If you’re in the military and you’ve been charged with a crime, it’s important to remember that you have the same rights that you would as a civilian, like you see on the Miranda rights on “Law and Order” or any of the TV shows. You have the right to remain silent.
An additional right that military service members have that civilians don’t have is you have the right to be informed of the crime that you’re being charged with and you have the right to an attorney. The government will provide you an attorney, a judge advocate attorney, or trial defense services at no cost to you.
Oftentimes, soldiers and other service members like to go out and get their own private counsel. It’s not always necessary, but it often is a good idea. Not to say that that judge advocate attorney is not going to be experienced enough to handle your case, but you could draw that one attorney that it’s their first case. You don’t want their first case to your case.
I, myself, prosecuted cases for the military for four years, so you want somebody that has that experience, both in the prosecution and the defense side.