You do not show up to formation one day and are told that you need to report for a separation board. There is an entire process that must occur before the actual separation board.
A servicemember in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps can face a separation board for a number of different reasons. The most likely reason is that you are accused of having committed some sort of misconduct, but the command team does not think that it warrants a court-martial. The most common routes for something like that is a driving under the influence (DUI) accusation. Statistically, the DUI happened off-post, so civilian law enforcement and prosecutors are handling the criminal prosecution. However, the military has a strict no DUI policy, so the command team does not want to send you to a court-martial, so they send you to a separation board.
Another way you may have to face a separation board is that you were accused of sexual assault or domestic violence, but the alleged victim does not want to participate in a court-martial, so the command team is guided by its Judge Advocate General (JAG) to send you to a separation board. At a court-martial, your military defense lawyer would be able to cross-examine the alleged victim. However, a separation board is so one-sided for the Government that the alleged victim does not even have to participate, and hearsay can be used against you to try to remove you from the military and downgrade your discharge status.
You will be notified of a separation board by your unit leadership. You should immediately call an experienced military separation board attorney to get started on attacking the allegations against you because military separation boards move much faster than court-martials.
Before the separation board, the JAGs for your unit trying to separate you must send documents to your military defense lawyer before the separation board. Your military defense lawyer will send documents to use in your defense to the unit JAGs. A date will be set by the separation board president and all parties must be present for that separation board hearing.
At the separation board, there will be three people senior in rank to you on the separation board. The JAG for the unit is most often a junior prosecutor, just being sent in to get some practice on asking questions before being moved to a court-martial team. You will be seated next to your military defense lawyer. The unit JAG will give an opening statement then your military defense lawyer will give an opening statement. After that, the unit JAG will call witnesses and introduce evidence against you to try to argue you are a bad servicemember and need to be kicked out of the military. Your military defense lawyer will then get to call witnesses on your behalf and introduce evidence on your behalf to attack the allegations against you. The unit JAG will then give a closing argument and then your military defense lawyer will give a closing argument. After that, you wait for the separation board members to decide three questions: 1) did you do the alleged misconduct; 2) if so, should you be separated or retained; and 3) if separated, what is the discharge status you should be separated at?
If you or a someone you know is facing a military separation board, you should call military defense lawyer Anthony Villalobos of The Law Office of Purav Bhatt at 312-890-6645 or contact his criminal defense law firm for a free consultation.
Separation Board 