Fayetteville North Carolina Legal Blog

A board of inquiry and the fate of your military career

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Sunday, May 24, 2020.

As a service member, you protect the rights of others, but there are times when guarding your own rights take precedence.

If you receive a notice to appear before a board of inquiry, you must defend your rights, your reputation and your military career. Are you prepared to face the officers who will determine the outcome of this hearing?

The car-crash aftermath was about chaos, not a head injury

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Friday, February 21, 2020.

As the victim of a car crash, people probably kept asking you if you were OK, and you kept saying you were fine. After all, you were out of the car and walking around.

There was so much going on that you ignored the headache that began soon after the collision. However, your doctor was quite interested in your headache and found that you had suffered a concussion.

Court-martial FAQs

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Tuesday, November 26, 2019.

Court-martial is an integral component of military law. There are three types of court-martial a military officer can receive: general, special and summary.

If you or someone you know in the military ever faces a court-martial, it is natural to have a lot of questions about what could happen. Here are some common questions people end up with as well as basic information that can help you sort out fact from fiction.

2 common reasons the military kicks out service members

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Tuesday, August 27, 2019.

When you sign on as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces, you must agree to abide by a strict code of conduct. If you break that code of conduct, you could potentially face serious repercussions. The Uniform Code of Military Justice dictates the rules and guidelines you must follow as a service member. Any violation of the terms outlined by it could result in substantial penalties.

While today’s service members can get themselves in trouble in numerous ways, there are certain actions some military members take that frequently cause the military to kick them out. Just what are some of these actions?

Collateral consequences of a DWI arrest or conviction

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Friday, May 31, 2019.

Driving drunk is a recipe for disaster. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, there were roughly 11,300 alcohol-related crashes on the state’s roadways in 2017. Of these, nearly 400 resulted in someone’s death.

While committing never to driving drunk is an effective way to increase your chances of arriving at your destination safely, life has a funny way of derailing good intentions. As such, you must realize the serious nature of an arrest or conviction for driving while impaired. The consequences of a DWI go beyond criminal liability, though. Here are three other ways a DWI may affect your life:

What to do if you sustain an injury at a public place

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Thursday, February 28, 2019.

With its stores, restaurants, parks and other public spaces, Fayetteville is an excellent place to spend an afternoon or weekend. Nonetheless, few things can ruin a day on the town faster than an unexpected injury. If you sustain an injury in a public place, you must act conscientiously to recover fully, protect your legal interests and receive compensation.

Shopkeepers, hotel owners, landlords and others who open their businesses to the public have a duty to keep their premises safe. As you probably know, sometimes, businesses are either untidy or downright dangerous. Here are three things you should do if you sustain an injury at a public place:

The five levels of a DWI in North Carolina

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Sunday, December 2, 2018.

Not every impaired driver causes trouble. In fact, many people who face DWI charges were not even visibly breaking the law at the time that law enforcement pulled them over. For example, an officer may pull someone over for a broken taillight or a recently expired license plate sticker before discovering the driver has been drinking.

The driver who was only guilty of driving while intoxicated may receive vastly different penalties from the impaired driver who ran a stop sign and struck a pedestrian. Consequently, North Carolina has set up five different levels of misdemeanor offenses regarding DWI.

Level 5: This is the least serious of the five DWI convictions, and a judge may even decide to suspend the sentence. However, this driver is likely to pay a fine of no more than $200. The judge may order the driver to spend between 24 hours and 60 days in jail. Alternately, he or she may require 24 hours of community service or a suspended driver's license for 30 days.
Level 4: The penalties for a level four DWI are double that of level five: up to $500 fine; 48 hours to 120 days in jail; or either 48 hours of community service or 60 days without operating a vehicle.
Level 3: The fine for a level three misdemeanor may be as high as $1,000. The judge may order a jail sentence of between 72 hours and six months, or suspend that sentence and require either 72 hours of community service or a 90-day license suspension.
Level 2: While the judge has some discretion for determining penalties for higher levels, once a DWI conviction is a level two, the judge cannot waive the minimum sentence of seven days. The jail sentence could be as long as a year, and the fine could be as high as $2,000.
Level 1: Again, the judge cannot waive the minimum sentence for this level of DWI. The conviction requires at least 30 days in jail, and it could last as long as two years. The fine may be up to $4,000.

Understanding court-martial appeals

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Tuesday, September 4, 2018.

A military member undergoing court-martial is essentially the same as a civilian going through a criminal trial. There are different levels of courts-martial that all bring different punishments. Some of more well-known examples of court-martial that you may be familiar with include deserting during a time of war, insubordination and operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Even after an individual has received a verdict, it is still possible to appeal the decision. Court-martial can bring lifelong consequences, and you do not want one mistake to haunt you the rest of your life.

Understanding DUI arrests on military bases

On behalf of The Military Justice Center on Wednesday, June 6, 2018.

The general public and courts hold military personnel to higher standards than everyone else. They are not exempt from the law, as seen in the recent case of a former Air Force chief master sergeant who recently faced convictions for the death of a young man after driving drunk. The chief master sergeant in question had worked in North Carolina at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

Civilians and military personnel alike can face legal trouble after drinking. Consequences vary depending on where exactly the crime took place.