While being in the military gives you a chance to explore and travel, if you’re trying to seek a divorce, you may have found that it’s difficult to understand where to file. While an attorney can help you decide, your case is going to have many facets to it. You could, for example, have homes in multiple states, have just moved to a new home and have your official wedding registration in another state completely.
These facts can cause some complications to your divorce, but it’s not impossible. You should consider where you’re legally allowed to file for divorce first. The state you choose may have laws that could be to your benefit. For instance, in Puerto Rico, military pensions aren’t divided between you and your spouse, which could save you money in the long term.
The state you choose to divorce in should be somewhere you actually lived. For instance, if you got married in Ohio, moved to Texas and then settled in Virginia, you’d be able to file in any of these locations. Weighing the way the states handle divorce can be a major asset, so you’d want to look into the particularities of the states’ laws before you decided to file in one.
You will need to establish residency and in some cases, you’ll need to decide if you want to take an at-fault or no-fault divorce. Some states allow for at-fault divorces, which blame one party for the divorce due to adultery, abuse or other issues. In those cases, any innocent party could be entitled to a greater payout.
Source: Military.com, “Military Divorce: Why Where You File Matters,” Rebekah Sanderlin, accessed Oct. 08, 2015
