Washington, DC asked in Divorce for Texas

Q: Will my ex get part of my military retirement without it being stated in the divorce decree?

Divorce was in a Texas court in November 2012. I had a lawyer, and my wife did not want to get one.

Under division of marital estate, “All sums, whether matured or unmatured, accrued or unaccrued, vested or otherwise, together with all increases thereof, the proceeds therefrom, and any other rights related to or as a result of MYSELF’s service in the United States Army, including any accrued unpaid bonuses, disability plan or benefits, Thrift Savings Plan, or other benefits existing by reason of or as a result of of MYSELF’s past employment, except that portion of MYSELF’s U.S. military retirement that has been awarded to EX-Wife”

In the next section “Property to Wife”, it does not say anything about the military retirement.

Is it possible for her to get any of my military retirement? We were married for 11 years and 7 of those years were while I was in the military.

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2 Lawyer Answers

A: If no part of your military retirement was awarded to your wife, then the answer is no.

Your decree would have been clearer without the except clause at the end of the quoted sentence. Either you or your attorney should have caught that at the time and removed it.

A: There is not enough information here to answer this question. We cannot see the divorce file, and as such cannot confirm whether the court entered a qualified domestic relations order. We do not know whether that qdro was completed correctly and forwarded to the department of defense FAO.

All this means it is not sufficient to simply review the judgment and draw conclusions from it. There may be additional documents executed or not, and we cannot tell unless and until we review the file in it entirety.

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