Navy Legal Office Overview
The Navy Legal Office holds a critical role within the Pearl Harbor community, addressing the numerous legal needs of its sailors and their families. Charged with the responsibility of providing sound counsel based on comprehensive legal expertise, the Navy Legal Office ensures that all matters are handled with the utmost professionalism and respect.
Established in accordance with Title 10 U.S.C. ยง 5013, the Navy Legal Office is part of Naval Base Hawaii and is responsible for servicing the legal needs of Sailors and their families throughout Oahu . This encompasses everything from close consultations with service members and their families regarding family law or landlord-tenant issues, to general legal advice, such as assistance filing an insurance claim.
The Pearl Harbor Navy Legal Services Office divides its staff into several departments, each overseeing different case types. Its Mounts Bay Road building focuses on legal claims litigation, including family law cases such as divorce, child custody and support. The ministry located in B101 provides informal legal counsel and processes claims for damage and non-combat injury. Meanwhile, the Fort Kamehameha office is used for notaries only.
Legal Assistance Services Available at Pearl Harbor
The primary purpose of the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor is to assist and provide support to military personnel, and their families, who may face unique legal issues and concepts. The Legal Office (also referred to as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) office, or the JAG office by military members) at Pearl Harbor/NAVSTA serves active duty military, retired members on base, and their family members. The Legal Office provides a variety of services for active duty military members and their families at Pearl Harbor and in the surrounding areas. Services that are provided include administrative support, legal assistance support, and some form of law-related educational programs for military and civilian personnel.
The administrative support provided at the Pearl Harbor Legal Office assists both active and retired service members. This administrative support includes document requests, notaries, record reviews, limited tax advice, and assistance with wills and powers of attorney. The Legal Assistance Department can also provide information and referral assistance to legal assistance resources for Hawaii residents living off base.
The Legal Assistance program offered at Pearl Harbor is the basis for the significant services provided legal assistance to service members and their families. It includes such legal issues as wills, law of wills, powers of attorneys, notaries, and other legal matters needed to protect each active duty service member and their family. For retired members, assistance in estate planning, estate closure, counsel on legal issues prior to death, including things such as tax advice and bill payment specific to the armed forces, which are very helpful to military members and their families. Advocacy support is offered by providing information on legal issues related to the military that affect service members and their families.
Navy Legal Support Personnel Assigned to Pearl Harbor
The Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor comprises a dedicated team of attorneys and support staff, each playing a critical role in the overall functionality of the legal team. Within the office, each attorney has unique areas of expertise that allow the office to provide specialized legal support across all operations in the area of responsibility.
The Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) is the region’s top legal advisor to the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CPF). In addition to supervising the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor, the SJA serves as the legal advisor to the commander and is responsible for the broad range of legal services offered by the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, including civil law, criminal law, administrative law, labor law, environmental law, international law, personnel law, and health care law. The SJA is also the liaison to the Navy and Marine Corps legal communities on the ground in Hawaii, and frequently works with the Department of Justice and Department of Defense legal advisors, imperatively representing the interests of the Navy and promoting the rule of law and good order in the region.
Reporting to the SJA is the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, who assists in a wide variety of legal matters, including many of the administrative law issues and advisory opinions generated by the Navy Legal Office, as well as personal civil law services provided to military members and families within the command, and criminal law issues affecting Navy personnel in the Pacific Area of Responsibility (AOR). The Deputy SJA also supervises the Pearl Harbor Defense Trial Counsel Office, a uniquely named and constituted General Counsel organization that represents the Navy on claims for injuries to civilians employed by contractors to perform work on U.S. government facilities. Along with the Pearl Harbor attorney, this office works closely with private attorneys representing subcontractors and other civilian personnel regarding civil claims for injury that stem from incidents on a U.S. government installation or that involve a local on-duty or employee’s off-duty conduct in the Pacific AOR. The Deputy also supervises the Pearl Harbor Military Justice Office; an office that provides services, including defense representation, to Navy personnel facing court-martial charges. This office also supervises a small Reserve legal assistance office in Pearl Harbor, maintaining a few individual Reserve billets and monitoring the Reserve legal assistance program.
Legal assistance attorneys comprise the civilian and Reserve contingents of the Navy Legal Office. The attorneys represent the U.S. and the Navy in civil matters, such as family law domestic relations, landlord-tenant disputes, other consumer matters such as financial issues and debt relief, real estate transactions, estate matters and powers of attorney. Support staff to the Navy Legal Office include the paralegals and legal assistants that form the backbone of the office and provide valuable support that helps the office to meet its diverse missions.
Pearl Harbors Lawyers Contributions to the War Efforts of WWII
Historically, the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor has played a vital role in the administration of military justice before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Since the establishment of the Navy Court to try war crimes following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the office has evolved into a modern legal entity that provides comprehensive services.
