Divorce cases in the American Navy stand at about 12.5%. Most of them involve active service members with children that need parental care. Most active military divorce cases involve the determination of child custody. This determination is often challenging. More so, when active service members are deployed for service abroad or on another base.
Also, the relocation of a spouse who isn’t in active service may also pose a challenge. Are you a serviceman or woman that is in a current military divorce case? Is your military lawyer giving you enough legal support and advice? You’ve visited the right forum, where you can get insightful ideas on what may affect your child’s custody.
The Child Care Plan
All servicemen and women involved in divorce cases with their spouses have to create a joint family care plan for their children. For instance, they have to plan about health, schooling, finances, and upkeep matters. They’re also supposed to plan for the child’s care when they are away from their home. Such plans of care are essential when one or all parents move or get deployed.
If you’re to get custody or joint custody you should be proactive in engaging in the making of family care plans for your children before attending to matters of your military divorce case.
The Impact of Active Service and Duty on Child Custody
During active service abroad or to bases with no facilities to host children, the active serviceman or woman may have to leave the child with the spouse. Sometimes a designated guardian or close relative may be allowed to have temporary custody while the parents are away. Sometimes lengthy service time abroad may increase your chances of losing custody.
Relocation Arrangements
Some service members move to overseas or local destinations as part of their job. The judges often need the relocating parent to show that the relocation will be beneficial for the child before custody is awarded to the relocating parent. The judges may also ask you to permit regular travels of the child to the other parent for periods such as the summer holidays before they can approve custody.
Such arrangements may also include visits of the parent that is not given custody. But they’ll depend on the plans reached in courts before a judge’s ruling. Apart from losing custody it’s even possible for the parent without custody to be denied such visits on a temporary basis. Such cases happen to, abusive parents, or parents that don’t adhere to the set out rules of visits.
Service Member Rights
Servicemen and women have rights to protect their rights and claims to their child or children in the proceedings of the divorce. The 50 states have varying protections for servicemen and women during military divorce cases, but they may differ. For instance, potential future or present absences because of military service isn’t permitted to be the only reason to determine your custody status change after it’s made.
Custodial orders should also not be changed without the consent or notification of the parent that has the custody of the child as decided during the military divorce.
Military divorce case proceedings relating to child custody can also delay if one parent is in active duty.
Legal help in military divorce cases
As a serviceman or woman, you’ll also need the help of a family law attorney to handle your divorce case. Custody cases that involve children and some non-military spouses can’t be held in pure military courts. As such, you need the services of a good family lawyer with enough experience. Such a family lawyer or military divorce attorney should also understand about the military and similar military divorce cases.
When considering the launch of your military divorce case you should also think about all these factors, which may affect the outcomes of custody if you have a child. Try to discuss all these issues with your military attorney before the case.
