Maine SCRA Benefits: Court Protections on State Duty

Maine runs one of the quietest but broadest state-soldier laws in New England. It copies chunks of the federal SCRA and hands them to the state Guard on state orders, and where richer states stop at the loan office, Maine reaches into the courtroom. There is no state rate cap here. What there is instead is a set of court protections that hold up on state active duty, including the family-court provisions that matter most when a Guard member is activated in the middle of a case.

What Maine builds on top of the federal SCRA

Protection	Federal SCRA	Maine
Guard on state active duty: court protections	✕ Not covered	✓ Stays, remote testimony, custody (37-B § 389-A)
6% rate cap, lease exit, foreclosure	✓ On federal orders	Federal floor; no state rate cap
Stay of a civil proceeding while serving	✓	✓ Extended to state duty (+60 days)
Parent-child contact during duty	Varies	✓ Temporary transfer to a relative (§ 389-A)
Hardship grant program	n/a	✓ Military Family Relief Fund (§ 158)

The courtroom layer

Section 389-A is procedural, and that is its strength. A Maine service member, defined to include the state’s military forces on active state service, can ask a court to stay a civil proceeding during service and for 60 days after, present testimony and evidence by electronic means when duty has a material effect on appearing, and get an expedited hearing on request. The provision that earns its keep is the parent-child contact rule: when duty interferes with your court-ordered contact, the court can temporarily transfer that contact to a relative rather than let it lapse.

These protections cover state activations, the situations the federal SCRA does not reach. For an activated Maine Guard member with a pending custody or civil case, that is the difference between defending your position and defaulting because you could not appear.

The money side is all federal

Maine wrote no state rate cap, so the money protections are all federal, and they apply here in full:

• Pre-service debt: the 6% cap, retroactive, with refund audits.
• PCS in or out: the lease exit and the termination calculator.
• The foreclosure and repossession shields on pre-service notes.

On a pure state activation the federal financial protections do not apply, so time pre-service debt moves before and between activations, per the pre-service debt playbook. And if a deployment creates real hardship, check the Military Family Relief Fund.

Run the Maine stack

1. Activated with a pending civil or family case: move to stay it under 37-B § 389-A, and request electronic testimony if duty keeps you from appearing.
2. Court-ordered parent-child contact threatened by duty: ask the court to temporarily transfer contact to a relative under § 389-A.
3. The federal money kit is unchanged in Maine: send the 6% cap letters, run the lease exits, and audit old statements for refunds.
4. Deployment or activation causing hardship: apply to the Maine Military Family Relief Fund (§ 158).
5. Stationed in Maine from out of state: confirm the tax election so withholding follows your home state.

The law behind this: Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 37-B § 389-A

Service members' civil relief: stays, electronic testimony, expedited hearings, and parent-child contact transfer, including state active duty: read the statute.