One of the most significant shifts in the legal landscape at Pearl Harbor was the establishment of the Navy Court in December 1941. This court was responsible for trying naval personnel implicated in war crimes, providing a critical legal mechanism for the United States to address atrocities committed during the war. The Navy Court’s role in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor underscored the unique legal challenges faced by the Navy in a time of war.
Over the decades, the Navy Legal Office continued to adapt and expand its operations. The Navy expanded the scope and depth of its legal support as legal issues on and around Pearl Harbor became more complex. As legal matters across various parts of the base grew more complicated, so too did the matters that came before the Navy Court. With the end of World War II, the Navy Court at Pearl Harbor was eventually closed.
The ongoing evolution of the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor has been a hallmark of its history. In recent years, the Navy has adapted its legal framework to meet the requirements of modern Navy personnel. Today, the office provides a full spectrum of legal services, from administrative support to general legal advice for service members.
Throughout the years, the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor has effectively managed the legal complexities of military service. The office remains a vital component of Pearl Harbor and continues to navigate the changing legal landscape.
Legal Matters Impacting Military Families and Members
The Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor is not just a resource for general legal support, but also for addressing the unique legal challenges faced by military personnel. On any military installation, the realities of separated and deployed living often require the personal lives of service members to interact with local and federal laws in potentially chaotic ways. At the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, this is no different. Here, as one example, is a few examples of the types of matters that Navy Legal Office Hawaii staff frequently handle.
These issues run the gamut of the commonly experienced matters of military life. As noted above, they may be of local or federal jurisdiction, depending on the circumstances of the situation at hand. Each issue is far more complex than its one or two sentence summarization would imply.
As another practical example , from a personnel perspective, divorce and child custody issues are prevalent within Navy households and can be complicated by the nature of service member lives. For both of these matters, as referenced above, the challenges posed by the laws of state versus federal jurisdictional control can become a source of confusion and frustration. This is further complicated by the fact that it requires submitting petitions for changes to a support order, or appealing to establish an entirely new one, in courts of both the states in which the persons involved are legally regarded as residents, and the one in which the enactment of family law would apply.
The simple fact of the matter is that many, many Navy personnel and their families face legal issues of many kinds. The Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor is available to respond to many of the issues faced.
Pursuing Legal Support and Resources
All active duty military and their families are afforded free legal services through the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor. This is established in Chief of Naval Operations Instruction (CNO) 5800.1 titled, "Legal Services." These free legal support services as well as U.S. Navy regulations extend to the following agencies while on a military installation or when in a duty status: subject to some exceptions, these services may be extended to other agencies as appropriate. The Navy Legal Office (NLO) is very important to the legal wellbeing of those stationed in Hawaii and serves as a resource for both military members and their families.
In general, military members may use any military or Army Community Service (ACS) legal assistance office. While service-specific requirements apply, partnership agreements generally allow U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii to receive legal support from Navy legal officers at Pearl Harbor NLO. Access to military support is not specific to Pearl Harbor; military legal assistance offices and other eligible resources are found at every military branch on separate installations.
Dramatic Legal Assistance in Pearl Harbors Conflict
In the midst of military operations, the availability and quality of legal support can significantly impact the effectiveness of a military unit. Navy Legal Support Officers, like those at the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor, play a crucial role in ensuring that legal considerations are factored into operational decision-making. For example, Navy Legal Officers at Pearl Harbor are involved in advising on a full range of issues including administrative issues, criminal matters, environmental compliance, labor concerns, procurement and contracting, FOIA requests, and even the day to day issues facing sailors and their families.
One of the most significant impacts of legal support by the Navy Legal Office is in the area of discipline, specifically, Non-Judicial Punishments (NJP). Counsel at the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor provides superior advice regarding proper, timely, uniform, and consistent application of NJP. They review every case to ensure that there is sufficient evidence to support the findings and that the punishment recommended correlates with the offense. Disciplinary matters , and particularly Commanding Officer NJP, can have an incredibly high impact on the morale of the unit. Counsel providing sound advice to leaders will ensure that the morale of the unit is not compromised unnecessarily by the exercise of discretion in a capricious manner.
Additionally, legal support is critical in other areas that have great impact on the chain of command, such as administrative separation proceedings and involuntary discharges through separation boards. Counsel at the Navy Legal Office at Pearl Harbor provide invaluable assistance to ensure that the chain of command has proper representation and advice during these proceedings.
Finally, it is important for a military unit to have legal counsel readily available for consultation to provide rapid response to unique issues that require quick intervention. Counsel can provide effective legal guidance in matters such as personnel issues, security clearance issues, accidents, unexpected OPSEC issues, or other incidents that require immediate legal input to ensure the unit is able to respond appropriately.