Can I Get Extra Time With My Child After I Come Back From a Deployment?

 Posted on September 21, 2022 in Family Law

Members of the United States Armed Forces face special challenges when it comes to nurturing their relationship with a child. Deployment can require a parent to be gone for long portions of a child’s life, during which a child may change significantly. For divorced military parents, these chunks of missing time can feel like an overwhelming loss. 

Fortunately, courts allow military parents some protection when dealing with issues of child custody. If you are going to be deployed and are wondering whether this will affect your relationship with your child, contact a Michigan military child custody attorney for help. 

Can a Deployment Be Used Against Me? 

Military parents often fear that their involuntary absence from their child’s life might be used against them in custodial proceedings. After all, if a very young child has not spent time with a parent for a year or more, that child’s relationship with the parent could become strained or almost nonexistent. 

However, Michigan family law courts are not allowed to use a parent’s deployment against them when deciding child custody matters. Furthermore, a non-military ex-spouse cannot ask a court to permanently modify their child’s custody plan while the military parent is deployed. While courts may make temporary changes to a custody order for a specific time period, once the deployed parent comes home, the court must return to the original custody order that existed before deployment. 

Can I Get Extra Visitation When I Come Home From Deployment? 

A military parent who spent weekends with his or her child before deployment may understandably want to spend more than just a couple of days a week with a child after coming home. While a custody order is generally the same after a deployment ends, you may be able to petition a court for increased parenting time based on a substantial change in circumstances - i.e., you are available to share parenting time equally rather than only on the weekends - but only if it would be in the best interests of the child. 

Schedule a Free Consultation with a Farmington Hills, MI Military Child Custody Lawyer

Missing your child while you are on deployment should be the only part of your relationship you have to worry about. If you are getting divorced, or are already divorced, and face military deployment, do not wait until after you come home to take action. With the help of a knowledgeable Oakland County military divorce attorney with Elkouri Heath, PLC, you can act now to protect your relationship with your child. Call 248-344-9700 today to schedule a free, confidential consultation. 

Source: 

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(yod4zle0qvvphkr1tk2fjki1))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=mcl-722-27