Administrative SeparationBoard Defense

How to Fight For The Career And Benefits You’ve Earned

Administrative Separation Boards are perhaps the military’s method to end a career when all else fails. There may not be enough to court martial you, so they send you to an administrative separation board. Commander didn’t like your attitude during the NJP process? Welcome to administrative separation. You had a GOMOR permanently filed, administrative separation can be next. Think of it in terms of a civilian case, where you are accused of a crime and, because there is not enough evidence to convict you, they just make sure your boss fires you and tattoos a scarlet A right on your forehead. Administrative separation boards can serve a proper function when used as intended under the governing personnel statutes and regulations. However, in the hands of unjust commands and overzealous JAGs, administrative separation becomes the tool of the vindictive leaving the accused with limited due process rights. Like any encounter with the military justice system, you have two options: be erased via a human resources data entry program or fight back. We specialize in option 2. Fight for your career. Fight for your retirement, and benefits, because if you go into an admin separation board unwilling or unprepared to fight, you risk losing the career and future you have spent years building while the command gets itself a CYA.

What’s At Stake During An Administrative Separation Board

The Deadlines That Can Determine Your Entire Military Career

The first step: your command will provide notice of its intent to administratively separate you. From here, the choices depend on your notice, status, and board rights. One option may be to waive available rights and proceed with separation, subject to the separation authority’s decision. If you are the Soldier snorting cocaine off the CG’s desk, and they offer you a general under honorable conditions, that’s likely only because you found the cocaine in the CG’s desk. After counsel has assessed the alternatives, you may decide to take the general discharge and run with it. In most cases, there is no reason to take the lowest discharge offered without a fight.

Your next option is to draft written matters to the commander requesting that you be retained or be separated with a higher characterization of service. Written matters can support either a request decided without a board or your case before one. The separation authority acts under the governing service regulation. In our observations, relying on written matters alone can be a losing option. We suggest the service member elect to go before the board when he or she is eligible and, after we review the case, that is the strongest way to protect the career and benefits at stake. This is where you make your stand, and this is where the fight for your career and benefits will take place.

Your notice and the governing service regulation set the deadlines. Do not assume the board will be delayed until your preferred civilian defense attorney is available. That’s why it is important to reach out to us as early in the process as possible. An extension or continuance may be available, but it has to be requested and justified under the rule that applies to your case. If you reach out to us the day before your board, there may be no time to do the work your defense requires. Practically speaking, we don’t take cases like that, because what we do and how we win is far too in-depth to be properly accomplished in such a short time frame. Moral of the story, if you are reading this because you were just notified of a pending separation, reach out to us today, not tomorrow.

The Administrative Separation Board Is a Street Fight

Once we are on the case, we treat the administrative separation board as if it were a full trial by court martial. We pore through the evidence, source witnesses, and prepare you to testify - to speak up on your own behalf. Though we prepare for it as if it were a trial, it is important to note that an admin separation board is more like a street fight. It just so happens that our trial strategy is to go in hooking and jabbing as well. However, it’s more like a street fight because the rules are few and far between.

At an enlisted administrative board, the government presents its case through a “recorder” rather than a criminal prosecutor. The rules governing who may serve in that role depend on the service and proceeding. Then, they’ll take the gloves off that “recorder” and tell him to do whatever it takes to get you separated with the worst possible discharge recommended. They do not need to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt here. An enlisted board decides whether the notified allegations are supported by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning “more likely than not.” It does not enter a criminal conviction. Officer proceedings have their own burden structure, including the retention showing explained below. The recorder will refer to this low standard often throughout the board while they present their case. Regarding the evidence and testimony they present, the military trial rules of evidence generally do not apply, and hearsay may be considered. That does not make speculation a substitute for proof or erase the board’s governing rules.

They have more room than they would at a criminal trial, but the silver lining is…so do we. That is why you want a street-smart defense attorney, audacious and skilled enough to fight back. It can be an absolute street brawl because the “recorder” is going to have to answer for why he or she lost. They won’t hesitate to play dirty. If you get to stay in the military, they have to answer to a command, which might have developed an emotional stake in your removal from the ranks. That is why you want counsel who will challenge testimony from the chain of command. If the witness is the battalion or brigade commander, and your defense requires ripping his testimony to shreds, even in front of a panel of O-6s, that is the job we prepare to do.

You Have To Be Prepared To Speak For Yourself

Over the years, we have won admin sep boards with the service member testifying and speaking up for his/herself. A lawyer who fancies himself the hero can hang his client out to dry by keeping him or her on the sidelines. We know what it takes to win, and for us to win, you have to be willing to fight for your own career. An admin separation board composed of officers and senior enlisted can throw you out in a heartbeat if the government’s case goes unanswered. The board itself respects and is looking for those who know how to fight.

As such, we prepare you to testify. We get you ready for cross examination and make sure the board knows you are willing to stand up and take accountability for your own career. Some attorneys try to get their client to do what’s called an unsworn statement. That’s a statement that isn’t under oath and you can’t be cross examined on. An unsworn statement can fail to answer the questions the board needs answered. If the board has questions, an unsworn statement does not expose your account to cross examination. If you make a statement to the board that collapses when tested against the evidence, you can look like a coward, or even worse...a liar. That can get you sent home packing. Testifying is still your decision. We assess the evidence, possible criminal exposure, and the value and risk of sworn testimony or an unsworn statement with you before making that decision.

