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Child custody in military divorce proceedings

| May 17, 2017 | Child Custody and Visitation

Child custody disagreements concerning military divorce proceedings can be a little more complicated than normal divorce matters. One of the main issues relates to the service member who is deployed and working overseas away from his or her family. This service member may have a hard time advocating for child custody because he or she is not present to care for the child.

It’s not uncommon for military parents deployed overseas to lose child custody while they are deployed. The loss of custody might technically only be temporary, but once the service member returns home, it could be hard to regain custody of the child. In fact, in some child custody situations, courts will deem that the child’s best interest is served by allowing the child to stay with the parent who cared for him or her while the service member was deployed.

Military custody battles may take many forms. In some cases, the deployed military parent with primary custody might leave his or her children with a stepparent to care for them, and the other biological non-military parent could file to receive custody. In these situations, the biological non-military parent may file for temporary custody, and later seek permanent custody. When both spouses are in the military and could be deployed at different times, the situation becomes even more complicated to navigate.

A Tennessee military lawyer with experience litigating child custody disputes for service members can be of great assistance to any divorcing military parent. At Law Office of Steven C. Girsky, we regularly help service members navigate their divorce proceedings to protect their child custody rights.

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