The Navy JAG Corps serves as the legal department of the US Navy, with approximately 1,500 personnel dealing with legal matters involving Navy and Naval personnel. Established in 1967, JAG attorneys receive training at the Naval Justice School and provide services ranging from writing wills to acting as defense attorneys in court-martial cases. Military juries, called member panels, are composed only of military personnel. The work of Navy JAG units has been popularized in various media, including the film A Few Good Men and the TV show JAG.
The Judge Advocate General Corps, colloquially known as the Navy JAG, serves as the legal department of the United States Navy. Navy JAG Corps personnel, of which there are approximately 1,500, serve in various capacities under the Judge Advocate General of the Navy. Judge Advocates and other JAG personnel deal with a variety of legal matters that arise involving Navy and Naval personnel, whether criminal, civilian or military in nature.
The United States Navy has had a statutory arm since the Civil War days in the 1860s, but the Navy JAG Corps was not officially established until 1967. It was created that year through legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The law, among other things, provided that Navy lawyers were treated like officers, like naval doctors.
Personnel and enlisted officers receive JAG training at the Naval Justice School, which has several campuses throughout the United States. In addition to Navy personnel, the school also trains Navy and Coast Guard personnel. Each student is taught military justice and civil law. Both attorneys and the equivalent of JAG Navy paralegals, known as lawyers, must graduate from the Naval Justice School in order to serve in any legal capacity in the JAG Corps.
JAG Navy Attorneys are available for use by sailors in a variety of different circumstances. Services range from helping write a will, to acting as a defense attorney in a court-martial, to representing during complaints about senior officers. When acting as defense attorneys, JAG attorneys represent their clients first, not the Navy. Familiar practices, such as client-lawyer privilege, are practiced by JAG attorneys, but there are some unique aspects to military justice, particularly court-martial.
Courts martial are the military version of criminal trials. In the United States, these are presided over by a military judge and follow the rules and procedures established by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, the defendant may appear before a judge, with or without the presence of a jury. Military juries are called member panels and are composed only of military personnel.
The work of Navy JAG units has been popularized in a variety of ways. The film A Few Good Men is a military courtroom drama starring Tom Cruise as a JAG attorney defending US Marines accused of murder while stationed at Guantanamo Bay. The long-running American television show, eponymously titled JAG, was a procedural drama following the exploits of lawyers and attorneys in the JAG corps of the Navy.
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