Military Legal Office

[Guest juliecole]

An excellent point was brought up in the previous thread

For the newly married, and experiencing the craziness of moves and deployments I think it is absolutely essential to make trip to the base legal ofice to have all the proper legal work straigtened out before the moves and deplyemnts come up (even if you don't have kids).

As all the seasoned spouses tell you, Murphy's Law always occurs when spouse is deployed. ie. . . cars breakdown, finacial matters, moves, filing paperwork for moves, signing leases on apts, etc. It is so much much easier to take care of those things when you have updated Power of Attorneys (POA).

Most larger bases, have walk in hours for spouses and AD memebrs who need to get these taken care of. Power of Attorneys, Legal Wills and Living Wills are all done free of Charge

Also they can come to your defense and advocate for you if something goes wrong while a spouse is deployed.

My example . . .

When Scooter and I were first married, we placed our name on the base housing list(which had an 8-10 month wait). We rented an aprtment in the mean time. Word came though 6 weeks before our lease was up that there was housing for us. Since Scooter was deployed and I had a Power of Attorney, I was able to sign us for the house. I immediately gave notice 45 days to the apt complex( we only needed to give 30). Since Hubby was gone, I was able to arrange for movers and cleaned the apt to get our security deposit back ( all of this was possible because I had the POA).

A month after the move I still hadn't received the deposit back (which was $650). I called the apt complex and they said that since Hubby hadn't signed the letter to vacate (only i did) they didn't have to give the deposit back.

I asked them to put that in writing, which they did, and I promptly brought that letter and our letter to vacate down to the legal office. A Capt in th legal office, promptly wrote a letter on official AF letterhead saying that I had a POA and demanded that my deposit plus the interest for that month be overnoght expressed to me, or the base would tell military memebrs not to rent from this complex again. I received a check 4 hrs later.

The base lawyer, said that if I didn't have a POA, it would have made things very difficult to resolve until Scooter returned from his deployment.

So as Scooter was playing Golf and Scuba diving on his off days from flying, this giant headache was resolved. When he left for his deployment we were living in one town and he came back to another house in a differant town, with 7000 pounds of household goods unpacked. But that is another story for another thread . . .

[Guest SnakeT38]

Make a video tape of these instructions,

send them to my wife...............

This "boy" better pay you a good salary!

[Guest kpaul]

My wife has had to pack and unpack on both ends while I was gone. House hold good arival and TDYs always seem to happen about the same time.

My POA has been used many times while I was gone, probably for more than my wife told me about, but all is good.

My exprience with base legal is that they are very helpful and most even have computers set up for POAs and wills to make thing easier.

[ 26. August 2005, 21:50: Message edited by: Five-Oh Co-Pilot ]

[Toro]

TankerWife,

Excellent topic...golden words. If your base legal office is worth anything, they will be proactive during times of deployment and come to your squadron. When my last Ops squadron was tagged for AEF, the legal office called us arrange POA/Wills for anybody who did not already have them. I was impressed by their incentive - I recommend anybody in the AF, whether you are a Mission Qualified student ready to deploy or a UPT student in Phase I, take full advantage of the legal office.

[Guest flychick]

Cans someone explain a POA to me? I know it's power of attorney, and that I can use it to do overshadow the need for DH to be there every time I need to do something, but that's about it.

Is there anything else I should know about it? What do they require to get one? Do both of us have to be present at the legal office to get one? I was told I won't need one to move our stuff without him so I'm counting on that being true.

[Guest juliecole]

This is what I know from my experience.

Most larger bases have walk in hours to do legal paperwork. Usually they will want to fill out a "worksheet". It is a mock copy of a POA or a will so your appoitment will go smoothly. Usually just your spouse needs to be there if he doing any of his paperwork ie . . will poa etc.

If you are married and both are present for the move there is no need for a POA. However if you need to submit paperwork for a claim and he is not available you will need one. If your household goods get delivered and hubby is not there, then you would be better off having one, so if the movers question who you are you won't have a problem.