When it comes to the administrative separation board, we get our clients ready to enter the street fight and fight for their own career. That’s what wins the day and often makes or breaks an entire case. We’ll show you how to hold up against cross examination, and, because we will have already shredded their own witnesses ourselves, you are primed to be the hero in your own story. We’re just the guide that shows you the way to fight for the career, retirement, and life that you deserve.

The Outcome You Want And Deserve

The command may choose administrative separation instead of a court martial, or pursue it after another disposition when the governing rules permit. That does not tell you whether the allegation is true, and an acquittal is not the same as a decision not to charge. Again, for them, it’s the “easy way,” that path of least resistance to end you. In an admin separation board, there are really three questions they are addressing. First, they try to determine if there was a basis for misconduct. Basically, is the notified allegation supported under the preponderance of the evidence standard. Then, they will ask whether it warrants separation, and, if so, what kind of discharge should you get.

Victory looks a little different for everyone. For some, it is total exoneration: no basis, retain. For the Soldier on TikTok snorting cocaine off the CG’s desk, it’s preserving what benefits you can. Either way, your only option to avoid the worst possible outcome is to fight. Fight like hell. Let the separation board see how much you love serving your country and how hard you are willing to fight in order to keep doing so. You have to have a plan and you need to get started right now. The deadline on your notice is not something to ignore, and every day lost is a day of preparation that you will never get back. If that clock is ticking for you, please reach out to us now and get us into the fight.

Questions to Answer Before You Respond

No Criminal Conviction Does Not Mean No Consequences.

A separation board is not a criminal trial. It does not decide guilt, and an administrative discharge is not a court-martial conviction. That distinction matters. It does not make the proceeding harmless.

The command may be asking a board to decide whether an alleged basis for separation is established, whether you should remain in service, and what characterization should follow if separation is recommended. Those are different questions. A strong defense addresses each one instead of assuming that a single character package can answer all three.

The government will arrive with a packet, a theory, and witnesses or records selected to support separation. We test the allegation, expose missing context, prepare the client and defense witnesses, present the service record honestly, and show the board what the command's packet leaves out.

Sometimes the right defense is a direct factual denial. Sometimes the conduct is not seriously disputed, but retention, rehabilitation, proportionality, or an honorable characterization remains the real fight. We will shoot you straight about which case you have and build the presentation around that reality.

"The truth matters, but only if you fight to make it heard."

Timothy J. Bilecki, Managing Attorney

Understand Your Rights and the Process

Break the Government's Request Into the Questions It Must Answer.

Discharge Characterization and the Benefits at Stake.

The Label on the Notice Is the Beginning of the Analysis.

The Hearing Depends on the Work Done Before It Starts.

1. 1

   Step 1: Secure the Notice and Protect the Election

   We identify the service regulation, basis, proposed characterization, board entitlement, suspense, and every document the command says supports separation. No waiver is signed until the client understands what it gives up.

2. 2

   Step 2: Rebuild the Underlying Facts

   We examine investigation files, messages, videos, medical and laboratory records, counseling documents, and prior testimony. The goal is not a document inventory. It is a precise account of what can and cannot be proved.

3. 3

   Step 3: Develop the Defense Theory

   We decide whether the case turns on factual denial, witness credibility, intent, regulation, rehabilitation, proportionality, or several of those issues. Every exhibit and witness must serve that theory instead of merely making the packet thicker.

4. 4

   Step 4: Prepare the Client and Witnesses

   We identify witnesses with personal knowledge, prepare direct examinations, test weak points, and make the client ready for the decision whether to testify. Rank alone does not make a useful character witness. Specific knowledge does.

5. 5

   Step 5: Litigate the Board

   Counsel tests the government's witnesses, presents the defense record, addresses objections, and gives the members a clear path through basis, retention, and characterization. The close connects the evidence to the exact decisions on the worksheet.

6. 6

   Step 6: Protect the Record and Final Action

   We review the board findings and record for accuracy, identify material legal defects, and address the action available before the separation authority. This page covers the original separation proceeding, not later discharge upgrade or records correction representation.

An Administrative Case Can Change the Rest of a Military Career.

Military Administrative Separation Questions

Separation Boards and Boards of Inquiry: Recent Results

A board is won with evidence, witnesses and cross-examination. These are recent separation actions and boards we handled, enlisted and officer:

• CASE RESULTBilecki Challenges the Evidence for Separation; Marine Recruiter’s Case Withdrawn
• CASE RESULTBilecki Defeats Both Sexual Touch Allegations and Chaplain Confidentiality Claim at Camp Humphreys BOI; Captain Retained
• CASE RESULTBilecki Challenges Separation Board’s OTH Recommendation; Commandant Retains Master Sergeant
• CASE RESULTBilecki Challenges Major’s Account at Board; Gunnery Sergeant Retained at Rank
• CASE RESULTAir Force Captain Retained After Bilecki Challenges Urine-Substitution Witness at Show-Cause Board

Your Defense Team

Timothy J. Bilecki,Managing Attorney

Tim Bilecki leads the defense strategy. His experience as an Army defense counsel and Senior Defense Counsel in Seoul informs how he approaches the investigation, the evidence, and the decisions that may eventually reach a military courtroom.

Read Tim Bilecki's biography.

Benjamin H. Gold,Associate Attorney

Ben works through the discovery, builds timelines, interviews and prepares witnesses and develops the strategy with Tim. He puts the research, motions and written arguments behind that strategy.

Read Ben Gold's biography.