Military-Connected Victims’ Rights Advocates
Advocating for Military-Connected Victims
NCVLI has a rich history of serving military-connected victims. This history includes training Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC), Victims’ Legal Counsel (VLC), Victims’ Counsel (VC) and military and civilian advocates, as well assisting with rights assertion and enforcement for military-connected victims’ rights in military and civilian criminal justice systems.
NCVLI’s Military Expertise
NCVLI helped to envision and launch the first SVC Program in the Air Force; and trained the first cohort of 60 Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) on victims’ rights. When the SVC Program encountered its first appellate case, in the precedent-setting case LRM v. Kastenberg, NCVLI provided litigation support to the victim’s attorney and filed as amicus curiae. Since 2011, NCVLI continues to partner with all branches of the military to address the unique challenges that military-connected victims face. After the SVC and VLC Programs launched victims’ rights in military justice in 2012, military-connected victims’ rights have been included in NCVLI’s Annual Crime Victim Law Conference, which is the only national conference focusing on the enforcement of victims’ rights.
Today, NCVLI continues to advise military leadership on legal counsel program design, victims’ rights enforcement and training curricula; train SVC and VLC across branches of military service; provide legal research, writing and strategic advice; and participate as amicus curiae in cutting edge cases.
The assistance we received [from NCVLI] was great. We were new to victims’ rights issues, and had a tight turn [around] to get our filings in [on time]. We were provided over the phone strategic help, brief writing help, samples, and the NCVLI provided an amicus in our case.
“Awesome Presentation!”
“Excellent presentation on Military Victims[’] Right[s]”
“Thank you for a very informative presentation!!!”
Current Projects
NCVLI is working on a variety of projects to aid military-connected victims from the Advocating for Military-Connected Survivors to NAVRA’s focus on creating a pool of pro bono attorneys dedicated to serving these survivors.
