Killeen Family Law Attorney

Killeen, Texas is a military town, and family law here reflects that. Deployments interrupt possession schedules. PCS orders move one parent across the country. Spouses arrive in Texas because the Army sent them, not because they chose it — and then wonder whether they can even file for divorce in a state they’ve lived in for just a few months. We are familiar with these unique situations and handle them often. 

The Tanaka Law Firm sits in Harker Heights, about fifteen minutes from Killeen and a short drive from the Bell County Justice Complex in Belton, where Bell County’s district courts hear family cases.  

We intentionally limit our caseload so that your matter gets the time it needs.

Filing for Divorce While Stationed at Fort Hood

You may be able to file in Texas even if you’ve never considered yourself a Texan.

Texas normally requires that one spouse has been a domiciliary of the state for six months and a resident of the filing county for 90 days before a divorce suit can be maintained (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.301). Service members and their spouses get two important adjustments to that rule.

If you’re a Texas domiciliary who has been stationed elsewhere, time spent outside Texas — or outside your home county — while serving in the armed forces still counts as residence in Texas and in that county (§ 6.303). A deployment doesn’t cost you your Texas residency. The same protection extends to a spouse who accompanied the service member.

If you were never a Texas resident before the Army sent you here, you may still qualify. A person serving in the armed forces who has been stationed at one or more Texas military installations for at least the last six months, and at an installation in a particular county for at least the last 90 days, is treated as a Texas domiciliary and a resident of that county for purposes of filing for divorce (§ 6.304). That protection also covers a spouse who accompanied the service member during that period.

For a soldier at Fort Hood, that generally means Bell County — and it means you may have a choice of where to file, since your home state of record may also have jurisdiction. Which forum is better is a strategic question with real consequences for property division and custody. It’s worth asking before you file, not after.

Also worth knowing:

• A Texas court generally cannot grant a divorce until the 60th day after the suit is filed (§ 6.702). Temporary orders can still be heard during that window — it is the final decree that waits. Narrow exceptions apply where the respondent has a family violence conviction or deferred adjudication, or where the petitioner has an active protective order. Deployment timelines rarely accommodate the waiting period, so filing early matters.
• Military retirement division and Survivor Benefit Plan elections are their own body of law and are routinely mishandled in agreed decrees. These aren’t boilerplate provisions.
• The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act may allow a stay of proceedings when duty materially affects your ability to participate — but it isn’t automatic and it isn’t indefinite.