Civilian question about military lawyers.

[ajritter04]

What is the name of your state? Hawaii & New Mexico

A little background....
My husband is going to court tomorrow to sign a consent to terminate his parental rights. The reason he is doing this is to allow his ex-girlfriend and her husband to adopt the daughter they had. Her husband is in the Air Force (or Air National Guard..not sure) and is currently stationed in Hawaii.

My husbands lawyer has been seeking contact with their legal counsel in Hawaii but has been unsuccessful thus far. My mother-in-law has talked to the ex-girlfriend and she told M-I-L that they spoke with a lawyer previously but don't have a specific lawyer handling their case.

My husbands lawyer is placing a provision into his termination that states his ex and her husband must obtain legal counsel and complete the adoption within 30 days of my husband signing the consent. Herein lies part of the problem..it looks as if the ex and husband are dragging their feet just to aggrivate everyone on this end, which they have been known to do. The whole proceeding started roughly 4 months ago and my husbands lawyer has not heard anything from any form of counsel from anyone in Hawaii - which is the reason for the 30 day provision.

Currently, they (the Hawaii crowd) are "having trouble coordinating his schedule with the lawyer". Obviously, not being in the military, I don't know how military lawyers work. I'm guessing that they're nothing like their civilian counterparts.

And now the questions:

1) Is there some kind of "pool" of available lawyers that serves people on a first-come-first-serve basis?

2) Are military lawyers only available on certain days or during certain hours?

3) Do military lawyers only handle cases dealing directly with the military or will they counsel any service member regardless of the subject?

4) How difficult / time consuming is it to go through military lawyers for anything?

5) Are military lawyers available free of charge or low charge for service members?


The reason I ask about the charge is because my mother in law was told by my husbands ex that part of the reason for it taking so long to accomplish anything is also due in part to having to afford a lawyer. However, my husband came from a family where both of his grandfathers were in the military (one in the Army Air Corp [WW II] and the other in the Air Force [Korean War]) and he remembers them being able to have access to lawyers free of charge. The last time they used any sort of legal service was about 2 years before they died..so unless something changed.....

Thanks for any input on this matter.

 

[fozzy2]

The military generally splits its legal folks into two basic groups: trial services and legal services. Trial services handles UCMJ and related disciplinary matters (i.e. defenders and prosecutors). Less glorified are people working in legal services. They provide assistance and advice and sundry services to military people on matters that are not handled by trial services (including virtually all 'civil' court involvement).

In many cases, legal services can provide "general advice" but can not serve as "attorney of record" for a case. They will guide the servicemember in filling out forms, give general advice, etc. but are not going to become 'legally' involved in the case. Their advice to service members is often "get a private attorney." There are couple of reasons for this. For one, a military lawyer may not be an expert on the laws of a particular state (i.e. passed its bar) or be an expert on a specific complicated legal subject. Secondly, once an attorney "takes" on a case they take on a host of professional obligations. Generally, the military will provide a lawyer who will provide advice -- but they don't want to get caught in a contentious case where they might not even be able to withraw. This is particularly true if there is any chance a matter may require actual court appearances.

So, for example, legal services may be assisting a party in a "simple" adoption. However, they will probably NOT agree to become an attorney of record and sign any documents themselves as qualified attorneys. If you need an attorney to be "on the hook" for providing you with legal counsel you will have to hire them yourself. And there are often restrictions/delays in obtaining appointments, paperwork, etc. This is the government, after all.

 

[badapple40]

fozzy is generally correct. Military defense counsel (e.g. the public defenders of the military system) are always separate and do not provide advice of this time.

The rest of the attorneys in the SJA (staff judge advocate, e.g. the head lawyer)'s office probably are providing legal assistance to service members, even if they are prosecturs (schedules are arranged for trials though, etc.)

As to your questions:

Yes, what they will do is have one or more attorneys available at certain days or hours for assistance. They will counsel service members on civilian matters and provide legal counsel to the command. They will not provide assistance on criminal defense matters for the most part. I do not believe it is difficult or time consuming to go through military lawyers, but sometimes the office does get overwhelmed and so there may be some kind of wait. Military lawyers are available free of charge.