Legal Question in Family Law in California

My ex-wife gets a % of my Military retirement we were not married the 10 years alotted for her to get this. Am I able to go get this changed from the original court documents especially since she is remarried now. Thanks


Asked on 11/19/09, 12:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You don't provide any detail about why the original judgment gave her the percentage of your military retirement, so it is difficult to answer your question. It is also unclear what you mean by "the ten years alotted to get this."

Since you mention that she got remarried, however, it seems you might be confusing an asset allocation with alimony, particularly since you mention ten years, which is the measure of a marriage "of long duration" under the law. If you were married while in the military, your pension was, at least in part, a community asset because it was earned during the marriage. Since you can't just take a part of that money and give it to her, like you could with a savings account or IRA, she instead would be alloted a percentage of the pay out once you retired. That is not alimony, which is subject to different rules if the marriage is less than ten years, and which generally terminates upon remarriage. It's a delayed pay-out of her share of a community asset.

If that's not what is going on, then you'll need to repost your question with a lot more detail.

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Answered on 11/24/09, 1:11 pm


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