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2024 SESSION

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VIRGINIA ACTS OF ASSEMBLY -- CHAPTER An Act to amend and reenact §§ 20-108 and 20-124.7 of the Code of Virginia, relating to Virginia Military Parents Equal Protection Act; Space Force; deployment. [H 194] Approved

 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 20-108 and 20-124.7 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 20-108. Revision and alteration of such decrees.

The court may, from time to time after decreeing as provided in § 20-107.2, on petition of either of the parents, or on its own motion or upon petition of any probation officer or the Department of Social Services, which petition shall set forth the reasons for the relief sought, revise and alter such decree concerning the care, custody, and maintenance of the children and make a new decree concerning the same, as the circumstances of the parents and the benefit of the children may require. The intentional withholding of visitation of a child from the other parent without just cause may constitute a material change of circumstances justifying a change of custody in the discretion of the court.

No support order may be retroactively modified, but may be modified with respect to any period during which there is a pending petition for modification in any court, but only from the date that notice of such petition has been given to the responding party.

Any member of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Space Force, National Guard, or any other reserve component thereof, who files a petition or is a party to a petition requesting the adjudication of the custody, visitation or support of a child based on a change of circumstances due to one of the parent's deployment, as that term is defined in § 20-124.7, shall be entitled to have such a petition expedited on the docket of the court.

§ 20-124.7. Definitions.

For purposes of this chapter:

"Deploying parent or guardian" means a parent of a child under the age of 18 whose parental rights have not been terminated by a court of competent jurisdiction or a guardian of a child under the age of 18 who is deployed or who has received written orders to deploy with the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Space Force, National Guard, or any other reserve component thereof.

"Deployment" means compliance with military orders received by a member of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Space Force, National Guard, or any other reserve component thereof to report for combat operations or other active service for which the deploying parent or guardian is required to report unaccompanied by any family member.