Florida Law Provides Veterans With Special Treatment Programs Successful Completion of a Court Ordered Veterans Treatment Program Will Avoid a Criminal Conviction. The provisions of the T. Patt Maney Veterans’ Treatment Intervention Act passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Florida’s Governor to take effect on July 1, 2012, as Section 394.47891 […]

I speak to clients and prospective clients all the time who misunderstand the difference between mandatory processing for separation and mandatory separation from the military. There are many grounds that require mandatory processing for administrative separation from the military: they generally include a positive drug urinalysis (drug abuse), a substantiated incident of physical domestic abuse,

I am now co-author with Charlie Swift for the second edition of Court Martial Advocacy: Trying the Military Case, published by West Publishing (Thomson Reuters). Look for the second edition later this year. The update will focus on the recent changes to military law, which mostly relate to sex offenses and victim rights. Learn more

Today’s prosecutors have significant resources at their fingertips – investigators, forensic scientists, social workers, forensic psychiatrists, and so forth.  This government machine is working towards the common goal of obtaining a conviction in a sex crime case.  More resources are dedicated now more than ever to prosecute cases involving sexual assault and other sex crimes. 

Should You Refuse NJP or Captain’s Mast? If your command has notified you of Non-Judicial Punishment (NJP), Article 15 proceedings, or Captain’s Mast< (Navy lingo), or Office Hours (USMC lingo), you may have the right to refuse NJP and demand trial by court-martial. Excercising this NJP right can determine whether your case is handled in

I often am asked what is the difference between a personal injury claim and a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act.  The primary difference is procedural, because the law applied will be the same. The Federal Tort Claims Act is a law passed by Congress that permits claims and lawsuits to be made against

I am often asked by active duty members if they have to report to their command if they get arrested out in town – for example, for DUI.  If you are Navy, the answer is YES (and I believe the other services have followed suit).   In a case where I was the trial counsel (prosecutor),

Several times a year, every Navy Sailor (and every member of the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard) has to pee into a small plastic bottle under the eyes of an observer.  The bottle is then left in a brown box and, for most, will never be seen again by the Sailor. The

I answered a post on Avvo.com recently where a military member stated that he was investigated but not charged with an assault under Article 128, the victim being his spouse. Domestic violence, in its simplest terms, is a threat or act of violence against a family member or someone similarly situated, like a live-in girlfriend.