For Immediate Release
October 8, 2008
Contact: Joe Sterns
717-787-5708
(Cell) 717-497-0806
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Folmer Bill Protecting Deployed Servicemen’s Child
 Custody Rights Heads to Rendell’s Desk

HARRISBURG (October 8, 2008) – The General Assembly has approved Sen. Mike Folmer's (R-Lebanon) legislation protecting the child custody rights of deployed military personnel. 

"For PA military personnel, fighting for your country will no longer mean losing custody of your children," Folmer said. "This is a huge victory for families in Pennsylvania."   

Folmer's legislation (SB 1107) provides that if a petition to change the custody of a child of a military serviceman or servicewoman is filed with any court while the serviceman or servicewoman is deployed for active duty, no court may enter an order modifying or amending any previous judgment or order, or issue a new order changing the custody arrangement for that child that existed as of the date of the serviceman’s or servicewoman’s deployment.

If a custody order is changed, a court must require that, upon the return of the serviceman from deployment, the custody order in effect immediately preceding the date of the deployment be reinstated.  The court may not consider the absence of the eligible serviceman or servicewoman by reason of the deployment in determining custody. The failure of a serviceman or servicewoman to appear in court because of deployment could not be sufficient to justify a modification of a custody or visitation order.