Unlawful discharge from military service: reinstatement and pay for the period out of service

What is happening

Discharge is often processed quickly and with mistakes. People are discharged for failing to meet the terms of the contract with no real inquiry, on adverse grounds after a single penalty, or on the strength of an attestation they were never invited to. Sometimes the ground is changed after the order has already been signed.

A separate group of cases concerns a serviceman who is ill. He is discharged without being referred to a medical board, or discharged on some other ground although the board has already found him unfit. The ground changes both his status and the whole range of payments, so the dispute is worth bringing even if you do not intend to serve again.

Reinstatement is not the only aim. It is often more important to change the ground and the date of discharge, to restore your length of service and to obtain pay for the period of unlawful discharge. We discuss this with you before filing, so that every claim is made at once.

What the law says

• Discharge is lawful only on a ground expressly provided by Article 51 of Federal Law No. 53-FZ on Military Duty and Military Service, and only with the procedure observed: the inquiry, attestation, submission, interview and notification of the order.
• A serviceman who has reported health problems must be referred to a medical board before discharge; a discharge without that may be held unlawful.
• A breach of the discharge procedure is a ground for setting the order aside in its own right, even where a formal reason to discharge existed.
• The period for applying to the military court is three months from the day you learned of the discharge or were shown the order; a missed period can be restored, but the reasons must be substantiated.
• On reinstatement the court also decides the question of service pay for the period of unlawful discharge and the restoration of your length of service.
• You may seek not only reinstatement but also a change to the ground and the date of discharge — these are separate claims and must be made expressly.

What we do

• We examine the order, the submission and the attestation and inquiry materials, where the breaches are usually visible.
• We calculate the limitation period and, if it is borderline, prepare the case for restoring it.
• We formulate the claims: reinstatement, a change of ground and date, pay for the period out of service, restoration of length of service.
• We draft the administrative claim and the applications for personnel documents the unit will not release.
• We represent you in the garrison military court and on appeal and cassation in the district and cassation military courts.
• After judgment we monitor the reinstatement order and the accuracy of the recalculation.

What we need from you

• The extract from the discharge order and, if available, the submission for discharge itself.
• Your contract and extracts from orders on appointments, extensions, commendations and penalties.
• The attestation materials and interview records, if these took place.
• Medical documents: the referral to the board, its finding, the certificate of illness and hospital records.
• Pay slips and a statement of your service pay for the final months of service.
• Your written chronology with dates — what happened when, and from whom you learned of it.