Identify the legal lane

• Personal civil legal assistance: wills, powers of attorney, consumer issues, family law advice, SCRA questions and other eligible personal matters.
• Military justice: investigations, nonjudicial punishment, courts-martial and related criminal-law processes.
• Administrative proceedings: evaluations, reprimands, adverse actions, separation, credential/security matters or other service-specific administrative processes.
• Claims/corrections/appeals: often governed by separate statutes, regulations and review bodies.

The installation legal assistance office can be a useful first contact for eligible personal legal matters, but it is not automatically the office that represents a member in a military-justice case or every administrative proceeding.

When a notice arrives

1. Preserve the complete notice and every attachment.
2. Calendar the response deadline immediately.
3. Identify whether the matter is criminal, administrative, benefits-related or corrective.
4. Identify the right to counsel or representation for that particular process.
5. Request and preserve the evidence or record you are entitled to review.
6. Respond through the authorized channel and preserve proof of submission.
7. Keep the final decision and review/appeal instructions.

The Manual for Courts-Martial is a core military-justice authority. Administrative proceedings may instead be governed by DoD and service-specific issuances, so each administrative guide will link the controlling authority separately.

Official sources

• Military OneSource — Legal Assistance for Service Members and Families
• Joint Service Committee — Manual for Courts-Martial

Source status: SRC-045; SRC-046 verified October 4, 2026. Recheck current service-specific instructions and deadlines before acting.