CHAPTER 11 LEGAL ASSISTANCE

As an LN, you may become involved with a section of law that is called legal assistance. This particular section of law is so diverse that it covers nearly every type of law practiced in the United States. Legal assistance cases, for example, run the gamut from domestic relations and taxation to veterans' rights.

Although your daily role in the legal assistance area is to assist the legal assistance attorney, you also maybe responsible for solving routine problems. You must, therefore, be able to distinguish complex legal problems from simple legal matters and also be able to identify areas of difficulty that merely concern administrative affairs. A complete discussion of your duties is explained later in this chapter.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The legal assistance program has provided needed legal advice and assistance to military personnel and their dependents since 1943. Legal assistance is the giving of advice and assistance about personal legal problems of a civil nature, as distinguished from criminal or official service matters.

PURPOSE

Personnel problems that remain unsolved adversely affect morale and efficiency and frequently result in behavior that requires disciplinary action. The purpose of the legal assistance program is to provide prompt assistance to resolve personal legal difficulties. The program serves as an effective preventive law measure that contributes to the morale and efficiency of commands.

POLICY

The policy of the Department of the Navy is to maintain, from available resources, a legal assistance program to make eligible persons aware of their legal rights and obligations. The program is designed to help military personnel and their dependents obtain adequate legal advice and services from within the military service.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE ATTORNEYS

All Navy and Marine Corps judge advocates on active duty, Regular or Reserve, and all civilian lawyers under the cognizance of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) who are members of the bar of a federal court or of the highest court of any state or in foreign countries who are authorized to practice law in the courts of the country concerned are designated legal assistance attorneys. Navy and Marine Corps judge advocates not on active duty may be designated as legal assistance attorneys by JAG.

While performing legal assistance duties, legal assistance attorneys are guided by the Professional Conduct of Judge Advocates, JAGINST 5803.1, and the Standards of Conduct and Government Ethics, SECNAVINST 5370.2J. Persons who are authorized to practice law in the courts of a foreign country are guided by similar standards that have been issued for the guidance of lawyers in the country concerned.

NONLAWYER PERSONNEL

Nonlawyer legal officers, LNs, independent duty LNs, and legal clerks may assist attorneys, but they may not provide legal advice or provide services that call for the professional judgment of an attorney. Nonlawyer personnel may provide assistance not requiring the attention of an attorney, as outlined in the Legal Assistance Manual, JAGINST 5801.2.

PERSONS ELIGIBLE FOR ASSISTANCE

Legal assistance is intended primarily for active duty personnel and may be provided to members of the Armed Forces of the United States on active duty, including reservists and members of the National Guard on active duty for 30 days or more.

As resources permit, legal assistance may also be provided to the following categories of people in the order listed:

1. Dependents of active duty personnel and dependents of personnel who died while on active duty.

2. Retired military personnel.

3. Dependents of retired members and dependents of deceased retired members.

4. Reservists on active duty for single periods of 29 days or less and their dependents, as authorized by the legal assistance area coordinator, in emergency cases. Additionally, for the purpose of enhancing the readiness of Reserve personnel for mobilization, active duty legal assistance attorneys and Reserve judge advocates who have been authorized by JAG may provide premobilization legal counseling and assistance to inactive Reserve personnel consistent with mobilization readiness needs. Premobilization assistance primarily consists of making sure wills and powers of attorney are current and may include drafting basic wills and basic powers of attorney.

5. Civilian personnel who are United States citizens, other than local hire employees, employed by, serving with, or accompanying the Armed Forces of the United States, when they are assigned to a foreign country or to a vessel or unit of the Armed Forces of the United States deployed in excess of 30 days.

6. Dependents living in a foreign country accompanying authorized civilians listed previously.

7. Members of allied forces and their dependents in the United States, serving with the Armed Forces of the United States.

8. Other persons authorized by JAG.

Persons who are separated from active service other than by retirement are not generally eligible for legal _assistance. Normally, the various veterans organizations will help such individuals.

CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEGED CHARACTER OF SERVICE PROVIDED

Information and files on legal assistance clients are confidential and privileged under law and applicable professional rules and guidelines. This confidentiality is separate and distinct from military security classification. Confidential and privileged matters may not be disclosed to anyone by the attorney providing legal assistance, except upon the specific permission of the client or when the responsible legal assistance attorney determines that disclosure is authorized or required by law or applicable rules of professional conduct. Disclosure of otherwise confidential and privileged information cannot be authorized or made lawful by order of superior military authority.

Other attorneys may be granted access to confidential and privileged information for supervisory and quality assurance purposes or to obtain their _{assistance in the case.} Attorneys granted access to information under this provision are bound to maintain the confidentiality of the information. Office records for prevention of conflicts of interest and statistical data may also be derived from information provided by the client.

If requested by a member's commanding officer (CO) or officer in charge (OIC), information on whether a member of a command reported to a legal assistance office will generally be provided. Information about a member's presence in the office will not be disclosed, however, if doing so would reveal the nature of conversations, advice, or resistance. The nature of the legal assistance or the substance of conversations or advice will not be provided without the client's consent.