New Jersey Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

The legal community in New Jersey provides Legal Assistance to Military Personnel in a variety of ways.

For the Warrior Community

Active duty service members may wish to go first to Armed Forces Legal Assistance's online database to "locate active duty legal activities offering general legal services within the continental United States". Here is a list for the state of New Jersey.

Servicemembers and veterans alike may find a lot of resources with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, such as a Veterans Guide, link to Service Offices, lots of forms, and more.

The New Jersey Bar Association has organized a remarkable Military Legal Assistance Program, as follows:

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"The Military Legal Assistance Program is a pro bono program established by the New Jersey State Bar Association, through its Military Law and Veterans' Affairs Committee, in conjunction with McCarter & English, L.L.P. This program provides free legal assistance to eligible military personnel. To be eligible for the program you must:

• be a New Jersey resident;
• be a member of the reserve components of the armed forces (Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Navy Reserve, Marine Corp Reserve, etc.); and
• have been called to active duty and deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001.

The Military Legal Assistance Program offers legal assistance to eligible military personnel in three areas:

• Family Law
• Employment Law
• Debtor-Creditor Law

Please call 888-541-1900 to request assistance. If you are eligible for assistance, your case will be referred to a volunteer who can assist you with your specific legal issue."

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General-Purpose Resources

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else.

• Find Legal Help.Org has a good, general-purpose Consumers' Guide to Legal Help / New Jersey
• New Jersey Legal Services offers a toll-free hotline.

Private Practice Attorneys

Typically, a lawyer in private practice will listen to your situation for 15 or 20 minutes, then give you an idea about how to proceed, in general terms, without charging you. If the matter is something the lawyer can help you with, but must charge for, sometimes you can work out a military-family discount, especially if you are easy to work with. The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers in New Jersey who are interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans .

New Jersey county bar associations have set up over 20 Lawyer Referral Services.

For Lawyers

The New Jersey Bar Association (through its Military Law and Veterans' Affairs Committee, in conjunction with McCarter & English)

established a Military Legal Assistance Program to help New Jersey residents who have served overseas as active duty members of reserve components of the armed forces after September 11, 2001. To learn more and/or volunteer, contact the program here.

You may also find many pro bono opportunities through Pro Bono NJ.org/ especially through its pro bono opportunities guide.

It is likely that there are other New Jersey programs, sponsored by local bar associations, law schools, and others. Anyone with more information on these or other programs are invited to contact me; the most convenient way is to add in a comment below. The purpose is service!

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See also

• ABA Military Pro Bono Project
• State-by-state list of LAMP programs

GI Bill to Create Lawyers?

One way to improve legal services to servicemembers, veterans and their families is to turn some of them into legal professionals. The post-WW2 GI Bill was notable in this regard.

As for today's GI Bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs GI Bill Website implies, on its Welcome page, that GI Bill benefits can be applied to law school, and similar programs, e.g. paralegal and legal secretary.

A Law School would appear to qualify as an "Advanced Degree". To the extent that law school tuition exceeds the "highest in-state undergraduate tuition rate", addition aid may be available through the "Yellow Ribbon" program.

Most excitingly, GI Bill may be available to support Law Clerking programs such as WSBA's Rule 6 Law Clerking Program as a form of "On-the-Job or Apprenticeship Training". The VA gives as examples of this type of training "Union Plumber, Hotel Management and Firefighter"; Law Clerking is unarguably similar in form. VA reimburses the veterans at a fraction of the full time GI Bill rate, starting at 75% of the full-time GI Bill rate for the 1st six months and falling to 35% of the full-time GI Bill rate for the remainder of the training program, and also provides that the student may also receive a salary from your employer. That latter provision may make law clerking, currently a necessarily low-paying gig, practical for more veterans. The hang-up would be finding law firms or other organizations (e.g. government departments) willing to take on a clerk; however perhaps the current economic difficulties can make clerks a value proposition all around.

Some or all of these benefits may be transferrable to qualified spouses. This may be an economical and efficient way to serve the veteran community.

An organized effort to turn some of our veterans into legal professionals will pay big dividends. But how to start?

Boone v. Shinseki: Was Veterans' Appeal Timely?

