Jurisdiction Over Servicemembers

Before a state has the authority to grant a divorce, it must have both subject-matter jurisdiction over the case, and personal jurisdiction over the parties.

Subject-matter jurisdiction means that the particular state is the appropriate one to hear the case - e.g. people can't simply visit a state with which they have no contact, and obtain a divorce there simply because they like that state's divorce laws.  Simply put, it prevents forum-shopping.

Personal jurisdiction is power over the parties to the case.  If one spouse moves to, say, Texas, that state won't necessarily have jurisdiction to enter orders which affect the out-of-state spouse.

More Information

Requests for Military Mailing Addresses.  Contains each service's addresses where one can send a request for a servicemember's military mailing address.  (Formerly, the services had convenient worldwide locators, however these were shut down in the post-9/11 era).

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