There are 2 differant kinds of POA, General and Medical. Another use would being able to file taxes jointly even if spouse is deployed. Deployments can range from a few weeks to a few months, but usually occuring during a hectic time in your life. Since I'm a RN by trade, I would reccomend going to the legal office give you all the specifics.

I have found that I have used the POA only in relation to when we have moved. Which has been about 4 times in 8 years.

I would double check who told you that you didn't need a POA to move your household goods if he is not present. You also need one to sign for base housing, a lease etc.

This is what I know from my experience. I will try to find some links to post to offer further insight. Any law people out there?

[Toro]

There are also financial POAs - these are particularly helpful if your spouse is deployed and you need to do something for him/her with regards to the finance office. The legal offices I have been to try to discourage General POAs because they're so all-encompassing.

[Guest flychick]

Ok, so DH wasn't planning on being here to help with the packing, etc. But he will meet me at Laughlin to inprocess, of course. We were told he would need to be present to inprocess, but he wouldn't need to be here just to supervise the movers. Sound right?

So when you get a POA, do most people get three different kinds- General, Medical, AND Financial? Or does the general one cover both medical and financial?

[Toro]

He does not need to be there to supervise the movers - at most all you should need is a written and signed letter from him saying you are able to supervise (I've never even needed this when my wife was accepting the household goods).

A general will cover everything, the problem is that some places will actually ask for specific POAs.

[Guest IAGuardWife]

TankerWife - was that the same deployment when we got 15 inches of snow back home?

That was a long trip....*grumble grumble*

I wholeheartedly back up getting a POA. My husband's first deployment after we were married was about 70 days long. We hadn't combined our finances yet and things were a nightmare. I was having lease issues w/ our apartment, I needed his tax forms for my student loan paperwork and the phone company tried to cancel our service w/o telling me why (his name was on the account only).

My woes would have been minimized if I'd had a POA. My husband never deployed again without getting one beforehand.

If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. And always while they are deployed!

[Guest kpaul]

Originally posted by Toro:

[A general will cover everything, the problem is that some places will actually ask for specific POAs. [/QB]

I believe Finance will only take a specific POA written just for them. They are one of the few places I have found that refuse to take a general POA

[ 29. August 2005, 16:05: Message edited by: Five-Oh Co-Pilot ]

[Guest nickarij]

Great thread!

How often do we need to update our POA? We got one March 2004 and have since moved twice. Do they expire? Should we get a new one every time we move? Will this one work forever? (It's a General POA.)

[Guest juliecole]

Sometimes POA's have an expiration date. Check yours, if it doesn/t then you will be ok.

[Guest SuperStallionIP]

A POA is good for 1 year. You should update it right before every deployment so it does not expire before the deployment is finished.

[Guest FlyBoysLady]

My fiance is currently stationed in Arkansas and we're getting married in Georgia. The local GA Probate Office told me that both of us have to be physically present to get our marriage license. I informed her that he was in the military and stationed in Arkansas, but she said he would have to come in physically to fill out the application. Due to his training schedule, this would be a pain in the a$$. Surely there is some loop hole that Dumb Probate Office Clerk is unaware of. After reading the above conversation and some Google-ing, I think the Power of Attorney is our option. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience with applying for a marriage license while the two partners are in two different states? Could he give POA to say, my father, and my father could sign the marriage license for him? Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[ThreeHoler]

You both have to be present. As there is no required waiting period between obtaining the license and getting married, you can do it the day of or the day prior.

Suck it up.

[Herk Driver]

Yep, you have to be present in GA to get the license. POA won't work that I'm aware of. Had the same issue many years ago. Nothing has changed.

[Guest shuban]

TankerWife,

Excellent topic...golden words. If your base legal office is worth anything, they will be proactive during times of deployment and come to your squadron. When my last Ops squadron was tagged for AEF, the legal office called us arrange POA/Wills for anybody who did not already have them. I was impressed by their incentive - I recommend anybody in the AF, whether you are a Mission Qualified student ready to deploy or a UPT student in Phase I, take full advantage of the legal office.

Just like your view point.