International Military Family Law

Divorce Overseas and Service of Process

Many times in my practice I receive a call from some who has received divorce documents through the APO. There are two reasons that this occurs, one, the attorney is trying to just get a signature and second, when the attorney thinks that they are making proper service of process.

When the divorce documents have not been filed with a court and the spouse’s attorney sends them hoping that the person overseas will sign them and return them this does not present a problem for the person receiving the documents. However, if the divorce documents are sent to the APO when the divorce has been filed with a court and the attorney is attempting to serve the overseas person this can create a problem. Service by mail, in most European countries, is not proper service. If you are stationed in any of the European countries you will need to be served under the Hague Service Convention. If you do receive filed divorce documents you can’t just do nothing as that could result in a default judgment against you.

Why I Decided to Blog

Recently I’ve received a number of emails and phone calls from people who have hired attorneys, with very good family law credentials, but with a limited knowledge of how military and overseas life impacts family law. Consequently, that lack of military and overseas experience came to roost in a less than favorable result for the military related client. What this means to me is that there is a lack of information (unbelievable considering the web) concerning this subject.

Representing a client who is an active duty military member, a DoD civilian or a contractor under the SOFA and their family members where one or more of the family lives overseas requires special knowledge. Let me give you an easy example:

Mary is an active duty member of the military. She is married to John who is also on active duty. They are both stationed in Germany and have a child that was born while they were stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas who is two years old. Mary’s Home of Record is Virginia but she has a driver’s license from Texas and Texas is on her LES. John is from North Carolina and has a North Carolina driver’s license, which expired, Florida, where his brother lives, is on his LES but John has never lived there. They were married in Las Vegas. Mary and John have been stationed in Germany for one year. Now they want a divorce. Both Mary and John have talked to Legal Assistance, their friends, and attorneys in Texas and North Carolina. This is what they have been told:

- That they have to be divorced in Germany because they are both stationed there.

- They have to divorce in Nevada because they were married there.

- They have to go back to the States to get divorced.

- Any US state court will be able to grant custody because their daughter is a US citizen.

Most of this advice is wrong. They can divorce in Germany but they can also divorce in the US. They have a couple of options as to where, but one of those options is not Nevada. However, the German court is the only court with the power to decide the custody of their child.

I hope that by addressing some of the issues surrounding this type of family law I can be of help.