About Me

ARMY ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

 

TRENT D. LAVIANO

MAJOR, JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S CORPS; U.S. ARMY (RETIRED)

 

I am a retired Army Judge Advocate with an extensive background in military administrative law with a particular emphasis on U.S. Army personnel law. I have the knowledge and the experience to assist Soldiers who are facing adverse actions which have the potential to severely limit or even end their Army careers. If you are currently facing an investigation, a reprimand, a referred OER or NCOER, the suspension or revocation of your security clearance, a bar to reenlistment, or an involuntary separation action you need to retain an experienced military law attorney.  I can help you to respond in a manner which will help you to protect your interests.

 

If you have been the subject of a previous adverse action such as having had an Article 15, a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand, a negative OER or NCOER, or other unfavorable action which has harmed your career, I may be able to help you to resolve your problem and enable you to continue with a successful Army career by preparing an appeal to be filed with the Department of the Army Suitability Evaluation Board or the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records.

 

In addition, if you have been turned down by a promotion board, you MAY have grounds to seek reconsideration by a Special Selection Board. While the results of promotion boards are presumed to be administratively correct, there are occasionally some instances in which the denial of a promotion can be due to some administrative error. This may occur when the individual's board file was incomplete due to the omission of documents which should have been seen by the board. In other cases, the board file may have included documents which should not have been seen by the board. This type of situation can occur when the file contains items which should not have been included in the promotion board file. These are documents which should have either been entirely removed from the performance fiche of your record or else placed in the restricted fiche due to either the provisions of Army Regulations or as a result of previous action by the Department of the Army Suitability Evaluation Board or the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records. When it can be shown that denial of promotion occurred due to such an error, it is possible to have a corrected file considered by a Special Selection Board.

 

This website contains descriptions of some of the types of situations which can effect a Soldier's career. These are provided as a matter of general information and should not be considered as legal advice. The facts and circumstances which pertain to each Soldier and each situation are unique and the consequences can vary to a great extent as a result of the specific and seemingly minor details of each case. No attorney can ever properly advise anyone without having had the opportunity to become fully familiar with all available relevant information as well as being able to discuss the matter with the client.

 

If you are facing any of these types of problems, you can contact me to discuss your case. This contact page of this website also contains a place for you to e-mail me in addition to giving my phone number and a mailing address. I will not charge you for an initial consultation. Anything that you tell me will be privileged information and I will maintain the confidentiality of anything that you tell me. No ethical attorney can ever guarantee the outcome of any situation. That is why I will always give you a candid and objective opinion as to the nature of your problem as well as the available courses of action and the likelihood of being able to successfully resolve your problem.

 

Most of these types of situations are handled by means of written materials which are filed with the appropriate authority. These are complex matters which will require the assistance of an experienced military law attorny. Prior to beginning representation, I will let you know what I believe to be the correct course of action and I will indicate the fee for the particular situation.

 

There are also a number of cases in which it would be necessary for me to represent you in an adversarial proceeding such as an administrative separation board, a Flight Evaluation Board, or a Medical Credentialing Hearing, etc. I can also represent you at hearings before the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records and the Army Discharge Review Board. If I have to travel, I would also charge for any expenses incurred. However, I will make every effort to minimize these expenses. Since I am retired from the Army, I am eligible to utilize on-post lodging and dining facilities, etc. and I will do so if possible. This will help to keep costs to a minimum.

 

I will not enter into a formal attorney-client relationship with you or charge any fee unless I believe that there is a reasonable chance that I will be able to help you to resolve your situation. Prior to beginning representation, I will provide you with a letter in which I fully explain how I will be able to handle your problem, and the scope of representation. Any additional charges related to expenses for substantial costs such as travel, witness expenses, extensive printing and copying, etc. will be specified in advance. When I take your case, it will always be on a flat fee basis and this will be as agreed to in advance and confirmed in writing. I do NOT bill by the hour. In addition, if you are an active duty Soldier, it will be possible to set up an arrangement for you to pay the fee over a period of several months. This will save you money by avoiding interest charges and other fees associated with charging the fee to a credit card. 

 

I believe that the chances of success are greatly increased when clients are actively involved in assisting with their own cases. If you have a question you can always contact me by telephone or e-mail and you will not run up a bill every time you have a question. Likewise, if I need additional information from you, I will get in touch with you whenever it becomes necessary and I will always provide you with copies of any documents or correspondence related to your case.

 

My Judge Advocate experience covered the entire spectrum from advising company commanders on legal issues that had a direct and immediate impact on their responsibilities to the completion of actions to be signed by general officers and forwarded to Headquarters, Department of the Army for final action. All of my JAG experience was devoted to serving as a legal advisor in operational and functional units. In this capacity, I was a member of unit staffs at several levels to include battalion, brigade, and major command levels. This included three assignments as a Command Judge Advocate (senior judge advocate in the unit and personal legal advisor to the unit commander). One of these was as the Command Judge Advocate of a Civil Affairs unit which was deployed in Iraq. My responsibility in those assignments was to advise commanders and staffs on any legal issues that would arise during the course of unit operations and to ensure that all actions were conducted in accord with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. In addition, whenever it became necessary to take any legal action on behalf of the command, I was the one who was responsible to draft and prepare the documents needed to carry out these actions and to present the views of the command in a manner which would convince higher headquarters to carry out these recommendations.

 

I then spent the final six years of my time in the Army assigned to the headquarters of a major command. In that capacity, I advised the Commanding General and staff, and subordinate commanders and staffs of units within this command on complex administrative law actions, and military justice matters. I provided legal advice for criminal investigations and prepared cases for trial by Courts Martial. I advised investigating officers and reviewed legal actions and prepared legal opinions for AR 15-6 Investigations, and Commander’s Inquiries. These included reviewing numerous adverse personnel actions for legal and factual sufficiency and making recommendations for disposition by the two star commander. When these actions contained substantive and procedural errors which violated applicable Army regulations, I would take due notice and either return them to the initiating headquarters for corrective action or else recommend that they should be entirely disapproved. In each and every instance, I would thoroughly review the entire record and draft a detailed summary of the case along with a review of recommendations from the subordinate commands and prepare recommendations for the appropriate disposition by the commanding general. This was a two star level command. This is the level which has final approval authority for almost all enlisted separation actions and which also has the authority to initiate officer separation actions. During the course of this assignment I also acted as either Legal Advisor (Administrative Law Judge) or Recorder (Prosecutor) for numerous administrative separation hearings. This experience helped me to gain a great deal of insight into this process and to learn how these decisions are made as well as what factors will influence the decision makers in these cases.

 

Beyond learning the technical aspects of statutory military law and Army Regulations, my experience has also enabled me to understand how the Army works and how these legal rules are applied in a wide variety of situations which covered the entire spectrum from routine functions in a garrison environment to the consequences of critical decisions in the course of combat and stability operations in Iraq. Since I am representing Soldiers in legal matters relating to administrative actions which have an impact on their Army careers this is an insight that they can only get from a military law attorney who is experienced in dealing with these situations.

 

In addition to my Judge Advocate experience, I have also been a Battalion S-1. This experience provided me with extremely valuable additional insight into these types of actions and to the way in which in which these matters are ultimately resolved.