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With downsizing over the last few years, rich retirement benefits, and increasing competitiveness, sometimes it makes economic sense to retain counsel to assist in a fitness report appeal. This blog entry is looking specifically at Navy adverse fitness reports. The applicable regulation is BUPERSINST 1610.10C The first step is to exercise your rights under the regulation to submit...

Mr. Conway finished two Army Discharge Review Board hearings today. I’ve always written that success before the ADRB can be highly personality driven. The composition of the various boards (Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard) change regularly. We rarely have two boards with exactly the same composition – though we see...

Here is some background information on marijuana. Keep in mind things like frequency of use, hydration, quantity, and type can all affect detection windows. These are just general guidelines that we typically hear toxicologists testify to. EXAMPLES OF MARIJUANA DETECTION WINDOWS ​Schedule I ​Cutoff – 15ng/ml Detection windows ​Light use – 1-3 days Moderate use...

We regularly receive phone calls from concerned service members with questions about the Family Advocacy Program and Central Registry Board. I received another one today and decided to update our page with some frequently asked questions. Here are some of the more frequently asked questions: 1. I received notification of a Central Registry Board Incident Determination,...

Last week we did a Marine Corps administrative separation board for a staff sergeant who tested positive for cocaine in an amount of 121ng/ml. That’s a pretty low amount. We were successful. The board found no basis for separation. During the course of the notification process, a memorandum was sent to us (probably inadvertently) indicating Marine...

Mil. R. Evid. 412 limits the extent to which an accused in a sexual assault case can introduce evidence regarding the alleged victim’s prior sexual behavior. The rule, however, carves out three exceptions. Under Mil. R. Evid. 412 (b)(1), the following evidence is admissible: (A)evidence of specific instances of sexual behavior by the alleged victim offered to...

We often get questions about what constitutes unlawful command influence. Here are some basics about how UCI functions in a court-martial. The defense, as the moving party, under United States v. Biagase, 50 M.J. 143, 150 (1999), bears the initial burden of eliciting “some evidence” of “facts which, if true, constitute unlawful command influence, and that the...

This week Mr. Conway will be doing an administrative separation board involving the innocent oral ingestion of cocaine. Often, prospective clients call us indicating that the have no idea how they tested positive for cocaine. Nearly always the amount of cocaine metabolite detected in their system was minimal.I’m frequently reminded of the now famous Randy...

Mr. Conway had a nice result in Washington DC this week. It was an officer case involving a positive urinalysis for Percocet (oxymorphone). We originally turned down Captain’s Mast and demanded a court-martial. The jury found the client not guilty of wrongfully using oxymorphone.

The U.S. military opens combat positions to women Today will go down as a historic day in military justice circles. The Secretary of Defense has opened all combat occupational specialties to women. Policy arguments aside. A whole host of new legal questions are sure to flow from this decision.For example, will all women now be...