Paralyzed Veterans of America's attorneys are frequently involved in cases involving veterans' rights. One recent example is Boone v. Shinseki, in which a veteran filed an appeal with the VA which sat on it instead of telling the veteran of his error or forewarding the appeal to the appropriate court. From PVA's Legal Issues Page:

"Paralyzed Veterans’ attorneys represented the veteran in the recently decided case of Boone v. Shinseki in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Since its decision in Henderson (see below), the Court has been struggling with jurisdictional issues such as the one presented by this case: Did a veteran file his appeal on time if he inadvertently filed it with VA instead of the Court, and then VA waited too long to send it to the Court?

While Paralyzed Veterans argued that there are legal reasons the veteran should be allowed to continue his appeal, the Court found in Boone and similar cases that the veteran had actually filed a motion for reconsideration with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. This holding preserves a possible future appeal for the veteran but avoids other jurisdictional questions.

• Read the Boone decision»
• Read the Boone pleadings:Memorandum»Reply»
• Listen to the oral argument»

MORE: http://www.pva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=rights_gc

Minnesota Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

The legal community in Minnesota provides Legal Assistance to Military Personnel in a variety of ways.

For the Warrior Community

• Active duty service members may wish to go first to Armed Forces Legal Assistance's online database to "locate active duty legal activities offering general legal services within the continental United States". While it does not appear to show any in the state of Minnesota. it does show a couple within a few hundred miles
• The Minnesota National Guard Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA) offers general legal assistance to servicemembers, their dependents and retired servicemembers in a variety of areas.
• Veterans will want to check with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs
• Homeless Veterans may want to check with the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans
• The Minnesota Attorney General has issued a very helpful Guide for Military Service Personnel and Veterans
• The Minnesota State Court's Self-Help center includes a webpage about special laws and rules in a Legal Action with a Person on Active Military Duty.

General-Purpose Resources

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else.

• LawHelpMN is a good, general-purpose place to start looking for law help in Minnesota
• Also very helpful is the Minnesota State Court's Self-Help center.

Private Practice Attorneys

Typically, a lawyer in private practice will listen to your situation, then give you an idea about how to proceed, in general terms, without charging you. If the matter is something the lawyer can help you with, but must charge for, sometimes you can work out a military-family discount, especially if you are easy to work with (e.g. have all your forms with you.)

• The Minnesota State Bar has a Find A Lawyer page with a variety of resources, including a web-based referral system that lets you look for lawyers interested in a particular kind of case (e.g. "military law") or by keyword (e.g. "veterans")
• The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers in Minnesota who are interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans .

For Lawyers

• VETLAW/Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans provides assistance throughout Minnesota to positively motivated veterans and their families who are homeless or experiencing other life crisis. Many of these veterans have unresolved legal issues, primarily civil but sometimes including criminal expungements
• One way to find volunteer programs in Minnesota directly addressing the warrior community is to go to the MSBA Pro Bono Directory. In the "Working With" field, pick "Veterans" and his "search". It'll give you a list of programs that include veterans in their target clientele
• The Minnesota State Bar has a Military Law Committee with the mission "To gather and disseminate information, share expertise and advise the members of the Bar on all matters relating to the practice of military law in Minnesota; to organize a pro bono program to provide legal assistance to deployed and mobilized military personnel and their families, in cooperation with the ABA's Operation Enduring LAMP; to coordinate communications regarding any problems which may arise relative to the provision of legal services to, for, or by members of the military; to consider all possible means of enhancing or increasing the cooperation and communication between the State Bar, the legal services, and the judge advocates of the various military installations within the state; and to allow retired military personnel the opportunity to connect with practicing military lawyers". To learn more, contact the committee
• See also:
  • Minnesota Volunteer Attorney Program: http://www2.mnbar.org/MVAP/
  • Pro Justice MN: http://www.projusticemn.org/ "Minnesota's online poverty law resource for pro bono and legal services practitioners, law students, and faculty advising low-income or disadvantaged clients."

It is likely that there are other Minnesota programs, sponsored by local bar associations, law schools, and others. Anyone with more information on these or other programs are invited to contact me; the most convenient way is to add in a comment below. The purpose is service!

