Divorce when one or more spouse is in the military presents some extra complexities to everyone involved. It is worth knowing how this changes the regular divorce process and what impact it might have on a divorce with a military spouse. In the state of Washington, military divorces are not too different from regular ones, so it isn’t hard to see what the changes are.
Military Divorce
The most important thing to know about a military divorce is that overseas deployments can get in the way. A divorce conducted overseas with a foreign legal system is not valid under U.S. law, so a couple where one or both of them is overseas needs to come back to the U.S. to complete the process.
As a military spouse, both of you have the right to get free legal services on the base. This can provide you with some start-up help, but the military lawyers can’t represent a civilian, so another lawyer will be necessary for the divorce. Military divorces can have complexities in terms of managing custodial agreements when one or both spouses is active and might be transferred at any time or deployed overseas.
If you are approaching a military divorce, you need to make sure you can plan for these differences. For the most part, the process is very similar, but it still needs to be handled by people who understand the extra questions that will come up that are related to active-duty service. This will help the divorce itself go as smoothly as possible and with minimal hiccups, at least as far as military questions and issues go.
