Mission The mission of the Legal Assistance Office is to serve eligible personnel by providing professional and zealous representation with regard to their personal legal affairs.
Legal Assistance/VITA OIC: 1stLt Candace L. Davis
Legal Assistance Clerks: LCpl Envy L. Pasillas
Legal Assistance Paralegal: Mr. Joe Covarrubias
Who we serve: Under federal law, we provide legal assistance and notary services to active duty service members, reservists following mobilization of more than 30 days, retired service members, and dependents and survivors of such service members.
**Bring copies of all relevant documents to any meeting with an attorney**
Unit Briefs
To have our staff brief your unit on estate planning, pre-deployment matters, or preventative law, please download this form and email it, once completed, to the legal assistance clerks.
Practice Areas
Powers of Attorney and Notary Services Powers of Attorney:
1) General: This form authorizes another person, for a set period of time, to manage all business affairs on your behalf, except changing life insurance beneficiaries.
2) Special: This form grants another person authority to manage a specific power or powers that you have assigned.
3) Care of Children: This form allows the person you assign to give consent for emergency medical treatment, authorize all necessary medical treatment, perform any and all parental acts, enroll children in daycare and pick children up from school.
Please note: It is a good idea to contact any entity or individual with whom your agent will be dealing (e.g., IRS, banks, insurance companies, the DMV) to determine whether a specific POA format is required or preferred. If you fail to do this, the entity or individual may refuse to recognize the POA you have prepared.
Notary Services:
We notarize various documents but the most common is the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles vehicle license tax exemption form. To qualify for the exemption, you must be a resident of a different state but stationed in Arizona. Note that if you share title to the vehicle with a non-service member or an Arizona resident, you will only be exempt from half of the tax amount.
Family Law
Common issues include:
Divorce*
Dependent Support
Child Custody
Guardianship
Paternity
*The marriage dissolution brief, held every Thursday at 1400, is a prerequisite to schedule a consultation with an attorney about a potential or pending divorce.
Resources:
USMC Regulations on dependent support and paternity—Legal Services Administration Manual Vol. 9
Basic Allowance for Housing Calculator
Department of Defense Pay Chart
Arizona Child Support Calculator
Consumer Protection Law
Common issues include:
Debtor-Creditor Matters
Contracts
Auto Sales, Repairs, and Loans
Resources:
BCFP page on the Military Lending Act
BCFP page on Truth-in-Lending disclosures
U.S. Department of Justice summary of Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
Arizona Attorney General page on auto purchases
Estate Planning
We host an estate planning brief every Tuesday at 1330.
We can create and answer questions about the following estate planning documents:
1) Will: This document lays out the disposition of your estate (everything you own and everything you owe) upon death. The Legal Assistance Office provides a Wills and Estate Brief every Tuesday at 1330 for anyone interested in creating a will.
2) Living Will: Also called an “advance medical directive,” this document states your preferences regarding life sustaining treatment in the event that you become terminally ill, enter a persistent vegetative state, or become otherwise unconscious, so long as it is unreasonable to believe that you will recover.
3) Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care: This document designates an agent to make health care decisions in the event that you become incapacitated or too sick to make medical decisions.
4) Springing Durable Power of Attorney: This document designates an agent to make non-health care decisions in the event that you become incapacitated or too sick to make such decisions. You may limit the scope of the powers conferred or give broad powers to your agent.
5) Funeral Plan: This document outlines your wishes for your funeral and the handling of your remains.
6) Designation of Agent to Handle the Disposition of Remains: This document assigns an individual to facilitate the handling of your remains.
Note: Some of your most important financial assets might not pass through a will. For example, SGLI beneficiaries are determined by your election in the SGLI Online Enrollment System (SOES), which cannot be overridden by a will.
Resources:
SGLI Online Enrollment System
Landlord-Tenant Law
Common issues include:
Return of Security Deposits
Lease Termination upon PCS or EAS
Unsafe or Unsanitary Living Conditions
Note: You must provide a copy of your lease agreement in advance of your appointment in order to speak with an attorney about a landlord-tenant dispute.
Resources:
Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
Nolo.com summary of Arizona Landlord-Tenant law
Military Rights and Benefits
We work closely with the Station ID/DEERS office to assist with military rights and benefits.
We cannot assist with:
- Claims against the government, including TriCare
- Investigations or administrative complaints involving the Department of Defense
- Petitions to the Board for the Correction of Naval Records
Resources:
U.S. Department of Justice Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative page
U. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service page
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve page on USERRA
Immigration and Citizenship
Services include:
Citizenship applications
Consultation on green card applications and issues
Consultation on marriages to foreign citizens
Resources:
Citizenship Resource Center
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services