to determine which court has jurisdiction when a military parent is assigned to a base in another state; visitation rights for step-parents or grandparents when a parent is deployed; and what should happen with a temporary custody when a parent returns from deployment.

Once recommended by the Uniform Law Commission, it will be up to the state legislatures to adopt the inform codes into law.

Years ago, the commission drafted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, which was adopted by 49 states as a standard for determining jurisdiction and child support orders between states.

Source: Newsday, “U.S. panel: Improve child custody rules for military,” July 18, 2012