Volume 82 u No. 31 u November 19, 2011 ALSO INSIDE • Annual Meeting Highlights • New Military Section Created • 2012 Committee Involvement Urged Vol. 82 — No. 31 — 11/19/2011 The Oklahoma Bar Journal 2705 your business The added protection no one should go without. your family The OBA - Sponsored Personal Umbrella Plan provides excess coverage for your autos, homes, rental properties, boats and recreational vehicles. t $1,000,000 OPTIONAL UNINSURED AND UNDERINSURED MOTORIST COVERAGE IS AVAILABLE, subject to the required underlying limits! t NO RESTRICTIONS OR SURCHARGES, regardless of the number of vehicles, homes, watercraft, your life recreational equipment or licensed youthful drivers. t Can be purchased as $1 million, $2 million or $5 million personal excess liability protection. t Covers rental properties (up to a four-family dwelling). t Personal injury claims covered as any other claim (libel, false arrest or slander). t Every relative in your household is an insured. 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Serving Oklahoma’s Legal and Accounting Professionals Since 1955. 2706 The Oklahoma Bar Journal Vol. 82 — No. 31 — 11/19/2011 THEME: MILITARY LAW Editor: Dietmar Caudle contents Nov. 19, 2011 • Vol. 82 • No. 31 pg. 2789 Task Force & Heroes Program Praised DEPARTMENTS 2708 From the President 2772 Editorial Calendar 2774 From the Executive Director 2775 Law Practice Tips 2778 OBA Board of Governors Actions 2786 Oklahoma Bar Foundation News 2789 Lawyers for Heroes FEATURES 2795 Access to Justice 2711 A Military Justice Primer for the 2796 Young Lawyers Division Oklahoma Attorney: Groucho Marx 2797 Calendar was Wrong about Military Justice 2799 For Your Information By Robert Don Gifford II 2800 Bench and Bar Briefs 2721 Consumer Protections for America’s Heroes 2804 In Memoriam By Kaleb K. Hennigh 2808 The Back Page 2727 Employment Protection for the Citizen-Soldier By Robert Don Gifford II 2733 Some Recent Developments in Veterans Benefits By Judge Gerald A. Williams 2739 Army Legal Assistance: An Overview of the Free Legal Services that the Army Offers Soldiers and their Families By Andrew W. Scott and Jason G. Varughese pg. 2764 2745 Tulsa County Veterans Annual Meeting Highlights Treatment Court By Judge David Youll 2749 An Alternate Approach to Helping Veterans PLUS By Catherine “Catt” Burton 2764 Annual Meeting Highlights 2755 Veterans Administration Benefits 2771 New Military Law Section: By Dalen D. McVay The OBA’s ‘Draft’ – Will You Answer 2759 At Ease: A Guide on Legal Research the Call? Related to Military Issues By Robert Don Gifford II By Darla Jackson 2773 2012 Committee Sign-Up Form Vol. 82 — No. 31 — 11/19/2011 The Oklahoma Bar Journal 2707 FROM THE PRESIDENT Thank You Is Not Enough By Deborah Reheard November is a very busy month for the preparation, the Military Assistance Oklahoma Bar Association, and I am proud to say that lawyers Task Force was assembling numerous and OBA staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty “Clinic In A Box” packages to distrib- once again. ute to county bars across the state that were scheduling veterans legal clinics. We started out the month with the Annual Meeting in Tulsa. The contents of the clinic boxes were It was a year of planning, and we nearly completely revamped financed in part by a generous grant programs from years past. Staff and volunteers put in hundreds from the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. of hours to ensure the success of this year’s Annual Meeting, and Twenty-two counties were represented their efforts were not in vain. Preliminary numbers indicate reg- in clinics held from Weatherford to istration tripled from the previous year. Lawyers who never Idabel and Lawton to Sallisaw and lots thought about attending an Annual Meeting before and lawyers of places in between on Nov. 10 and 11. who had not attended an Annual Meeting in years were there. The number of veterans and service- We line danced, rode the mechanical bucking bull and laughed men and women the Oklahoma Law- out loud at the tales told by