This is a Military Pension Division: The Servicemember’s Strategy Silent Partner Section of Family Law. Introduction: Silent Partner is a lawyer-to-lawyer resource for military legal assistance attorneys and civilian lawyers. It is an attempt to explain broad generalities about the law of domestic relations. It is, of course, very general in nature since no handout can answer every specific question. Military Pension Division: The Servicemember’s Strategy contains information on how to assist the servicemember (SM) in this area. While many SMs are vociferous in their resistance to division of the military pension, it is important to remember and remind the client of the cost of an aggressive and unyielding defense. Once they know the odds and the costs, few clients have the will or the pocketbook for diehard resistance. Few want to risk what’s at stake in visitation, child support, alimony and other matters in a case that could be settled, just to engage in “nuclear warfare” regarding the pension. All states allow military pension division. As will be outlined herein, only a few U.S. jurisdictions limit military pension division based on years of service or years of marriage. The job of a good attorney is to guide the client with sage advice and serious judgment, rather than to be pulled along blindly by a client who wants to “set a precedent” – usually (as clients state it) “for the principle of the matter.” Is it worth it? Will it help the client with the rest of his (or her) case? Advice and guidance for the “big picture” along these lines is the task of the lawyer who is truly serious about helping his or her military pension division clients.
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