Taking account of the distinctive procedures and time limits of military legislation, we examine legal processes between personnel and the administration as a whole.
Personnel matters
Legal issues arising from appointment, promotion, service record and personnel affairs.
Disciplinary proceedings
Defence and applications relating to disciplinary investigations and sanctions.
Administrative justice
Assessment of appeal and litigation routes against military administrative acts.
In military law files the argument usually centres not on the incident itself but on the administrative act attached to it. A disciplinary penalty, a termination of contract, an assignment or a discharge is reviewed both for the grounds it rests on and for the procedure it followed.
Grounds and procedure are reviewed separately
For an administrative act to be lawful it is not enough that its content be correct. Whether the right of defence was afforded, whether the report relied upon was issued by the competent board, and how the act was notified to the person concerned are each examined separately. A defect in any one of these can change the outcome without the merits being reached at all.
Medical decisions rest on their own technical basis
Medical decisions concerning personnel are the product not of a single report but of successive examinations and board decisions. What matters in these files is the date of the health condition on which the decision was based and the source of any divergence from later reports. An objection without a technical basis conveys only that the outcome is not accepted, and it draws no response.
The principal matters we handle in this field:
- Applications against disciplinary proceedings
- Assessment of contract termination and discharge decisions
- Disputes concerning assignment, posting and personnel entitlements
- Acts arising from medical board decisions
- Defence and intervening party representation in military criminal proceedings
In these files the periods for application are short and strict; the date of notification matters as much as the merits.