Art. 11.Military Personnel

Military service disrupts the ordinary way people establish domicile. Orders move servicemembers from state to state, often without the settled intent that domicile usually requires. Article 11 addresses this directly, for one purpose only: deciding whether a court has jurisdiction over status proceedings under Article 10.

If a servicemember has been stationed at one or more Louisiana military installations for at least six months, and has resided in the parish where the action is filed for at least ninety days immediately before filing, Article 11 treats that person as domiciled in Louisiana and in that parish for the period of service there. That status lets a servicemember bring a divorce, custody, or other status proceeding in Louisiana even without the kind of settled civilian domicile Article 10 would otherwise expect.

The rule is narrow. It applies only to status jurisdiction, and only for someone not already domiciled elsewhere in the state under ordinary rules — a fallback for servicemembers whose orders would otherwise leave them without a clear Louisiana domicile to invoke.