Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Research Paper Example

What is the Act you have chosen?

Formerly referred as Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act majorly protects people who are working in occupations such as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The major reason behind passing this act was to protect the interests of Servicemembers as well as national interest. The main aim of Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is to postpone or suspend legal obligations of servicemen to ensure soldiers, mariners and sailors to fully concentrate on duty (SCRA, 2003).

Some examples of legal obligations from which a servicemember will be protected from:

1. Outstanding Credit Card Debt
2. Divorce Issues
3. Pending Tax Payments
4. Mortgage Payments

What is required by employers to be in compliance with the Act?

According to Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, civilian employers need to comply with several rules while offering benefits as per the employee rights mentioned under Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. One of the major compliance civil employers need to comply with is The Six Percent Rule. Under this Six Percent Rule, civil employers have agreed to pay the difference between civil pay and military pay earned before the call to active duty. In most of the cases, the Six Percent Rule will not apply unless military service does not get affected by service member’s ability to pay (SCRA, 2003). The Six Percent Rule or limitation applies only when the military service gets affected.

The other major rule that employers should strictly comply is Health Insurance Reinstatement. According to Uniformed Services Employment Re-employment Act, employers should not allow service members to claim for The Reinstatement of Health Insurance Protection if they are entitled to participate in employer-offered insurance.

 What are the employee rights under the Act?

On December 19, 2003, George Bush has signed the most anticipated law, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which is a complete revision of old law, Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act (James, 1991). Employees, who are working under branches such as military, navy, air force and any other defense departments, should know their rights under the act to claim the benefits. Unless, service members know their rights, there is every possible change of forgoing the benefits. The rights include; Right to claim for mortgage relief, right to claim for termination of leases, right to get the protection from conviction, right to get six percent interest rate of loans, right to claim on stay for proceedings and right to claim for reopening default judgments.

Servicemembers Civil Relief Act also offers several other rights for employees to make sure service members of avoid unnecessary family tensions when they are on duty. It is the recommended for each service member to understand their rights to gain benefits for the act.

What was the purpose and/or intent of the Act established by the state or federal government?

The main intention establishing the law, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, is to protect service members from various unnecessary family and personal issues. Due to issues like divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure and high mortgage rates, service members have not been getting disturbed. To lift their sprits, Federal Government has come up with numerous of changes in existing law, Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, which was established in 1940. In a nutshell, the act was established by keeping two major purposes in mind. They are:

1. The temporary suspension of administrative and judicial proceedings when they are rendering their military services or navy services (The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School, 2006).
2. Making United Nation’s military force as strong as possible by providing wide range of benefits and protections to service members and service member’s families. George Bush has taken the decision to revise the existing law to because he understood that most of the service members have been suffering from personal and family tensions when they are on duty (The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School, 2006). 

Who benefits by the Act?

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is intended to protect, people who are working in military, air force and navy. Service members can get benefits such as getting loans at 6 percent of interest and employer-offered insurance etc. If we analyze the benefits of the act in a much deeper way, it is pretty clear that the act will not only help service members, who are working in defense departments but helps to entire country. The summery of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is to provide some reasonable benefits to people who are protecting the country to that they can concentrate on work. National security is considered as one of the major benefits of the Act. And, national security is nothing but protecting common men, government, economic organizations and political agencies from unexpected outside threats in the country. So, in a nutshell, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act benefits service members, political agencies, government, economic organizations and common men in the country (SCRA, 2003).

Note any changes to the Act that you have discovered. What, why, and when were the changes made?

The major changes in the Act were taken place in 2003 when George Bush amended the previous Servicemembers law, which was popularly known as Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act. Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act was established at the time of First World War to protect the rights of service members when they were in the war (Robert, 1942). The Act was amended at the time of Second World War in 1940 with minor modifications like provision for the Act to Expire. Though, the Act was amended approximately 12 times since Second World War, the major changes in the Act were taken in December 19, 2003. George Bush made several amendments that directly benefit service members and their families. Though previous laws have protected service members from foreclosure, bankruptcy and repossession of property at the time of World War but later they were not in the picture. The recent 2003 Act has included foreclosure, bankruptcy and repossession of property, interest cap, divorce issues and insurance to help service members (SCRA, 2003).

 Give observations and opinions about the Act

I strongly feel that the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act not only benefits service members also benefits to the society. Including foreclosure, bankruptcy and repossession of property helps service members to concentrate on their duty rather than thinking about their personal problems. In my words, the aim of the Act is very simple; you look after country’s national security, we look after your family problems. Unless these kinds of law don’t exist, it is very much difficult for service members to focus on their job by staying away from their families. In my view, providing more benefits would definitely help government to attract more people towards defense related jobs.

References

James, P (1991), ‘The Soldiers ‘ and Sailors ‘ Civil Relief Act Amendments of 1991’, Army Law., May 1991, at 47

Robert, H. S (1942), ‘Moratoria and the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science May 1943 vol. 227 no. 1 28-34.

SCRA (2003), ‘Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act’, Published at USCourts.gov, Retrieved on March 13, 2012 from
< http://www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts/Bankruptcy/BankruptcyBasics/SCRA.aspx>

The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School (2006), ‘Servicemembers Civil Relief Act’, Retrieved on March 13, 2012 from
<http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/legalservices/lamp/downloads/SCRAguide.authcheckdam.pdf>