The force is with you

Courts martial are only part of a day's work for members of military lawyers group Forces Law.

They also target employment, personal injury and family law, writes Stephen Ward

'The British armed forces don't venture anywhere in the world now without a lawyer,' says Simon Mumford, senior partner at Cardiff firm Rausa Mumford, indicating the increasing complication and sophistication of modern military operations.

This may explain why Forces Law - a grouping of 18 military law solicitors' firms - is looking to recruit more member firms.

'There can be quite a lot of law involved,' says Mr Mumford, a member of the Law Society Council.

As an example, he cites peacekeeping in the Balkans: 'International law applies, but also the domestic law of the country, and the armed forces are also governed by the usual [British] Army, Air Force and Navy Acts.

If you are moving a convoy from A to B, you don't want to move through a historic town without knowing the domestic law about damaging historic buildings, for example.'

In those cases, the lawyers the forces take with them will be serving officers - mostly regulars trained as solicitors or barristers, but some who are in the Army's reserve force of part-time soldiers, the Territorial Army, or the Navy and Air Force reserves.

But by no means all military business involves esoteric or exotic law, says Justin Hugheston-Roberts, a partner at Wolverhampton firm Rose Williams & Partners, and chairman of Forces Law.

Although a call may come from the latest world trouble-spot, the legal advice needed may be less than glamorous.

'We have requests from all over the world.

We've had a lot from Afghanistan and a lot from Bosnia.

They want all sorts of advice.

Some soldiers in Afghanistan have been involved in fights - I guess that's straightforward military law issues.

People will also ring up saying "I've got problems at home with debts".'

Analysing the work which comes into the Forces Law firms, Mr Hugheston-Roberts says courts martial are only part of the business, and not the largest: 'I'd say employment is at the top of the list, with personal injury and family.'

Most Forces Law firms are in areas where there is a military base of one kind or another.

The biggest gaps in coverage are the south-east, particularly Kent, the north of England and Scotland.

The volume of work is growing, not spectacularly but steadily.

Applicant firms are vetted by the existing members to ensure they are sufficiently specialised, and that there is enough work in their area.

The calls from clients come to a central number, and are then farmed out to member solicitors in the appropriate area of expertise and geographical location.

Not all firms are expert in every necessary area of law, and not every solicitor in the firm needs a military background.

The extent of this inherent military connection depends on the firm.

William Bache, a partner at Pye-Smiths in Salisbury, for example, has no military background: 'I did my first court martial a long time ago, and I didn't know what the hell to do with it, although I did all right.

It was a steep learning curve.'

He now acts in many Army courts martial involving soldiers stationed around Salisbury plain, and three years ago flew to Bosnia to defend a soldier in one of the few courts martial to be held in an operational battlefield since the Second World War.

At the other end of the spectrum is Geoffrey Salvetti, a partner at Portsmouth firm Biscoe Cousins Groves, who has 23 years' experience as a regular or in the reserve.

Mr Mumford is a serving Territorial Army officer, and works for several weeks a year in the army, prosecuting courts martial in Germany.

As Commodore Jeffrey Blackett, chief naval judge-advocate and head of the Navy's legal service, says, one of the engines of growth in work in recent years has been the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been a constant source of challenge to the forces' legal code.

He says military procedures are based on natural justice, so there is not a huge conflict with the convention, but he says the forces' procedures have changed several times to accommodate various court rulings.

These pre-date the incorporation of the convention into UK law in 2000.

The biggest was six years ago when, anticipating challenges in Strasbourg, the Armed Forces Act introduced the right of all defendants to elect for court martial, more independent legal representation for those accused, and a prosecuting authority.

Courts martial have only just resumed after a pause of several weeks for the latest adjustments after a case this year in Strasbourg, where the court held that RAF and Army officers appointed on an ad hoc basis to sit alongside the permanent president - the 'judge' - were not sufficiently guaranteed to be independent.

The two services have altered their procedures to match the Navy's, so these officers no longer have their time judging courts martial included in their annual performance reviews, ensuring an 'independent and impartial tribunal' for the purposes of article 6 (right to a fair trial).

The needs of forces solicitors' clients are more specialist because they have a different way of thinking, they are often away from their normal contacts and from friends and family, and their working hours limit the times they can go off base.

Employment law is the area where civilian solicitors can find it hardest to adapt, according to Commodore Blackett.

He says: 'There is no contract of employment.

They [servicemen and women] are employed under the Royal Prerogative.

They have no access to employment tribunals except in the areas of race and sexual discrimination.

There are internal procedures covering treatment in the workplace.'

He says there have been cases where solicitors have taken an instruction and only later discovered their clients do not have the right to a tribunal.

Mr Salvetti says the law for the armed forces is interrelated in only a limited way with civilian law.

'There is a general exclusion, but it [civilian law] does still apply for sex or race discrimination and to a limited extent to disability and working time regulations.'

The military equivalent of criminal law is similar.

Mr Hugheston-Roberts says: 'You can make a complete fool of yourself if you know nothing about the systems and procedures.

The military police interview is completely different from the custody suite.

I knew of one solicitor who said "are you going to charge my client?".

They won't charge after arrest - they will report it for consideration higher up to decide whether to charge.'

Even when the law involved is entirely civilian, forces personnel are happier with somebody who talks the same language, all these lawyers insist.

And this is important even if you are not doing military law, but representing service personnel in the outside world.

As Commodore Blackett, who was trained by the Navy as a criminal barrister, says: 'The disciplinary code pervades everything.'

Mr Salvetti agrees: 'You need to have spent time with them to understand what their life is like.

Service personnel come from a completely different way of life into your office, and they believe the civilian does not understand them, the way they live and work.'

Then there is the jargon.

There are acronyms like DCI (defence commission instruction) and QR (Queens Regulations) which are used all the time by service personnel.

'These are common initials of which the normal high- street solicitor will have no knowledge,' Mr Salvetti notes.

Even those who speak the language will not know things like how to fire a rifle, or how a tank's gun works.

'If you do personal injury claims, that sort of knowledge is useful,' he points out.

There is a limit to the service the 'in-house' lawyers can provide to servicemen and women needing advice on domestic law, Commodore Blackett says.

'We hope the Forces Law solicitors can provide advice on family law, for example.

If somebody comes and says "I want a divorce", I say go to a solicitor.'

The firms who do the work are a mixture, as the work suggests.

Many hold pro-bono clinics.

As Mr Hugheston-Roberts says some free advice leads to fee-earning work.

'We're not a registered charity but from small acorns mighty oaks grow.'

Although by no means all produce valuable trees, as Mr Salvetti explains: 'One soldier phoned from Germany to say he'd punctured his car tyre on a nail in the road at his base.

Could he sue the Army? He was told he could try, but that the firm would not want to take it on a no-win no-fee basis.'

l For referrals advice, or to join Forces Law, tel: 01902 711655.

Stephen Ward is a freelance journalist