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Mission Statement
Special Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
The Special Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is established for
the purpose of identifying the specific needs for quality legal services
available to New York’s military community and creating a
framework within which those needs can be successfully met. The
ultimate goal of the Special Committee is to improve the quality of
legal services available to the community of veterans, which the
Committee defines as past and present military members both active and
reserve, and the families that support them. The Special Committee
will focus on three key areas of need and has created a subcommittee to
address each area: Veterans’ Courts; Legal Services; and Legal
Education.
The Special Committee has set forth specific goals for the
subcommittees, which will help us achieve measurable success in the
coming year. These goals include studying the
availability of legal and other services throughout the
state; making recommendations to expand the availability of
such services; generating a report discussing ways in which service
providers can share information about available legal resources;
recruiting and training attorneys in legal issues commonly faced by the
community of veterans; encouraging the use and creation of more
specialized veterans' courts; and compiling a legal resource guide for
the community of veterans and the attorneys who want to assist them,
either on a pro bono or on a for-fee basis.
Working with the Office of Court Administration and community groups
dedicated to veterans’ issues, the Special Committee will
encourage the establishment of more Veterans’ Treatment Courts
and/or tracks, modeled on the ground-breaking Buffalo Veterans Treatment
Court, to deal with veterans charged with crimes. The goal of the
Veterans’ Courts will be to increase knowledge and competencies in
military culture, substance abuse, mental health, traumatic brain injury
(TBI), and other service related issues, including how to access
veterans’ benefits and services.
Recognizing that it may sometimes be very difficult for veterans to
obtain legal assistance, the Special Committee will identify existing
legal services resources available to veterans across including both fee
based and pro bono. These resources will be compiled into a
reference/referral guide for use by veterans and providers in order to
facilitate the identification and use of available services.
The Special Committee also will strive to create and execute legal
education programs for attorneys and the general public on
veterans’ issues. These programs will have the overarching
theme of providing legal education to practitioners and non-lawyers
involved in veterans’ issues relating to services available and
addressing legal issues unique to the community of veterans. In
addition to presenting CLEs, the subcommittee will seek to deliver
program templates to legal organizations throughout New York, that are
interested in making such presentations.
Read
the full report of the Special Committee on Veterans' Affairs, as
approved by the House of Delegates in November
2012, here.
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