On Monday, May 18, the nation celebrated Memorial Day by remembering the U.S. men and women who died while serving in the military. Another one of the ways the nation honors its military personnel is through the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act. The act, which was revised in 2003, is meant to provide peace of mind for soldiers on active duty regarding their financial affairs back home.
The SCRA allows for the temporary suspension of certain financial obligations and judicial or administrative proceedings during active duty military service.
There are probably close to 15,000 people in the greater Capital Region who are somehow affiliated with the military, said Matthew B. Tulley, an area attorney and a major in the Army National Guard. He wants people to understand the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act because both soldiers and civilians who work with soldiers do not know enough about the provisions of the act.
According to Tully, many military personnel and the service providers they deal with, such as landlords and cell phone carriers, are unaware of their rights if they are deployed or even transferred from one base to another.
`The one that I think is most commonly used now and that I used when I deployed to Iraq is the capping of debt at 6 percent interest,` said Tully.
The SCRA caps interest rates on mortgages and credit card debt at 6 percent if a soldier is deployed on active duty.
Another benefit is that if a soldier is about to be deployed or has been relocated and is living in an apartment under a lease, he or she can break the lease without penalty.
Tully said that his law firm receives many calls from landlords asking if they can prevent their tenants in the military from breaking their leases when they are deployed or transferred.
`The answer is no,` said Tully. `They’re [service members] allowed to break a lease at any time for deployment,` even if they just signed a one-year lease on an apartment two weeks prior.
In 2008, a new amendment took effect allowing military personnel to terminate cell phone contracts for the same reason.
Tully said that the law also affects pending lawsuits. For example, if a soldier who has been deployed is being sued, whether it is over a car accident or divorce, the lawsuit can be held until the soldier’s return.
`That entire aspect of this Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act is not common knowledge. Certain provisions are, but the exact details are not very well known, and that’s a shame,` said Tully.
He said people are losing out on benefits that they don’t know about. The SCRA also prevents evictions or the foreclosure of a soldier’s home while he or she is deployed.
`They don’t have to worry about their family getting thrown out on the street,` said Tully.
Tully said that under the SCRA, if a soldier is paying child support and earns less in the military than in his or her civilian job, the SCRA allows the service member to go in and petition.
`It’s a double-edged sword,` said Tully. `The intent here is not necessarily to care for the child [in this case]. It’s to help the service member so that when he goes to Afghanistan or Iraq, he still has some money to buy a newspaper.`
Carl Pfeiffer, of Tully Rinckey PLLC and a recently retired Army colonel who served for 25 years, said making soldiers aware of their rights under the SCRA is important.
`If a soldier has a right, they have the right. The problem that the Army has wrestled with is making sure soldiers are educated on all the rights that they do have,` said Pfeiffer.
When Pfeiffer was deployed in 2005 to Iraq, he and his wife continued paying rent on the home where they were living because his wife and family stayed there while he was away. However, he said that he always had a military clause in his leases so that if he did have to break his lease early, he would be able to do so without any issues.
He said it’s important that soldiers aren’t penalized for not knowing their rights.
For more information, Tully recommends logging on to www.military.com.
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