Legal Quandary

The Littlest JAG

I felt like today was my first "real" day of work. Although some of it was taken up figuring out which office I wanted, meeting with my boss, and trying to get my email account set up, I also got to sit in with one of the other attorneys for Legal Assistance - where we take clients either on a walk-in or by-appointment basis.

By far, the most common reason people come in is to have a will drafted. Military folks more or less have it beat into their heads that YOU NEED A WILL. Especially when deploying. This base has people come in for 2 separate appointments - some bases do it all in one appointment. Here, the first appointment is to go over a standard worksheet to identify issues to allow the attorney to draft the will. The second appointment is to execute the will. I have one will to draft tomorrow as a result of the intake appointments I sat in on today. (They gave me the easy one.) I'll also get to do an execution early next week.

Other things we might handle include document review, landlord/tenant disputes, and divorce. Although Air Force JAGs can't actually represent the military member (I think the Army does,) we can advise them about things like what state to file in, potential financial pitfalls, and Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) issues.

Legal Assistance might sound a bit mundane and I know a lot of JAGs kind of hate it. Maybe I'll get there one day too, but for right now, it's kind of cool knowing that someone walked into my office and I made their life just a little bit better - even if it was just to act as a sounding board.

Labels: I LOVE My Job

posted by Legal Quandary at 22:42