Not every divorce lawyer can handle a military divorce. These divorce cases require a special set of skills and experience that not every attorney has. At Robert Sparks Attorneys, our attorneys are familiar not only with Florida’s divorce statutes, but with military-specific codes as well. You can trust our legal advocates with any military divorce, child custody, alimony, or related family law case.
If you or your spouse lives or has been stationed in Florida, then you may be able to file for a military divorce in Florida. Additionally, Florida is a no-fault divorce state, which means that you can file for divorce even if you don’t have some sort of negative complaint against your spouse. These laws also apply to military divorce.
Issues Unique to Military Divorce
The Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act (USFSPA) is a Federal law that allows Florida courts to treat any military retirement pay as a divisible asset under Florida divorce law. Depending on your unique circumstances, this means that one spouse could be eligible to receive a percentage of the serving spouse’s military pension. Of course, this depends upon how long you and your spouse were married, the financial situation of both parties, non-marital assets and other important factors.
Military divorce law also allows for the divorce proceedings to be postponed for the duration of the period that the active service member is on duty, because he or she would have no way of being physically present for the divorce proceedings while stationed out of state or overseas. This can also protect on-duty parents from getting the short end of the stick in regards to child custody arrangements.
Dividing the Pension
Military retirement benefits are up for grabs in the event of a military divorce. The USFSPA allows family law courts to use the same property division principles for division of military pensions. If you are divorcing a military member or military veteran, you should ask about how to divide military pension even if your spouse is not near retirement age yet. You may be able to request direct pay once the divorce judgment is final, once retirement has been initiated, and if the 10/10 rule has been met (military member served a minimum of 10 years in the military and was married to the individual requesting direct pay during those years).
Contact Our Military Divorce Lawyers
Every military divorce attorney at our law firm has the experience and knowledge of military dissolution of marriage laws that will benefit you and your family.
If you are considering filing for divorce and you or your spouse is a member of the military, contact a Tampa military divorce attorney at Robert Sparks Attorneys.
