VETERANS PUSH TO STOP DIVORCE COURTS FROM DIVIDING THEIR RETIREMENT PAY

December 10, 2003, Tampa, FL - A group of divorced veterans met in Arlington, Virginia, December 6-7, 2003, to put the finishing touches on a federal lawsuit to prevent state divorce courts from dividing their retained/retirement pay.

The ULSG, LLC, veterans' group insists that the Constitution forbids a twenty-year-old federal statute that permits state divorce courts to divide veterans' retained/retirement pay with their ex-spouses. The law is the Uniform Services Former Spouses Protection Act

The veterans' group was founded after the failure of legislative efforts to kill the law. About twenty of the group's members met with the ULSG's two lawyers on December 6-7, to finalize plans for filing a federal lawsuit against the law. They plan to file the lawsuit during the first quarter of 2004.

The USFSPA undoes a Supreme Court ruling that protected veterans' retirement pay from being divided with ex-spouses in divorce court. The ULSG contends that Congress may have meant well in enacting the USFSPA, but that the law has resulted in harsh consequences to divorced veterans, many of them unanticipated and unintended.

The group further asserts that among the law's failings is that it does not even exempt veterans who joined the military before the law was ever passed. The ULSG asserts that this amounts to an unconstitutionally retroactive application of the law, seeing that the law was passed only after the Supreme Court said that veterans' retirement pay could not be divided in divorce court.

Over two thousand male and female divorced veterans from an estimated population of over 100,000 who are affected by this law have already joined the ULSG's plight. The group's litigation effort is being led by attorney Jonathan L. Katz of the law firm of Marks & Katz, LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland, with substantial assistance from attorney David J. Bederman of Atlanta.

Attorney Katz said: "Divorced veterans have waited long enough to seek a legislative remedy to this unjust law. Now it is time to resolve the matter in court."

The ULSG's President, Jack C. Crutchfield, said: "We ask for nothing more than fair treatment of the divorced veterans who have so proudly served their country over the decades. We have assembled a superb legal team to lead our court challenge."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Jonathan L. Katz, Attorney at Law
Lead Counsel for ULSG, LLC
Marks & Katz, LLC
1400 Spring Street, Suite 410
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (301) 495-4300
Fax: (301) 495-8815
E-mail: jon@markskatz.com
www.markskatz.com

NON-MEDIA INQUIRIES
ULSG, LLC
PO Box 270337
Tampa, FL 33688-0337
email: Input@ULSG.ORG
http://www.ULSG.org