JAG Officers on Starfleet Vessels

[J.T.B.]

A problem I had with the TV series JAG is that like every other courtroom drama on TV, all it takes is the lead to deliver an impassioned speech about justice and honour and he automatically wins the case, even in situations where the other lawyer had up until then been making more convincing arguments.

Yeah. Maybe a more realistic portrayal is in what is IMO the greatest court-martial movie (or neck-and-neck with Paths of Glory, anyway), Breaker Morant. There's an impassioned speech... but I won't spoil it.

In the first, only the prosecutor is JAG, the defence is civilian and the "judges" are regular Starfleet, the second, third and fourth appear to have no JAG involvement at all, and the last returns to the "Measure of the Man" format where only the "judge" is JAG.

At the very least, most if not all of the above examples should have included more use of enlisted legal advisors (legalman or clerks) even if the situation didn't permit the use of additional dedicated JAG officers (the DS9 examples are the only ones where the lack of additional JAG isn't explained as MoaM suggests that SB375 (Ross' command) should have had JAG personnel even if DS9 itself didn't warrant them in the early days).

In a court-martial, the court members are more like a jury, they don't need special legal knowledge. The president of the court is more like a judge. In the old days under Rocks and Shoals (the US Navy's pre-UCMJ legal code) nobody on the court had to have a legal background, but there would be a judge-advocate assigned to give the court legal advice. This can be seen in The Caine Mutiny, where the defending counsel and IIRC the prosecutor are both reservists who were lawyers in civilian life. Before 1950, the Judge Advocate General didn't even have to be a lawyer. After armed forces unification the military justice system was professionalized considerably, and Congress made JAG a Navy staff corps in 1967.

The approach the US Navy took up through the WW2 era was to send some line officers to law school after their early sea tours. They would continue in regular line officer careers but would tend to fill judge-advocate or legal type jobs in their shore/staff tours. Of course when they were serving at sea as chief engineer or assistant gunnery officer or whatever, they could also handle any legal problems that might come up. This worked in a relatively small peacetime navy. During wartime reservist civilian lawyers could be used as necessary.

In the old British Navy, the uniformed judge-advocate duties were handled by officers of the accountant branch, later called the supply and secretariat branch.

 

[Dingo]

Thanks for the insights everyone. I'm thinking of a fanfic where post return to Alpha Quadrant the Voyager Maquis crew members are subject to a hearing of some sort.

I'm actually making several of my favorite Law and Order lawyers into Starfleet Judge Advocates for this fic.

 

[dswynne1]

I think that the role of "Counselor" should have been different than how it was ultimately portrayed. So, in a revised setting, Counselor Troi would be the one wearing "two hats": advisor on legal matters (both Federation and Starfleet), and diplomacy (both "first contact" situations and interplanetary relations with existing space-faring powers). Come to think it, didn't Troi do some of this early on, and that the role of psychologist came later?

 

[The Wormhole]

Come to think it, didn't Troi do some of this early on, and that the role of psychologist came later?

No. And besides, there's a perfectly sound reason for starships to have psychologist aboard. Granted, they shouldn't always be on the bridge to say obvious things like the shifty looking alien is hiding something, but that doesn't mean the entire position is unnecessary.

 

[flandry84]

Luther Sloan first arrived at DS9 posing as an officer in the "Inspector generals" office.
He seemed to have a broad range of powers in that capacity so maybe your answer lies there.Think also of Dexter Remmick (before he morphed into a giant bug creature).
There is a JAG officer stationed on DS9 currently who has featured in a very small way.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Luther Sloan first arrived at DS9 posing as an officer in the "Inspector generals" office.
He seemed to have a broad range of powers in that capacity so maybe your answer lies there.Think also of Dexter Remmick (before he morphed into a giant bug creature).
There is a JAG officer stationed on DS9 currently who has featured in a very small way.

Sloan identified himself as Starfleet Internal Affairs (with the rank of Deputy Director, apparently a senior Captain or Fleet Captain equivalent), whereas Remmick was with the Inspector General's Office. So not exactly the same thing.

Traditionally, IA investigates specific accusations of criminal activity, whereas IG is more of a "big picture" readiness and efficiency evaluator/investigator role. This is consist with the overt activites of LTCDR Remmick in Coming of Age.

 

[Shawnster]

I think that the role of "Counselor" should have been different than how it was ultimately portrayed. So, in a revised setting, Counselor Troi would be the one wearing "two hats": advisor on legal matters (both Federation and Starfleet), and diplomacy (both "first contact" situations and interplanetary relations with existing space-faring powers). Come to think it, didn't Troi do some of this early on, and that the role of psychologist came later?

Yeah, no. Dr. patient confidentiality would be compromised if the dr. was also an officer of the court.

 

[dswynne1]

Yeah, no. Dr. patient confidentiality would be compromised if the dr. was also an officer of the court.

Really? If we are talking about "multiple hats", wouldn't functions be compartmentalized as arranged by Starfleet? Ergo, you would not be exposing anything based on the job function and setting.

 

[Jedman67]

No. And besides, there's a perfectly sound reason for starships to have psychologist aboard. Granted, they shouldn't always be on the bridge to say obvious things like the shifty looking alien is hiding something, but that doesn't mean the entire position is unnecessary.

"Captain, I sense a hostile presence."
"Thank you counselor. I wasn't sure if that last phaser barrage was hostile or not"