CA Military Divorce Lawyer
You just signed the retainer and your head is spinning with acronyms like DFAS, BAH, SBP, and SCRA. The good news is that a seasoned California military divorce lawyer does not waste a single day.
Within the first seven days we build a firewall around your benefits, lock in jurisdiction, and create a timeline that works with the military calendar instead of against it. While civilian counsel might spend weeks exchanging pleasantries, we hit the ground running because deployment dates do not negotiate.
Day One: File And Serve
- Draft the petition or response with proper military pension language
- Coordinate with a process server who understands base access rules
- Send SCRA notice to the Judge Advocate General if spouse is deployed
- Request immediate temporary relief such as child support or restraining orders
- Upload case to a secure client portal you can view from any time zone
People think serving papers on a ship is impossible. It is not, but it does require knowing which DD form the command legal officer needs and how to route the envelope through the postal officer.
We have done it in under forty eight hours by FedEx to an aircraft carrier in the North Arabian Sea. If your lawyer is still figuring out what an FPO address looks like, you are already behind.
Day Two Through Four: Freeze Benefits
We immediately file a notice of pending military pension division with DFAS so retirement pay cannot be diverted. Next we contact the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System to flag TRICARE eligibility questions.
For clients who rely on a military paycheck we also send a wage assignment request to finance, preventing any unauthorized allotment changes. These steps sound technical, but they stop the other side from emptying the financial bucket before the judge can divide it.
During this window we also calendar the 20/20/20 and 20/20/15 rules against your marriage dates to see if you qualify for lifetime medical. One day off can cost tens of thousands in civilian premiums, so we run the numbers twice and make you confirm the wedding and divorce dates from your own records. And yes, we have caught errors where a client remembered the courthouse date instead of the ceremony date, saving them from a nasty surprise at the final hearing.
Day Five Through Seven: Discovery Blitz
We serve customized discovery that demands the last three years of LES, point statements, and any VA rating decisions. Military folks are notorious for underestimating income because they forget about subsistence allowances or hostile fire pay.
We add a specific interrogatory asking for all bank accounts tied to MyPay deposits so nothing slips through. If the service member is stateside we line up depositions for the next thirty days; if deployed we request written interrogatories under SCRA extensions, but we ask for email responses to keep momentum.
By the end of week one you will have a draft parenting plan that factors in upcoming training rotations, a support calculation that includes BAH and BAS, and a pension division order ready for the court’s signature the moment discovery closes. Most civilian attorneys take a month to reach this point because they treat a military divorce like any other family law case. We do not have that luxury, and neither do you.
Curious what your first week could look like with us in charge? Book a free case review here and we will walk you through the exact checklist we use so you can see how fast your benefits can be protected.
