Starfleet JAG Corps

[Dingo]

I am currently working on a fanfiction involving the hearings for each of the Maquis crewmembers on their return to the Alpha Quadrant.

First off if this belongs in the fanfiction forum versus Voyager forum, I request from the moderators that it be moved accordingly.

It's actually given birth to some semi-original characters (basically several Law and Order DAs/ADAs) as Starfleet Judge Advocate General Officers. I imagined DA Branch, for instance, as the Chief of Prosecutions for the Bajor sector and EADA McCoy as the Lead Prosecution Attorney for the Maquis case, at the rank of Commander.

The various ADAs that have appeared on Law and Order and its spinoffs are also featuring in some ways usually at the ranks of Lieutenant thru Lieutenant Commander.

One of them, ADA Borgia, spent seven years on Voyager. I wrote her as being brought onboard as an observer for the Maquis case.

I'm curious if there's any fanon or canon that describe how attorneys are recruited and trained for Starfleet?

 

[Count Zero]

Good question. I think the most background we ever got was in the Vanguard books but I don't remember anything about recruitment and training in them. It's been a while since I read them, though.

 

[Dingo]

Thanks. I'm figuring they choose a specialized track at Starfleet Academy unless Starfleet runs a direct recruitment program to recruit civilian lawyers into service.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Thanks. I'm figuring they choose a specialized track at Starfleet Academy unless Starfleet runs a direct recruitment program to recruit civilian lawyers into service.

Court Martial suggests that civilian lawyers were used for defence work at one point (I don't know if that is possible in the RW).

 

[Aaron McGuire]

Good question. I think the most background we ever got was in the Vanguard books but I don't remember anything about recruitment and training in them. It's been a while since I read them, though.

In one of the books, Capt. Desai (the head JAG officer on Vanguard) mentioned that she had previously been a detective. I would assume that means that she went to law school later.

Thanks. I'm figuring they choose a specialized track at Starfleet Academy unless Starfleet runs a direct recruitment program to recruit civilian lawyers into service.

Some officers in the US military do get to attend law school while in the service. The military also recruits civilian lawyers. Maybe it's a little of column A and a little of column B.

Court Martial suggests that civilian lawyers were used for defence work at one point (I don't know if that is possible in the RW).

In real life, civilian lawyers can be brought in by military personnel under court martial

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I've always assumed that JAG was a specialised branch of the Academy, open to all those going in cold or for others who were already qualified lawyers before joining the fleet.

 

[Sgt_G]

Don't forget the defense team. In the Air Force, it's the Area Defense Counsel. For the Army, it's the Trial Defense Service, and the Navy has the Defense Service Office. These offices are separate from the JAG and have an independent chain of command that by-passes the local base commander (who "owns" the JAG) and reports directly to USAF/USA/USN headquarters. Lawyers assigned to JAG / ADC stay in said office for their entire tour of duty, and often for their entire career. To switch from one side to the other requires a Permanent Change of Assignment (PCA), usually a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) to send the person to a new base. Unlike the TV show "JAG", lawyers are NOT assigned as prosecution / defense one case and to the other the next case.