Subject-Matter Jurisdiction

Before initiating a family law case, the state must have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case.  For divorce, legal separation or annulment proceedings, this typically requires that one party be a legal resident of the state where the action is commencing.

For civilians, legal residence is generally easy to determine - look at where the person lives.  However, the same is not true for military personnel.  Servicemembers PCS frequently, but their legal residence does not change by being stationed somewhere without more.

Colorado follows this principle.  The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a servicemember who is present in Colorado pursuant to military orders, without more, is not a legal resident.  Viernes v. District Court, 509 P.2s 306 (Colo. 1973).

Subject-matter jurisdiction is NOT waivable.  So if you have two spouses, both in the military, with Texas and California as their states of residence, they cannot obtain a dissolution in Colorado, even if they were married here.  Instead, they either have to get divorced in one of their states of residence, or one spouse must take steps to become a Colorado resident.  The single most important step is completing a DD Form 2058, State of Legal Residence Certificate, which tells DFAS what state's taxes to withhold.  Other possible steps are registering to vote, obtaining a Colorado driver's license, bank account, etc.  Then, wait the requisite time frame (e.g. 90 days for a divorce) before filing.

Personal Jurisdiction

Assuming the Court has subject-matter jurisdiction, the state divorce court can obtain personal jurisdiction over a servicemember just as it can over a civilian - generally by the person being served within the state, or by consent.

There is no special requirement for serving servicemembers, and while the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provides some protections for servicemembers, it does not regulate service of process.

Military Retirement

Personal jurisdiction over a servicemember alone may not be sufficient to give the state divorce court subject-matter jurisdiction to divide the military retirement.  See The Division of Military Retirement for more information.

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).