With all the emotional pain that goes along with ending a marriage, navigating the legalities of divorce can feel like an extra kick in the teeth. If you are serving in the military and seeking a divorce in Texas, here are some things you should know about your residency eligibility and legal rights in this situation.
Residency Requirements
Because divorce is handled on a state-by-state basis, it's important for military servicemembers to know where they should file. To meet Texas residency requirements for divorce, a military servicemember must have been a resident or stationed in Texas for the last six months. In addition, he or she must have lived or been stationed in the county in which they file for the last 90 days.
Other Texas Divorce Laws
For military servicemembers, it is entirely possible that only one spouse is a Texas resident at the time a divorce suit is filed. If that is the case, the divorce proceeding may happen in Texas if the nonresident can be in contact with the court.
Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, any children of the marriage will fall under the jurisdiction of the court so long as the children are residents or one parent has a "significant relationship" with Texas. The court will retain jurisdiction until children turn 18 or another court accepts the jurisdiction over the child by operation of law.
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
Written by Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Chris Smith and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) protects the legal rights of active duty military personnel while they are stationed overseas. Though SCRA generally deals with financial hardship and insurance situations, it also applies to court proceedings when a servicemember cannot be present.
Under SCRA, servicemembers receive an automatic 90-day stay in civil proceedings. And if an additional stay is subsequently requested but denied, the court is required to appoint counsel to protect the servicemember's rights while he or she remains on active duty. This means that if a suit for divorce is filed against an active-duty military servicemember, a decision may not be reached until he or she has a chance to respond or have a representative respond in court.
Other Issues Upon Divorce for Servicemembers
In addition to the issues of a normal divorce, military servicemembers and former servicemembers face many unique issues during a divorce. These issues range all the way from visitation, child support, division of retirement benefits, cost of living adjustments (COLA), and the impact of federal income taxes. Another unique area in a military divorce is the survivor benefit plan (SBP) for active duty retirees. With all the unique issues of military services, it is important for the family law attorney to understand the impact of certain aspects of military service such as pay grade, longevity, pay in allowance, pay entry base date, retirement points, cost of living adjustments, retiree account statement (RAS), gross retired pay, disposable retired pay, reserve components survivor benefit plan (RC-SBP).
