Your command refuses to refer you to a military medical board

What is happening

Your health has deteriorated, you have hospital discharge papers, but there is no referral. The application was accepted verbally or not accepted at all, and you were not given a stamped copy. A month later there is nothing left to prove that you ever applied.

The refusal is often explained by a shortage of personnel, an open deployment, or by the medical papers being 'the wrong ones'. It also happens that the application is registered but stops with the head of the medical service and never reaches the board.

Until the referral exists, nothing else moves: no fitness category is established, no discharge on health grounds is decided, and the causation of the injury is not determined. So the first step is to restore proof of the application and its date.

What the law says

• Article 16 of Federal Law No. 76-FZ of 27 May 1998 on the Status of Servicemen gives you a right to health protection and medical care, and military authorities must secure that right — a referral to a medical board is not a favour from the commander.
• The examination is carried out on a referral from the unit commander or on a decision of a military authority, on the basis of a doctor's opinion or of the medical records themselves.
• A written application from a serviceman must be answered within the statutory period. Silence is precisely the inaction that can be challenged.
• Acts and omissions of the command may be challenged up the chain of command, before the military prosecutor's office and in the military court; using one route does not close the others.
• An administrative claim goes to the military court within the general three-month period from the day you learnt of the breach; for inaction the period runs from the day the answer was due.
• The court may order the command to refer you for examination — that restores your right rather than interfering with command powers.

What we do

• We check whether your medical records qualify as grounds for a referral and what else must be requested from the hospital or clinic.
• We draft the application and correspondence so that the fact and date of filing are recorded independently of the headquarters' goodwill: registration, post, office stamp.
• We prepare a complaint to the senior commander and an application to the military prosecutor's office about the inaction.
• We prepare and file an administrative claim in the military court challenging the inaction and seeking an order to refer you to the board.
• We run the case in court, gather evidence of the application and apply for records to be obtained from the unit and the medical service.
• Once the referral is issued we support the examination itself and, if needed, the challenge to the board's finding.

What we need from you

• The application for a referral — your own copy or any proof of filing: a photograph, an inventory, a postal receipt.
• Medical records: hospital discharge summaries, certificates of a wound or illness, examination results.
• Your contract and service record certificate, plus any extracts from orders you hold.
• Written answers from the command and the medical service, if any were given, including refusals.
• Details of the military unit and the officials involved: name, address, who handled the application.
• A power of attorney for the advocate and, where required, an engagement agreement.