Legal Question in Military Law in North Carolina

Re: administrative separation

I believe your son is either receiving bad advice from someone or he is misinterpreting what they are saying. A court-martial and an administrative separation are two different processes. The issues which you describe (insubordination, late for work, etc) normally would not be handled at a court-martial because they are not serious offenses. Normally they would be handled at nonjudicial punishment where the Commanding Officer handles minor offenses. Your son would have the right to refuse such punishment and could ask that the charges against him be sent to a court-martial, but he should be very careful about doing that. A court-martial is a full criminal trial and if he is found guilty, he would have a federal conviction on his record and face jail time and/or a bad discharge. If he receives nonjudicial punishment, that punishment cannot include jail or a discharge. However after such punishment, discharge proceedings can be started against your son. Depending on what type of discharge they are trying to give him and how long he has been in the service, he will have various rights in order to try to fight the discharge. He may be entitled to has his case heard by an administrative discharge board where he can be represented by a lawyer and call witnesses or present evidence on his behalf before a board who has to decide whether he should be discharged or not and under what conditions. He also would have the right to appeal any discharge which was imposed.

Going to a court-martial is one way to fight this, but it is risky. There are other ways to try to fight a discharge. He should be sure to speak with a lawyer about his options and what may be the best decision for him.

I hope this has helped. Please feel free to contact me directly if I can be of any further service.

Re: administrative separation

This doesn't sound correct in terms of the advice and process.

There may be a way to fight. And he probably should consider that if he wants a chance later at an upgrade of any discharge.