Child Support Laws for Tennessee Military Families

Child Support Laws for Tennessee Military Families

Child Support Laws for Tennessee Military Families

Tennessee military child support laws issues include Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard concerning service members stationed at the Naval Support Facility Mid-South near Millington, Tennessee, Fort Campbell, an army base that straddles the Tennessee and Kentucky border and their families living in the Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, and Bartlett areas.

Child Support Laws for Tennessee Military Families

Exes of members of the military should always bear in mind that the military itself can be a help as well as a hindrance, but it has its reasons for both attitudes. It’s in the military’s best interests to make sure that members of the armed services bring credit to their branches of the services. The Navy, Army, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, and National Guard will push its members to meet their financial and legal obligations at all times. If the soldier or sailor doesn’t, the military can come down on them with actions that are administrative (letters of reprimand, demotion) or punitive (courts-martial) to make them toe the line and face up to their legal and financial responsibilities.

Just as important, however, is that the military will want to make sure members of the armed forces have their rights protected and respected, and it will support them if their obligations to the armed forces keep them from being able to show up in court way across the country in a divorce case.

Members of the military can request, through the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a 90-day suspension of orders to appear in divorce court because of special assignments, deployment, and so on, but the court can deny it if it feels that a member of the armed forces invoking this act is simply stalling. A nonmilitary spouse can request a temporary order of support, sometimes called an interim support award, for children or him or her.

You can get advice on child support issues with a member of the military through a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, whom you can contact through your military spouse’s commanding officer. Such requests for help and information can range from paternity issues to a late child-support check.

The various branches of the military have different ways of making sure their members obey child support orders, but all should respond to a frank and honest letter addressed to a commanding officer from an ex seeking child support, whether court ordered or not.

If the exes have not agreed on an amount of child support, and if there is no court order mandating an amount, Department of Defense regulations come into play on the issue, but different branches of the military will apply these regulations in different ways. The Air Force rules are that its members must provide adequate support, but it doesn’t go beyond that. The Marines, on the other hand, dictate that its members pay a base rate that goes up with each additional dependent and will threaten those who don’t meet their obligations with punitive measures. The Navy also has a “floating” rate that takes into consideration the number of dependents and is calculated on percentages of pay, which includes Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) but not Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS). The Coast Guard and the Army also have differing support regulations; this is an area that simply requires the knowledge and experience of a divorce attorney well versed in military regulations for such support matters.  In most cases, a particular branch’s regulations will take a back seat to a state court order.  The regulations, in general, are a back-up if the parties are not able to obtain a court order for whatever reason.

For more information, read:

For more information, see Tennessee Child Support Answers to FAQ’s.  For legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary, visit our Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Child Support category.  A Memphis child support attorney from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help you with Tennessee child support issues including setting or modifying child support. To schedule your confidential consultation about Tennessee child support, call us today at (901)683-1850.

 

Topics

Copyright © 2024 Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC   - Disclaimer