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See also

• ABA Military Pro Bono Project
• State-by-state list of LAMP programs

VA Relaxes Enrollment for Non-Disabled Veterans

Larry Scott, of VA Watchdog dot Org (a site well worth following), provides another useful heads-up:

VA RELAXES ENROLLMENT FOR NON-DISABLED VETERANS

"Priority Group 8 income threshold now raised by 10% giving more non-disabled vets access to VA health care.

In January of 2003, to save money, then VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi ordered his agency to stop enrolling Priority Group 8 veterans. These are veterans with no service-connected disabilities and whose income / assets is above certain geographic thresholds. Official VA definition is:

Group 8: Veterans with income and/or net worth above the VA national income threshold and the geographic income threshold who agree to pay copays.

Today ( June 15, 2009 ) the rules change.

The income threshold will go up by 10% thus allowing over 250,000 more veterans into the VA health care system. A full explanation is on this VA page.

An example: If your threshold was $28,000, add $2,800 ( 10% ) and the new threshold is $30,800.

NOTE: If you are a Group 8 veteran who has been turned down, don't assume anything. Find out for sure if you qualify. The VA has an enrollment calculator you can use to find out for sure. Go to this VA page, enter all your info, and see if you now qualify."

Read Larry's full report Here.

Oklahoma Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

The legal community in Oklahoma provides Legal Assistance to Military Personnel in a variety of ways.

For the Warrior Community

Active duty service members may wish to go first to Armed Forces Legal Assistance's online database to "locate active duty legal activities offering general legal services within the continental United States". Here is a list for the state of Oklahoma.

Veterans may wish to check the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, the Oklahoma Offices of the Federal VA and the several Veterans Centers in Oklahoma; while I don't see lawyer-specific programs there, they do offer help with a variety of problems. Veterans having difficulties with the law should investigate Tulsa's innovative Veterans Court (see the MTV Report Here!) Incarcerated veterans should check out this Oklahoma-specific guide.

General-Purpose Resources

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else.

• OK Law is a good, general-purpose place to start looking for law help in Oklahoma
• Legal Aid OK helps eligible low-income people and senior citizens with civil legal problems.
• The Oklahoma State Bar Association lists more such resources on its helpful Low Cost or No Cost Legal Assistance page

Private Practice Attorneys

Typically, a lawyer in private practice will listen to your situation for 15 or 20 minutes, then give you an idea about how to proceed, in general terms, without charging you. If the matter is something the lawyer can help you with, but must charge for, sometimes you can work out a military-family discount (it does no harm to ask!) The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers in Oklahoma who are interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans. Also, there are lawyer referral services run by the Oklahoma State Bar Association and by the Tulsa County Bar Association.

For Lawyers

According to Operation Enduring Lamp, the Oklahoma Bar Association has

"...a Committee, which has been coordinating with the local military units. Bar maintains list of volunteer lawyers who will provide pro bono services to service members and/or dependents.

While I have not found a link to that Committee or a Section serving our warrior community, this growing field of practice might provide an opportunity to new or experienced lawyers looking to take the lead; contact the Oklahoma Bar Association.

If you're interesting in pro bono generally, check out ProBonoNet/OK.

It is likely that there are other Oklahoma programs, sponsored by local bar associations, law schools, and others. Anyone with more information on these or other programs are invited to contact me; the most convenient way is to add in a comment below. The purpose is service!

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See also

• ABA Military Pro Bono Project
• State-by-state list of LAMP programs

Agent Orange Equity Action on Facebook

Our Blue Water Navy veterans of Vietnam need our help in getting help with their Agent Orange Injuries, as mentioned earlier in Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009 (HR 2254, 111th Congress)

A network is rapidly forming, of citizens calling Congress to politely (please!) ask our Congresscritters whether they back the bill and, if not, why not. If we get enough people asking, they will act; imagine having to explain to your constituents that you oppose this!

The network, hosted by Facebook, is called Support Passage of Agent Orange Equity Act 2009 - H.R.2254. I hope you will consider joining us (and whether or not you do, call Congress now ... what reason can you have to delay?)

Together, we can get this done. The technology makes it easier, but we need to make the call and then tell our friends.