The Soldier and Family Legal Services Division at Fort Rucker (United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence) maintained a high-quality legal assistance program through flexible and innovative solutions with limited staff. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Fort Rucker Soldier and Family Legal Office continued to provide timely legal services to the local community through a combination of effective in-person appointments and virtual interactions. The Office integrated and refined its virtual appointment operations as part of its legal aid services, allowing it to provide legal aid services without interruption when the Office was limited by pandemic response efforts. In 2021, the office registered 451 clients and provided 2,085 services worth nearly $1 million. In addition, the Fort Rucker Tax Center processed more than 1,252 federal and state tax returns with tax refunds totaling $1,731,852. The office also took on difficult and innovative mutual legal assistance cases and intensified its efforts to maintain relationships with other legal aid offices, commandos and various settlement organizations. As a result, Fort Rucker`s relatively small legal aid office has an outsized positive impact on Fort Rucker and the surrounding community. The Parris Island Legal Services Support Team (LSST-PI) Legal Support Office showed how to meet the highest standards. The expertise, knowledge and work ethic have allowed this office to achieve excellent results despite extremely limited staff. The volume and variety of clients that the office can handle is remarkable.
A total of 6,394 services were provided. These include assisting 87 clients with various consumer protection and fraud claims; Consulting, drafting and executing 488 different estate planning documents; Advice, drafting, implementation and assistance in the submission of 790 family law cases; assisting 71 clients with immigration matters; Advice and research on military rights and benefits of 57 clients; Notarization of 4,603 documents; Assisted and advised 24 clients on non-support issues for dependents; Preparation and execution of special powers of attorney for 93 clients; Assist 85 clients in landlord-tenant business; Assisting 13 clients in various tax matters; and the treatment of 123 other different legal issues. This office has also demonstrated self-improvement by focusing on reorganization, including the development of a streamlined document management system, as well as mentoring new officers. The OHSA-PI Legal Aid Office showed how to do more with less. As U.S. Coast Guard Legal Counsel for the State of Alaska, Richard Harris provided exceptional legal services to Coast Guard members, dependents and retirees throughout Alaska and in the midst of a global pandemic. He demonstrated careful representation of clients under the Expanded Legal Aid Program (ELAP), which increased the use of ELAP in D17. As an Alaskan law expert, Mr.
Harris has represented a significant number of clients with emerging issues in litigation involving members of the department throughout Alaska. His representation before local and appellate courts has assisted individual members while setting favorable precedents for all military personnel serving in Alaska. It has also volunteered to support two initiatives that will have a lasting national impact. Initially, he was one of three lawyers running a pilot program to support victims of domestic violence. Second, it reviewed and updated the entire legal aid program for the Coast Guard Legal Engineering course. Air Force Legal Staff Involved in Hurricane Andrew`s Hurricane Relief The 35th Fighter Wing`s legal office is located at Misawa Air Base in Japan and is home to the F-16 Wild Weasels. The law firm, colloquially known as “Legal Weasels,” serves a base population of more than 11,500 employees and supports eight associated units of the U.S. military services (army, navy, and air force) as well as the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Despite its remoteness, Legal Weasels operates an exceptional legal aid program that has prioritized customer service and led to major innovations in legal aid.
In 2021, Legal Weasels served 1,582 clients, drafted 1,668 documents and reviewed 3,499 forms, saving clients $143,270 in legal fees. In addition, in 2021, Legal Weasels focused on client service innovation, developing new tools and introducing the law firm`s mission to a wider audience to better serve the Misawa community. In November 2021, the Legal Weasels developed the Misawa MILNATZ program, an overseas military naturalization program. This innovation allows applicants to complete the naturalization process remotely, saving families an average of $5,000 and up to six trips to Tokyo. Legal Weasels have also created an informative guide on station deployment and switching to ensure that service members have their legal affairs in order before deploying or changing stations. In addition, with the recent launch of the Air Force`s new estate planning service, the Legal Weasels created a will worksheet to complete and shared their innovation with Air Force legal advisory offices around the world. Eventually, the Legal Weasels set up a robust local wedding program to ensure that all requirements of local law and the Ministry of Defense were met, and held wedding ceremonies in their courtroom. Mr. Seltzer has demonstrated his commitment to clients and the broader military community. He worked tirelessly for more than eighteen months researching and advocating for a change in New Jersey Department of Taxation policies that penalized non-resident service members. In the spring of 2019, a tax bulletin amended the definition of “permanent residence” to exclude housing paid for by government housing allowances.
This change, which was made without legislation or public notice, resulted in several legal aid clients receiving communications alleging that they had not properly registered as non-residents. Lord. Seltzer`s efforts, both internally, in collaboration with the Army Legal Aid Policy Division and the Armed Forces Tax Board, and externally to find a New Jersey attorney resulted in New Jersey reversing the rule change and initiating reimbursements to affected military personnel. Seltzer has demonstrated other notable accomplishments, such as advocating for legislation unanimously approved by the Maryland General Assembly to extend the property tax exemption to 100 percent disabled veterans, as well as his continued advocacy for an exemption from approval of the Maryland Wiretapping Act that would allow survivors of domestic violence to admit audio recordings as corroborating evidence. These efforts reflect the dedication and attention to detail that Mr. Seltzer brings to his work every day. The Western Pacific Legal Aid Department of the Regional Bureau of Legal Services (RLSO) has renewed and adapted its practice to provide legal assistance to our country`s Advanced Service members during the ongoing pandemic. RLSO Western Pacific has partnered with Department of Homeland Security officials to resume military naturalizations in Japan for the first time since October 2019.
These efforts resulted in 121 naturalization interviews and 105 new Americans at Western Pacific RLSO events. The Legal Aid Division focused on personnel service in the Western Pacific by conducting 100 deployments for nearly 3,700 soldiers, retirees, Department of Defence civilians and dependents. SRO Western Pacific has also enhanced its preventative legal documents in an effort to answer common questions from potential clients without the need for a lawyer appointment. This resulted in 19 updated documents and eight new ones. The Legal Aid Department has also used technology to improve service to foreign clients by piloting a special proxy printing program and saving resources by creating a digital, fillable form to meet the requirements of marriage in Japan. Over the course of 2021, RLSO Western Pacific has adapted to the challenges of providing legal assistance in a COVID-19 environment abroad. The department has set the standard for excellence and service for the fleet. Stationed in the Region Office of Legal Services Europe, Africa, Central (RLSO EURAFCENT) Sigonella Detachment, LT Killius is the sole provider of legal aid to the Navy in Sicily.
