Legal office offers more than power of attorney

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class ?Jack Sanders
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Sitting in a court room is the last place any service member wants to be, when most of their legal issues can be resolved beforehand with a quick visit to the legal office.

Most people know to always make sure to read the fine print before signing anything.
Some deals that look too good to be true probably are. But there is hope for the frustrated and contract-illiterate.

The 673d Air Base Wing Legal office can provide Soldiers and Airmen with the legal aid and support they may not have even known they needed.

Legalities are something every service member will face from time to time, whether it's updating their will before a deployment or trying to get out of their lease for a permanent-change-of-station.

When those times come, it may pay off more in the long run literally in some cases to check with the legal office.

"I think what a lot of people don't know is the attorneys can help with so much more than what people think they can," said Tech. Sgt. Laurie K Halman, NCO in charge of the legal office. "It's basically free legal advice, and they've gone to law school just like an attorney that you would get outside of base."

Legal advice is only one of the many services the office provides here.

"Most people just think we just do powers-of-attorney or things like that, but we're really involved in any fundraising on base, any private organizations and any private businesses," said Halman. "We review Air Force Instructions when they're republished or revised. Pretty much anything that needs a legal review, the paralegals have to look at."

Even if the issue isn't something they can take care of the office can still provide assistance.

"We can advise people," said Capt. Brett Johnson, 673d Legal office. Assistant Staff Judge Advocate. "We see a lot of family-law matters, questions about divorce, dissolution, financial issues and things like that.

"With any legal issue, this is a good place to start," he said. "We can't go downtown and represent somebody, but we can point them in the right direction. People can come in, and if we don't have the answer or we can't represent them, we can at least get them pointed in the right direction."

Johnson said he is currently in charge of preventative law, which works by providing legal aid in advance to people to keep them from dealing with something like a lawsuit.
 
Preventative law is also in charge of things like getting wills and powers of attorney ready for deployers.

With any contract, whether it's for buying a car or getting a record deal, before signing on the dotted line, it's a good idea to let the service members of the legal office help out first.