Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

One of the most impactful ways attorneys can serve those who have served is to assist veterans with discharge upgrades. The military branches, especially the Marines, are issuing an increasing percentage of Other Than Honorable Discharges, leaving many veterans in need of this assistance. For years, the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued Less Than Honorable Discharges based on the veteran’s diagnosis of a personality disorder, a condition that cannot be service-connected for VA purposes. Instead, many of these service members suffered from service-connected PTSD which caused misconduct such as self-medication with drugs, or missing or showing up late for work. This article provides attorneys discharge upgrade practice tips as well as citations and links to helpful training materials. These tips primarily address cases in which the client received a Less Than Honorable Discharge for conduct related to a service-connected mental health condition. However, there are other types of discharge upgrades that this article does not explore, such as when veterans inequitably or inappropriately received Less Than Honorable Discharges because of sexual orientation (now based on outdated policies), or a faulty adjudicative process that violated DoD policies.

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