The Ins and Outs of Legal Assistance
Fort Bragg legal assistance provides a broad spectrum of services to active duty personnel, family members, and retirees. Legal assistance attorneys and support staff perform a wide variety of functions under AR 27-3 that include the preparation of wills, notary public services, and soldier and family law legal assistance. Other legal functions and more specialized services are handled by the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA) through its civilian staff. These services include Administrative Separations, Criminal Law, Trial Defense Service, Military Justice , General Litigation, Legal Assistance for the Indigent (also called "pro bono" service), Claims, and Administrative Law. It is an established policy regional-wide that legal assistance attorneys at Fort Bragg do not handle estate cases for the deceased’s family members under a deductible limit (currently $2,500 quoted in AR 27-3). Even if an estate falls below the deductible limit, the attorneys here are likely to be too busy with deployed clients and may not have enough time to complete an estate case under a much shorter turnaround than elsewhere.
Who Can Get Legal Assistance
Accessing Legal Assistance at Fort Bragg is subject to certain eligibility criteria, and not everyone may qualify for help. In general, legal assistance is offered to Soldiers, retirees, and family members. The primary beneficiaries for Fort Bragg legal assistance services are active duty Soldiers, including those on Title 10 orders (for example, the Reserves) and Members of the Commissioned Corps and the Commissioned Regualr and Reserve of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Legal assistance is also offered to military retirees and their eligible family members as well as Reserve retirees who are retired in the Retired Reserve and their eligible family members. Other eligible individuals include former spouses of qualifying members of the uniformed services; dependents of certain deceased members of the uniformed services; and former spouses of retired (or formerly retired) members of the uniformed services who are eligible for medical care benefits under Section 1089 of Title 10 United States Code.
Legal assistance services are not available to active duty personnel of the Commissioned Regular or Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service. Legal assistance is also not provided to veterans who are not also Service members. Finally, legal assistance is not be provided to individuals who are not eligible for care in a military treatment facility.
Typical Legal Issues we Handle
The Fort Bragg legal assistance office commonly assists service members and their families with a variety of legal issues. Family and estate planning law are two of the most regular matters handled at the center. Other family-related areas include military child support and military spousal support. Both of these are included in their family law practice. For normal civilian individuals and families, they may get assistance with divorce, division of property, and orders of alimony, just to name a few.
Consumer protection matters are often common. They may get help with the filing of for bankruptcy and should be able to get assistance with a debt lawsuit defense. Other common consumer protection issues involve contracts, credit cards, identity theft and fraud cases.
Other commonly seen issues involve federal government benefits. These include Social Security benefits. The legal assistance center should be able to assist military and service members with applying for Social Security benefits when service members are disabled or retired.
Estate planning is another area of law that should appear regularly. This may involve drafting a will or setting up a power of attorney. They probably deal with some estate administration type of work including probate and intestate succession.
Some military specific matters such as military car registration and military family support are very common. Members can often get help with some employment law issues that may be related to the military.
As you can see, the legal assistance center is a great resource for many.
How to Set Up Appointments
To schedule a legal assistance appointment, you will need to provide documentation to support the appointment. The documentation requirements are different depending on whether you’re an active duty or a dependent.
Active duty family members:
1. Either a DEERS printout or a copy of the front page of the sponsor’s Leave and Earnings Statement.
2. For pregnant women, only one of the above is required.
Active Duty:
- If you’re within 30 days of leaving your duty stations that MEPS, you will need a copy of your orders.
- If you are at the half-way point of your assignment, you should bring a copy of your orders, copy of the front page of your LES, or an original DA form 131.
- For those on lengthy unaccompanied tours where no DA form 131 is done, a copy of the front page of your LES will be acceptable.
- If you are not within 30 days of leaving but are fairly shortly thereafter, it is recommended you bring a copy of your orders.
The legal assistance attorneys at the Fort Bragg Law Office utilize a web-based system to schedule appointments. Appointment requests can be submitted to that system any time that you have access to the internet. Since this process is web-based, reservations can be made without the legal assistance attorney needing to print anything. Reservations from 5 p.m. until 8 a . m. as well as holidays and weekends are generally not processed but will be considered if the attorney has an opening.
Once an attorney reviews your request and schedules an appointment for you, you will receive a reply via email. The email message will include instructions on downloading the client worksheet that you must fill out and bring with you to your scheduled appointment. Additionally, the attorney will indicate which courthouse(s) the worksheet applies.
Generally, the attorney will review your request for a specific appointment date/time within a 3 month range. If no slots are open during that period, the system will default to its next 3 month window, at which point your request will be sent to the legal assistance attorney for review. Further, each person listed on your DD Form 1172-2 will have to go through this exact same process of submitting an electronic request. Please keep in mind that a family member requesting an appointment will only get a reply for their appointment request. You will not see a reply to the family members’ appointment request. You will only see the reply to your appointment request. So don’t panic if not all the family members have replies to their requests. Please do not submit a request more than once – it will only slow down the appointment process.
Other Referrals and Resources
General Additional Information: Resources Online and Off
In addition to the resources and services listed above, individuals seeking legal assistance in family law, consumer matters, and estate planning may also find helpful information through these organizations: Military OneSource offers an extensive array of no-cost resources for military members, their families, and dependents. The program, provided by the Department of Defense, helps answer your questions about military life. From information on education and finance to emotional health and finding child care, the comprehensive resources are available on 1-800-342-9647 or online at www.militaryonesource.com. The North Carolina Bar Association offers an online family law handbook for consumers . Family a practical guide to family law in North Carolina is available at www.nccbar.gov/stay-informed/consumer-information/family-law-and-the-lawyeras-consumer.aspx. With input from the North Carolina Bar Foundation and the North Carolina State Bar, information on nearly every phase of life is featured on this website, from finding an attorney to preparation for end-of-life decisions. The information is inquiry-driven, designed to have readers input information about their current situations. The site then provides related information and resources to assist users. The North Carolina Judicial Branch provides an array of resources for self-representation and many online forms. These are available at www.nccourts.org/help-topics/.