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| Rep. Aaron Stiles R-Norman |
House Bill 1603, by Stiles (R-Norman), bans military deployment as a reason to modify custody, bans courts from entering final orders while the deployed parent is deployed, provides for remote electronic hearings and allows deployed personnel to designate a family member to exercise visitation and enforce custody.
“I’ve seen in my law practice where a service member will be deployed and will come home to find his son or daughter trained to call someone else his ‘new Daddy’,” Stiles said. “This is a sad occurrence. This bill will give the service members more power to stop this type of scenario from happening. The legislation ensures service members’ custody and visitation rights are protected while they are deployed.”
Stiles said that losing custody and visitation rights should not be one of the sacrifices service members have to make to serve the country.
“Our military men and women already sacrifice time with their families,” Stiles said. “They shouldn’t have to lose their rights to see their families when they are home because they were not present to defend those rights.”
