If you find yourself the target for military prosecution and are facing a court-martial, it’s imperative that you begin to assemble the best team that is going to assist you in your defense. As a military member, you will be detailed, or assigned, a particular military or uniformed defense counsel. It’s important that the person that you work with is someone that you trust and is someone that you believe is going to have the experience and the preparation necessary to ensure your best possible defense.

If that military counsel is not someone in whom you have that trust, understand that you have the right to request a by-name military defense counsel, someone different. So that if that person is reasonably available, they will be made available to you. And certainly you also have the right to hire civilian counsel at your own expense.

Whoever you choose, it’s important that this person be someone that you trust and be someone in whom you can confide because that person will be making decisions based in large part upon the information that you provide to them. If you are not completely candid or if you provide information that omits very serious and even potentially damaging information to your case, you are only harming yourself, because you’re harming your defense counsel’s ability to defend you.

For questions about court-martial defense, contact the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart at 1­-888-252-0927.