The Army has opened a brand new college at Fort Belvoir in Virginia that’s designed to supply superior coaching to army attorneys, together with protection attorneys.
Lessons started Might 9 on the heart, which provides troops within the Army’s Choose Advocate Common’s Corps, referred to as decide advocates, a chance to achieve supplemental coaching on essential authorized points.
The Army Advocacy Heart is a primary for the Division of Protection and is modeled after the Division of Justice’s nationwide advocacy heart in Columbia, South Carolina.
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A multipart investigative collection printed final month by The Conflict Horse web site discovered the army justice system within the Marine Corps to be significantly damaged, with protection counsel dealing with threats to their careers merely from doing their jobs and battling repeated efforts to avoid due course of for defendants. Advocates have described related considerations concerning the protection counsel offered in different companies in recent times.
A report final yr by the Army JAG Corps to the American Bar Affiliation discovered there are roughly 1,885 active-duty Army decide advocates however solely 148 active-duty troops serving as army protection counsel for the service.
The restricted variety of army protection attorneys, and a historical past of protection counsel serving beneath the identical command as army prosecutors, has at occasions created challenges for the army justice system.
Programs on the new Army heart will probably be provided all year long, and can usually final between two days and two weeks, Michael Mulligan, the middle’s director and a former decide on the Army court docket of prison appeals, advised Army.com. The curriculum contains the whole lot from fundamental trial litigation to dealing with of sexual assault circumstances.
Lessons with open seats will probably be obtainable to troops in different companies, in response to Mulligan.
Army officers hope the brand new coaching heart will create a chance to raise the talents of decide advocates, particularly troops working as protection counsel, who’ve a very difficult function within the army authorized system.
“The advocacy heart will synchronize all advocacy coaching, inside one facility on Belvoir,” mentioned Lt. Col. Theo Voudouris, the middle’s operations officer, in a press assertion. “This can function a centralized location for members of the Army JAG Corps, worldwide, to attend coaching programs in civil and army justice litigation.”
America Trial Protection Service, the company inside the Army JAG Corps that gives free authorized companies to troops, trains its attorneys via its protection counsel help program. It should now even be allowed to make use of the advocacy heart. One class particularly, the joint capital protection course, will probably be strictly obtainable for protection counsel, in response to Mulligan.
It takes prolonged coaching to grow to be a member of the Army JAG Corps. Following regulation college, and a six-week direct commissioned course at Fort Benning, Georgia, decide advocates undergo army authorized coaching on the Choose Advocate Common’s Authorized Heart and College in Charlottesville, Virginia. That is solely a roughly two-hour drive away from the advocacy heart at Fort Belvoir the place they will now obtain additional training.
Building started final fall on the $7 million, virtually 9,300-square-foot facility, in response to a service press assertion.
— Jonathan Lehrfeld is a fellow at Army.com. Observe him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media.
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