Arizona Bar Association Military Legal Assistance Committee as of March 2011

The mission of the Arizona Bar Association Military Legal Assistance Committee is to address legal issues and needs associated with military personnel and veterans and their families in Arizona.

 

According to its charter, the Military Legal Assistance Committee:

• Assesses current legal services available to military personnel, veterans and their families
• Determines where gaps in legal services exist
• Makes recommendations to the Board of Governors to address those gaps
• Serves as a focal point for legal issues affecting military personnel, veterans and their families in Arizona.

Servicemembers, veterans and their families looking for help should first check the Committee's useful page of Military Legal Assistance Resources.

 

The Committee has participated in numerous projects, according to its recent minutes:

• two StandDowns in Phoenix;
• the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona’s program that provides defense counsel for the Veterans Treatment Court in Tucson;
• the Maricopa County Superior Court Veterans Court;
• two legal clinics at Phoenix School of Law;
• more veteran-centric programs underway at Arizona State University;
• a full-day CLE program on military law scheduled for the State Bar Annual Convention.

Arizona Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

The legal community in Arizona provides legal assistance to servicemembers, veterans and their families 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". A query for the state of Arizona is here

I have not found any other resources specifically dedicated to the warrior community, but I'm still looking. If you find something, please let me know!

General-Purpose Resources

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else.Arizona Law Help is a good, general-purpose place to start looking for law help in Arizona. Notice the topic-by-topic index on the left side of the website, and the county-by-county search box on the right.

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 anything. 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 organize your question beforehand. The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans here.

Another way to find a lawyer is through the Maricopa County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service and the Arizona State Bar Lawyer Finder.

For Lawyers

When I first posted this note, I had not located an Arizona Bar Association Section or Committee in support of military personnel, but I now (2011) see the is a Military Assitance Committee .

It is likely that there are other Arizona 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