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Virginia Military Divorce Secrets

A few weeks ago, my coworker, Lorna Rhoades, and I were guests on a podcast about Virginia military divorce. As a former military spouse, Lorna had a lot of really interesting insights into how it feels to be married to a military servicemember. One of the things that Lorna said, that I thought was interesting,…

Effect of Military Service on Child Custody and Visitation In Virginia

If you or your child’s other parent is in the military, you may be wondering if military service will have an affect upon your child custody or visitation case.  Child custody or visitation cases can be more complicated when a military service member subject to deployment, or transfer to locations overseas or to another state,…

Military Support Guidelines

A lot of people, military and civilians alike, are pretty unrealistic when it comes to post divorce spousal support. Though it’s certainly understandable (because, after all, if you’ve never been through a divorce before—and, sometimes, even if you have—how do you know what’s to be expected? All you probably are aware of is that the…

The Thrift Savings Plan in Virginia Military Divorce

The TSP, or Thrift Savings Plan, is the federal government’s version of a 401(k) plan. Military service members, members of the reserves, and other federal employees are entitled to participate in the Thrift Savings Plan. Retirement accounts, as you probably already know, are super important in divorce cases. If we’re talking about equitable distribution (the…

Getting the GI Bill in Virginia Military Divorce

The GI Bill originated after World War II to help returning veterans go back to school as a reward for their service to our country. Over time, the GI Bill has changed and evolved and, in the wake of September 11th, the GI Bill changed again. Today, it covers the full cost of an undergraduate…

Does my military healthcare have to stop once I’m divorced?

There are a lot of disadvantages to the military, and certainly to military healthcare. Regardless of whether you have TriCare Standard or TriCare Prime, you probably have a lot of gripes. Most military families I know have some complaints about the military healthcare system. One thing they can agree on, though? The price is right,…

What to expect in a Virginia military divorce

On Monday, we talked about the differences between military and civilian divorce. So far, we’ve mostly discussed the ways that military and civilian divorces are similar. (Shocking, right?) Well, as you already know, military and civilian divorce are a little bit different. Procedurally, they’re very similar, but there are certain assets that exist in military…

Divorce Military Benefits

Getting a divorce is bad enough, but getting a divorce when your spouse is a military service member is often even more difficult. Not only are you divorcing him, but, unless you’re a 20/20/20 spouse (more on that later), you’re divorcing the military, too—and all of the benefits it provided you and your family. Civilians…

The Ashley Madison Hack: A Divorce Lawyer’s Perspective

With all of the recent hullabaloo surrounding the Ashley Madison website hack, people have been asking me a lot of questions about what it means for divorce in Virginia. It’s interesting. What would be regarded as a (first world) problem of epic proportions if the hack had released people’s credit card information (like the Target…

Navy Regulations for Supporting Family Members

The military has loads of rules and regulations dealing with almost every aspect of its day to day management and operations. It should probably come as no surprise that it also has regulations relating to family support. When a couple separates, and either spouse is in the military, there are specific rules about when and…