The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is a federal law that protects people on active duty from being disadvantaged by a civil case they cannot attend, and it applies to Georgia divorces.
What the Act Is
The Act is codified at 50 USC 3901 and following. It is not part of Georgia law at all, but Georgia courts must apply it, and it reaches ordinary domestic cases along with everything else.
It Applies in Divorce and Alimony Cases
In Parker v. Parker, 207 Ga. 588 (1951), a sergeant in the Army filed for divorce in Fulton County and his wife answered with a cross-action for alimony. He was then sent to the Korean conflict. The Georgia Supreme Court held the trial court was “required to give full effect to the applicable provisions of the act.”
It Protects You Whether You Filed or Were Sued
Parker also settles a point people often get backwards. The soldier there was the one who started the case, and he was protected anyway. The Act covers a servicemember “involved, either as plaintiff or defendant.”
You Have to Raise It
The protection is not automatic. In Curtis v. Klimowicz, 279 Ga. App. 425 (2006), a soldier appealed a custody ruling entered while he was serving, but the Court of Appeals refused to consider the Act because he had never raised it in the trial court.
Older Cases Use Different Numbers
Georgia decisions before 2003 call this the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940 and cite 50 USC App. 521. Congress replaced that Act in 2003, and in 2015 the whole statute was moved out of the appendix and renumbered. The section numbers changed; the protections did not.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!