Military Family Law Attorney in Manhattan, New York
Military service brings unique demands, sacrifices, and legal complexities to every aspect of a service member’s life — including family law matters. Divorce, custody, and support proceedings involving active duty military members or veterans are governed by an intricate combination of federal law and New York state law that most family law attorneys are not equipped to navigate. Steven J. Mandel at Warshaw Burstein, LLP, provides experienced military family law representation to service members, veterans, and military spouses throughout Manhattan and the New York City area.
Federal Laws That Affect Military Divorce in New York
Two federal statutes are central to military divorce proceedings:
- Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) — protects active duty service members from legal proceedings proceeding in their absence, including the right to request a stay of divorce proceedings and protection from default judgments while deployed
- Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA) — governs how military retirement benefits are treated as marital property and how they may be divided in a divorce, including the mechanism for direct payment to a former spouse through DFAS
Understanding how these federal laws interact with New York’s equitable distribution and domestic relations statutes is essential to competent military family law representation.
Dividing Military Retirement Benefits
Military retirement pay is one of the most valuable marital assets in any military divorce. The USFSPA allows New York courts to treat military retirement as marital property and divide it equitably. However, the calculation of the marital portion, the drafting of the appropriate court order for DFAS, and the management of the interaction between retirement pay and disability benefits all require specialized knowledge and precise drafting.
Steven J. Mandel works carefully with financial and military benefit experts to ensure that military retirement assets are correctly valued, properly divided, and documented in a court order that DFAS will honor.
Custody and Deployment: Planning for Military Families
Deployment creates custody challenges that civilian custody orders are rarely designed to handle. A custody arrangement that works well when a service member is stateside may be entirely unworkable during a 12-month overseas deployment. Steven J. Mandel helps military families build custody agreements with built-in deployment provisions — specifying how custody will be handled during deployment, who exercises the deployed parent’s time, and how the original arrangement resumes upon return.
SCRA Protections for Deployed Service Members
If you are on active duty and your spouse has filed for divorce, the SCRA gives you important rights — including the right to request a delay in proceedings while you are deployed. These protections exist to ensure that your military service does not cost you your legal rights at home. Steven J. Mandel advises active duty clients on their SCRA rights and ensures those protections are fully invoked.
For military family law representation in Manhattan, call (646) 770-3868.
Frequently Asked Questions: Military Family Law Attorney in Manhattan
Q1: Are there special rules for divorce involving a military service member in New York?
Yes. Federal law — particularly the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) — provides important protections for active duty military members in civil proceedings, including the right to request a stay (delay) of divorce proceedings while on active duty. Additionally, special rules apply to the division of military retirement benefits under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA). New York courts applying these federal laws alongside state divorce statutes create a complex legal landscape that requires specialized experience.
Q2: How is military retirement divided in a New York divorce?
Military retirement benefits earned during a marriage are marital property subject to equitable distribution in New York. Division is governed by the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA), which allows a portion of military retirement pay to be paid directly to a former spouse through a court order. The 10/10 rule means that direct payment from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) requires at least 10 years of marriage overlapping with 10 years of military service, though a spouse may still receive their share through other arrangements.
Q3: How does deployment affect child custody and visitation arrangements in New York?
Military deployment creates unique challenges for custody and visitation arrangements. New York law addresses this through provisions allowing for temporary modifications to custody during deployment, designating a family member to exercise the deployed parent’s visitation rights, and protecting the returning parent’s right to resume their original custody arrangement after deployment. Proactively drafting deployment custody provisions in any parenting agreement is strongly advisable for military families.
Q4: Can a military spouse receive a share of the service member’s veterans’ disability benefits?
Veterans’ disability benefits are specifically excluded from property division in divorce under federal law (Mansell v. Mansell) — they cannot be divided as marital property. However, the interplay between disability benefits and retirement pay (a practice called VA waiver) can significantly affect the amount of retirement pay available for division, and courts have developed approaches to address this. An experienced military divorce attorney understands how to account for these federal limitations in negotiating a fair overall settlement.
Q5: Does the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prevent my spouse from filing for divorce while I am deployed?
The SCRA does not prevent your spouse from filing for divorce during your deployment, but it does give you the right to request a stay — a delay — of the proceedings while you are on active duty and for a period afterward. Courts are required to grant an initial stay of at least 90 days and may grant longer stays upon application. This protection ensures that service members are not placed at an unfair disadvantage in legal proceedings because of their military service.
