UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Divorce and Military Families

The stress faced by military  families, frequent moves and deployments can spell disaster for military families. For you, as for most families, divorce can be a life tragedy. You and your spouse entered into marriage with plans for a happy and long future. Perhaps you have children who are young and vulnerable. Divorce can leave your children feeling afraid and uncertain about their future. It can also leave you feeling vulnerable and lost, particularly if you are far from home, without the support of friends and family.

A frequent question asked by military spouses is whether they have to file for divorce in the State where they are based and their children are living, or whether they can file in Michigan. This is particularly true when Michigan is the place they call "Home."

High rate of divorce among females in military?

Don Moore reports on the blog Divorce360 that women soldiers in the United States military are more than twice as likely to become divorced as their male counterparts, according to figures released by the Department of Defense. And no one is exactly certain why. The military's figure for divorce in the service for women soldiers of 7 percent is almost twice the comparable figure of the female civilian population in the U.S. who get divorced.

Benjamin Moore, lead researcher for the Rand Corporation speculated as to the cause for these high rates of divorce among female service persons:

Military families and domestic violence

On February 15, 2008 the New York Times published an article entitled "When Strains on Military Families Turn Deadly" by Lizette Alvarex and Deborah Sontag. The article details the failure of the Department of Defense's Family Advocacy Program to protect the families of military personnel from domestic violence. The stress of war has exacerbated the pressure on our military personnel and has led to terrible, often fatal, acts of domestic violence.

The question is: How can these violent acts be prevented? I urge all lawyers who have any contact with and/or are representing family members of military personnel to read this article to the end. It's not easy. The cases described in the article are horrific.

Military Deployments: How to Avoid the Danger that Deployment, as an Unmarried Custodial Parent, Could Trigger a Change in Circumstances Permitting the Trial Court to Re-visit and Modify an Existing Custody and Parenting Time Order.

One of the certainties facing our American military personnel is that there will be a deployment or deployments in their future. Many of our men and women in the armed forces are custodial parents in single-parent households. How can these fathers and mothers protect their custodial relationships with their children when a deployment means placement of the children with a non-custodial parent or with a third party or parties such as aunts and uncles or grandparents?

Let me first make it clear that I am a Michigan family lawyer and I can only speak from the viewpoint of what Michigan law provides. I have a strong belief, however, that what I am about to tell you may also be true in the state where a custody and parenting time / visitation was entered regarding your child or children. Let me also be clear about the fact that every family law case is “fact-driven.” What I mean by that is that every family has its own unique set of circumstances and specific facts that will ultimately provide a trial court with the factual basis to rule in your favor --- or, sadly, to rule against you.

<p>My goal here is to provide you with the information, the forms, and the skills that will help you to protect your custodial relationship with your child or children. Bear in mind that I am providing you with general information that is not intended to create an attorney/client relationship. For expert guidance to resolve and to protect your specific family situation, you should consult with a professional in your state of residence.</p>

That said, let’s take a look at two specific cases decided by the Michigan Court of Appeals to see how the voluntary relinquishment of a child because of a deployment may impact on the custodial relationship.

Deployed troops battle for custody of children

When Lt. Eva Crouch was mobilized with the Kentucky National Guard, she had to leave behind her daughter Sara, 6 years after a divorce in which she was awarded primary custody. Sara went to live with her father. Fortunately, she was not deployed to Iraq, but ended up at Fort Knox and was able to visit with Sara most weekends. Eighteen months later, her assignment finished, Crouch called her ex-husband’s home to say that she’d pick Sara up the next day. His response stunned her: “Not without a court order you won’t.”

Thus began an extended court battle. First the trial court in Kentucky ruled in favor of Crouch’s ex-husband, deciding that it was in Sara’s best interests to stay with him. Appeals to higher courts followed. It took two years and about $25,000 before a Kentucky appellate ruled that Lt. Crouch should have custody. In doing so, the court relied, in part, upon a new statute in Kentucky, one that Crouch had fought to get enacted.

Military Deployments and Child Custody Orders

The Michigan Court of Appeals issued an unpublished decision on July 18, 2006 remanding to the trial court and directing that court to comply with a Michigan statute that requires the court to return a child to a parent who has returned from active military duty. In addition, the COA reversed two prior court orders that changed custody from the custodial parent after she attempted to vest the maternal grandparent with guardianship upon her deployment rather than to allow the non-custodial father to care for the child in her absence.

More on Deployments and Custody

Attorney Grant Griffiths has written on his blog Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer about a custody decision awarding custody of a 2-year-old to the mother after a father was deployed to Iraq for a significant period of time, rejecting the father's request for a delay under authority ot the Servicemembers' Relief Act.

For information about divorce and military families, see Jeanne Hannah's website

What Resources are Available to Help Military Families with Domestic Abuse Issues?

Michigan family law practitioners frequently are called upon to advise clients who are in the military. But how many family lawyers know about the domestic violence advocacy resources available to these clients through the Department of Defense? One such resource is the Family Advocacy Program (“FAP”), which helps family members married to employees of the DoD who are victims of domestic violence escape an abusive relationship. Counseling, rehabilitative services, and support – financial support – is available [Described more fully below]

The Department of Defense has taken a zero tolerance position on the issue of domestic abuse, saying:

"Child and spouse abuse threatens the fabric of our entire society. Concern for the welfare of Navy families and the effects of family violence on military performance prompted the establishment of the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) in 1976. Today the FAP is designed to address the prevention, identification, reporting, intervention, treatment, and follow-up of child and spouse maltreatment. Family Advocacy is a leadership issue. As part of "taking care of our own" it is the responsibility of each Navy and Marine Corps service member to ensure the safety health and well being of his/her family members. Additionally, each member is expected to exemplify Navy and Marine Corps leadership core values of honor, courage and commitment. Child and spouse abuse is unacceptable and incompatible with these high standards of professional and personal discipline."

Information I received from the Department of Defense indicates that family advocates will be looking at all forms of family violence, not just aggravated (injury-causing) physical violence. There are “degrees” of family violence; thus spousal abuse by definition at FAP includes physical violence that does not cause injury; verbal abuse; intimidation; and patterns of isolating, emotionally abusing, and/or economically controlling the victim. Threats, forced degrading behavior, and reprisals for reporting are also regarded as domestic abuse by FAP.

Military Families and Access to Courts

With so many Americans overseas on active duty now, those left behind encounter various legal problems that cannot be resolved under normal family court procedures.

Mark E. Sullivan, co-chair of the Military Committee, ABA Family Law Section, has put together a good resource for military couples. A Judge’s Guide to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act , is available on the web site of the American Bar Association.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act replaces the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act. It appears at 50 U.S.C. App. § 501 et seq. The Judges’ Guide will tell you how judges can decide whom it covers, how it works, and how to administer a case in which a servicemember is involved.

For information about divorce and military families, see Jeanne Hannah's website.