Transferring Timesharing in Military Divorces

Many of our clients are stationed at the local military base and have questions about what happens to their time sharing and custody rights if they get deployed to a war zone or other location. Florida has enacted a statute that will allow the military individual to assign their time sharing to another person while deployed. If the parent is deployed on orders that last more than 90 consecutive days, the parent may designate a person to have time sharing on that parent's behalf. The designation is limited to a family member, a stepparent or a relative of the child by marriage. For example, you could potentially designate your new wife or sister to have time sharing on your behalf when you are deployed for more than 90 days. The other parent may object, but has very limited grounds for objecting. The deploying parent must also show that his or her ability to comply with the time sharing will be materially affected as a result of the deployment. The statute sets forth several procedural requirements the deploying parent must meet in order to assign their visitation to another family member. Contact your expert family law attorney in order to discuss the steps you must take to assure that your time sharing can be assigned to another family member while you are away serving our country.