At Bilecki Law Group, we operate from the belief that our clients deserve unfettered access to the cold hard truth. We offer unprecedented transparency and though the truth can often be unsettling, when our clients ask for it, we deliver that truth.
What could a court martial conviction cost you? It may be more than you think.
No two service members will face the same cost of a court-martial conviction. Every crime, every verdict, and every outcome is different. And it is entirely up to you to decide which is costlier: an experienced attorney, or a guilty verdict.
What we can do is help you identify what is actually at stake in your case: confinement, your military career, retirement, income, benefits, and the consequences that could follow you into civilian life.
We have seen promising futures destroyed, reputations damaged, and families split apart by criminal accusations and convictions. Before you make a decision about your defense, you need to understand what the government could take from you and what can be fought.
What does a conviction put at risk in your case?
- Your rank, years of service, retirement eligibility, pay, and the benefits you and your family use now.
- The actual charges, the sentence authorized for those offenses, and the terms of any proposed plea agreement.
- Consequences beyond the sentence, including registration where required, employment, licensing, and the civilian future you are trying to protect.
Those are the facts that belong in the calculation. Your future is too important to price using somebody else’s assumed average.
Tangibles and Intangibles: Learn the Full Cost of Your Conviction
When you’re convicted of a criminal offense in the military, you have to account for both tangible and intangible losses. Tangible losses are the physical assets you’ll lose throughout your life from a conviction. Intangible losses cannot be measured. But they hold immense value, perhaps even more than tangible assets.
Tangible Losses
- Loss of retirement and benefits: A conviction, separation, or punitive discharge can threaten the retirement and benefits you expected to rely on. The effect depends on your service, the outcome, and the rules for each benefit. Your retirement, medical coverage and VA eligibility need to be assessed separately; losing one does not automatically mean losing all of them.
- Loss of income while incarcerated: Confinement can interrupt your military income, civilian earning capacity, and your ability to support your family. The amount depends on the sentence, applicable pay and forfeiture rules, and your actual employment situation. Calculate that loss from your own circumstances.
- Repayment obligations: Failure to meet the conditions of a bonus can trigger repayment of its unearned portion, subject to the governing rules and exceptions. A fraud case may also involve repayment, restitution, or a fine. We need to identify the actual obligation and amount rather than assume every client must return every bonus.
Intangible Losses
- Your connections to family and friends: Who you are to your family and friends before your conviction is not who you will be afterward. A conviction changes how people perceive you. It will change whether or not they ever trust you again. It will change whether or not they decide to remain close to you in the years to come.
- Your personal freedoms: We take our freedoms for granted. Going out for beers on a Friday night. Playing catch with your son in the backyard. Being with family on Christmas day. We cannot place a value on memories with people we love. We cannot place a value on the time lost wasting away in prison.
- Your emotional health and dignity: A conviction will change you. Time in prison will change you. Your emotional health could suffer in ways you do not yet understand. And that can affect every aspect of your life, both personal and occupational.
Other Losses
- Restrictions that follow the case: A qualifying conviction or dishonorable discharge can affect firearm possession. Voting rights depend on the law of the jurisdiction, and benefits have their own eligibility rules. Those consequences are serious, but they are not the same for every conviction. Identify the offense, discharge, place of residence and benefit before deciding what rights or eligibility are affected.
The financial losses can extend long after the sentence ends. The time with your family and the opportunities you miss cannot be reduced to a dollar figure. That is why you need to understand the actual exposure before deciding how to fund your defense.
The Cost of a Military Defense Attorney Is Cheap in Comparison
Most service members never truly believe they could be convicted until it is too late. An experienced attorney cannot promise an acquittal. What you can evaluate is the work: who will investigate the accusation, challenge the evidence, prepare the witnesses, negotiate from a position of strength, and fight the case at trial. That is the value you should be examining before the government’s version of events becomes the only version anyone hears.
Tim and Ben work your case together. Read our case results to see the accusations our clients faced, the work performed, and the outcomes obtained. A detailed account tells you more than a percentage that mixes guilty pleas, administrative cases and contested trials.
Our past clients did two things that the majority of service members never do. They compared the cost of an experienced attorney vs the cost of a conviction, and they weighed the odds of success of hiring a truly stellar law firm, and hiring an average law firm or worse, representing themselves in court.
Never assume an experienced law firm is out of your reach. Instead, contact Bilecki Law Group and learn the truth of what a conviction will cost you…and how you can start fighting back TODAY.
How Can I Ever Find the Money to Pay for a Good Lawyer?
Our clients have gone to incredible lengths to secure our services. They have reached deep into their savings, sold off prized possessions such as boats and cars, picked up a second or even a third job, taken out loans, and went to close friends and family for assistance.
Why would anyone do this you ask? Because they took an honest look at what their life would be like if they were convicted, and compared it to what their life would be like if they were not.
When these men and women compared the two together and measured the full cost of a conviction, they immediately set out to hire the most experienced law firm they could find to secure the best possible outcome for their case.
Because they understood that the cost of a conviction can extend far beyond the legal fee.
Are My Odds Really That Much Better with an Experienced Defense Attorney?
The right question is what an experienced lawyer will actually do for your defense. Can the lawyer identify the weaknesses in the government’s case? Can the lawyer develop the evidence that supports you, challenge a flawed expert opinion, and prepare you for the decisions ahead? Who will stand beside you if the case goes to trial? You deserve specific answers.
Read our case results and look at the work behind each outcome. Some cases were won at trial. Others were resolved before trial or involved administrative proceedings. Those distinctions matter. We will give you a candid assessment of your case and explain the work we believe it requires.