Divorce

In many situations, when a pension is divided as part of a divorce proceeding, a QDRO (Qualified Domestic Relations Order) is issued, which is a judgment or order for a retirement plan to pay support directly to a former spouse. It tells the administrator of the pension the amount or percentage of the participant’s benefits to be paid directly to the former spouse. In looking up information on the division of military pensions online, I found this article from the American Bar Association (“ABA”): http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gpsolo_ereport/2013/july_2013/te… According to this article, it indicates that with a military pensions, it is actually not a QDRO but something called an MDRO, a Military Pension Division Order, that would be ordered. [ADD IF APPROPRIATE: Do you know if a QDRO or MDRO was issued in your case?]

The author of the ABA article also says that “there must be 10 years of marriage overlapping 10 years of military service for the former spouse to get pension payments directly from the pay center [an MDRO]. Even with an overlap of less than 10 years, the former spouse is still eligible to claim a share of the retired pay, but the retiree will have to make the payments.” Since I am not specifically familiar with military pension laws, I cannot say whether or not this information provided by the ABA is accurate or not. You may want to talk to a lawyer who specializes in divorce and military issues for advice and help. Here is a link for lawyers in STATE, some of which are free or low-cost if you qualify:LINK

In general, if a person is ordered to by the court to make payments to a spouse as part of a divorce but s/he fails to do so, the other party may file a motion for contempt in court. In general, when someone violates a court order, the other party generally has the option of returning to court to file for contempt. When a person files for contempt, s/he is generally asking a court to acknowledge that the other person violated the court order and asking that the court take steps to try to force him/her to follow the order and/or punish him/her for the violation.

A person has the option of filing for contempt on his/her own, or with the help of a lawyer. The clerk of court (that’s the courthouse official in charge of records) should be able to provide the forms needed to file for contempt if someone chooses to do so on his/her own. Usually, to file for contempt, a person would go to the courthouse that issued the original order but there may be exceptions to this. Again, talking to a lawyer to figure out exactly what to do is generally best.