Good news for US practitioners

LexisNexis Adds All Content from US Department of Defense Boards for the Correction of Military Records to Lexis Advance

Addition helps veterans and advocates address service records and discharge status preventing access to needed veteran care and services

NEW YORK, November 9, 2017 – LexisNexis Legal & Professional today announced that it has added the US Department of Defense (DOD) Boards for the Correction of Military Records to its flagship Lexis Advance offering, creating the only online resource for veterans and their advocates to search military record change information from each branch of the military, comprehensively and all in one place. The action is part of the company’s ongoing Pro Bono Task Force work to support American military veterans.

“All of us at LexisNexis are proud to help veterans by providing them and their representatives the tools and resources they need to address military service and discharge records that prevent veterans from accessing vital care and services,” said Kermit Lowery, retired US Army JAG Officer and current vice president of legal for the North American Legal Research Solutions business of LexisNexis.

The unique set of content added by LexisNexis contains more than 127,000 decisions and changes addressing errors or removing injustices to individual military records and discharge status of service members in the United States Army, Air Force, Navy (including Marine Corps) and Coast Guard between 2008 to the present. It is sourced from the DOD BCMR Board of Decisions and is now, for the first time, offered in a combined, searchable database on Lexis Advance through the Premier Federal Core Agency & Admin Materials collection.

Access to a unified database of this information is a helpful new tool for individual veterans and the lawyers, organizations and others who advocate for them. The ability to conduct a single search, find and assess changes to military records and discharge status across all branches of the military helps advocates find precedent and see trends and patterns into what worked to achieve a record change or discharge upgrade when it was legitimately warranted. This is particularly important for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) who may have been discharged under less than honorable circumstances, preventing their access to VA health care services, VA home loans, educational benefits and temporary shelter if homeless.

“Any veteran suffering from PTSD and TBI has legitimate health concerns, and they should be treated as such,” said Lowery. “For those facing challenges getting the care and services they need based on their discharge status, if we can help them and their legal advocates find ways to open up access to those services where warranted, we feel we are doing the right thing by the men and women who serve our country,” said Lowery.

About the LexisNexis Pro Bono Task Force

The LexisNexis Pro Bono Task Force is a group within LexisNexis responsible for managing the company's pro bono activities to maximize the value realized from those activities, both by the company and by the group beneficiaries. The Pro Bono Task Force identifies appropriate pro bono opportunities, encourages LexisNexis employees to use their two paid pro bono volunteering days per year with approved pro bono organizations, coordinates the donation of equipment and services to approved pro bono organizations, and develops programs and policies to foster the long term success of the company's pro bono initiative.

Prof. Corn interview on the SEAL Team 6 case from Mali

Prof. Geoffrey Corn

South Texas College of Law's Professor Geoffrey Corn's excellent Vox interview about the SEAL Team 6 case out of Mali can be found here. He provides a clear account of the process, including the interservice aspects. Excerpt:

The biggest difference is who decides whether a case gets sent to trial. In most civilian jurisdictions, a prosecutor will recommend a charge to a grand jury — like the Paul Manafort case. The grand jury is going to decide if they think there’s enough evidence to support sending a case to trial.

In the military, prosecutors will advise the commander. But it is the commanding general or admiral who will decide whether or not a case should be sent to a felony-level trial, what we call a “general court-martial.”

The prosecutor doesn’t make that decision. The prosecutor tries the case and makes a recommendation, but the general or admiral isn’t bound by that recommendation. It’s like going to the mayor of your city and asking what cases should be sent to trial.

Where should this case have been tried?

A member of Ukraine's border security force, following orders, shoots at a car to stop it, killing a passenger. He is tried in a civilian court and sentenced to 13 years in prison. On appeal, the judgment is overturned and a new trial ordered. Now a member of parliament is arguing that the country has to reinstate military courts, according to this account.

"Such precedents do not add public confidence in the judicial system, which is why it is now necessary to reform it decisively. From my point of view, it was the case of Serhiy Kolmohorov that showed the need to return to the legislative settlement of military justice activities. Civilian courts have not right and should not bring in verdict or make decisions in military cases," [Iryna] Friz said.

Shhhh. Court's in session

Tasnim News Agency reports that Bahrain has new rules ensuring the secrecy of military courts. Details here. Excerpt:

Head of Bahrain's Military Judiciary Brigadier Yusuf Rashid Flaifel said that the High Military Court has issued a decision prohibiting the circulation of any information, data or news by any audio-visual, electronic or written media, BNA reported.

The Texas gunman's court-martial

The Associated Press writes here, in the Fresno Bee, about the military justice system and the U.S. Air Force court-martial of Texas mass murderer Devin P. Kelley. What did the members (jurors) know in his case? Why isn't it easier to get the record of trial? Excerpt:

The Air Force has so far released only a handful of pages from Kelley's trial record. The service is planning to release more.

Typically, however, transparency in connection with military trial records is minimal. While all of the services make brief courts-martial results public, documents from the proceedings, such as the charges, courtroom transcripts and pretrial agreements, are available only through the federal open records law, the Freedom of Information Act. That's a potentially time-consuming process and there are no assurances the requested documents will be released.

Do the victims' families have a cause of action against the government for negligence in failing to report Kelley's conviction? Vice News has this report.