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Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with another Family Law Matters. I’m joined by Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the highly esteemed Primus Family Law Group. Hi Bonnie.

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Hi Michael, how are you doing today? Doing well, thank you very much. I hope you’re doing well too. Yes, today’s a good day.

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Good. Bonnie, we have a tough, sensitive issue that’s come up today that I think we could discuss for a brief time and give some people some hope and a path forward. And that is military divorces.

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Especially difficult if one member of the couple is serving overseas. Now, that can be a very difficult strain on someone who’s already in the middle of a difficulty overseas. But I’m sure that divorce with a member of the military who’s overseas can be a difficult one that has to be handled quite sensitively as only you and Primus Family Law can do.

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Tell us a little bit about how that process unfolds. Well, you know, you can file your petition for divorce as long as you obviously meet the residency requirements, regardless of your spouse being overseas. What happens is, and if your spouse is overseas on a U.S. military base, they can be served with divorce papers.

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Because even though they’re overseas, they’re on a U.S. base, and so the base will accept service. The issue is that’s kind of where you’re gonna stop for a while. Because our soldiers are in the military, and like you say, you know, overseas and fighting for our freedom.

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We have something which is called the short form Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, which means that you can’t go ahead and do all of these processes while their focus needs to be elsewhere. Because they’re not gonna be able to get documents, they’re not gonna be able necessarily to respond to, even if they have an attorney. So usually what will happen is an attorney will go in and request relief under this act, which means everything gets stayed until they get home.

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So yes, there is a divorce process, but nobody’s going to get divorced until that military member has had an opportunity to participate in their action. And they can’t do that if they’re fighting for all of our freedom. And does Primus Family Law represent, has Primus Family Law represented both sides of that? Someone who’s in the military overseas and someone who’s here filing for divorce? Sure, we’ve represented all forms of military divorces and all types of military issues within divorces.

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Yeah, we’ve been doing this. I mean, we are a San Diego based family law firm. So we better know what we’re doing when it comes to the military or we should move.

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But you’re not moving. And if people on either side of this issue have questions and they want to get sure, be sure that they are getting good, solid, firm and yet sensitive representation, how can they be in touch with you to learn more? Well, Michael, they can reach us directly at 619-574-8000. And they will be put on my personal calendar for a free 30 minute phone consultation.

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Or you can reach us through our website at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com.