NFL Referee Walt Coleman. We lis- yers for America’s Heroes program has tened to the riveting story told by Sgt. Matt Eversmann as he helped is getting close to 1,000 in one relived the events immortalized in the movie Black Hawk Down. short year. And we sat in somber silence as we heard Andrew Card give the chilling details of the That number will events of 9/11 and after. grow as members of Lawyers have a the Oklahoma Army We laughed until we cried as we heard The National Guard 45th Capitol Steps (the group that put the “mock” special skill set Infantry Battalion be- in democracy) satirize current events. Who to help those gin returning. Okla- can ever look at Republican presidential can- homa lawyers will be didate Herman Cain again without hearing who have fought staffing the Yellow the old O’Jay’s tune “Get On The Love Train” Ribbon post-deploy- with the “new” words, “Get On The Love and are fighting ment events in the Cain”? Or not begin hum- for us and when coming months as our ming the ballad sung by Jus- soldiers return home tices Ginsburg, Sotomayor called upon, from their mission in and Kagan of their unrequit- Afghanistan. ed love for Justice Scalia? have not shirked And a big thank Speaking of singing, we from that duty. you to the Oklahoma had standing room only at Bar Journal Board of the President’s Breakfast as Editors for this out- folks crowded in to hear the Martin Luther King standing issue dedicated to legal issues Jr. Unity Choir from McAlester, led by my good facing lawyers representing veterans friend, Loise Washington. They were better than and military members. Lawyers have a a double shot of espresso to get you wide awake special skill set to help those who have and motivated for the day, following up their fought and are fighting for us and gospel-inspired renditions of “What The World when called upon, have not shirked Needs Now,” “Lean On Me” and “Blessed from that duty. President Reheard Assurance” with a medley of “God Bless Amer- practices in Eufaula. ica” and “We Shall Overcome” at the General For all this, I say thank you. Thank [email protected] Assembly. you for your service to our country. (918) 689-9281 Thank you for your service to our pro- But the Oklahoma lawyers did not have an fession. Thank you for your efforts to opportunity to rest on their laurels after such a improve the image of our profession successful Annual Meeting. Simultaneously — one good deed at a time. with all the Annual Meeting planning and 2708 The Oklahoma Bar Journal Vol. 82 — No. 31 — 11/19/2011 OFFIC ERS & BOARD OF GOVERNORS Deborah A. Reheard, President, Eufaula Cathy M. Christensen, President-Elect, Oklahoma City EVENTS CALENDAR Reta Strubhar, Vice President, Piedmont Allen M. Smallwood, Immediate Past President, NOVEMBER 2011 Tulsa Martha Rupp Carter, Tulsa 24-25 OBA Closed – Thanksgiving Day Observed Charles W. Chesnut, Miami 28 OBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Meeting; 4 p.m.; Renée DeMoss, Tulsa Oklahoma Bar Center, Oklahoma City and Tulsa County Bar Center, Gerald C. Dennis, Antlers Glenn A. Devoll, Enid Tulsa; Contact: D. Michael O’Neil Jr. (405) 239-2121 Steven Dobbs, Oklahoma City 30 OBA Clients’ Security Fund Committee Meeting; 2 p.m.; Oklahoma O. Chris Meyers II, Lawton Lou Ann Moudy, Henryetta Bar Center, Oklahoma City and Tulsa County Bar Center, Tulsa; Contact: D. Scott Pappas, Stillwater Micheal Salem (405) 366-1234 David A. Poarch Jr., Norman Ryland L. Rivas, Chickasha DECEMBER 2011 Susan S. Shields, Oklahoma City Roy D. Tucker, Muskogee, Chairperson, OBA/Young Lawyers Division 1 OBA Lawyers Helping Lawyers Assistance Program Training; 12 p.m.; Oklahoma Bar Center, Oklahoma City; Contact: Donita Douglas BAR CENTER STAFF (405) 416-7028 John Morris Williams, Executive Director; Gina L. Hendryx, General Counsel; OBA Men Helping Men Support Group; 5:30 p.m.; The Oil Center – Donita Bourns Douglas, Director of Educational West Building, Suite 108W, Oklahoma City; RSVP to: Kim Reber Programs; Carol A. Manning, Director of Communications; Craig D. Combs, Director of (405) 840-3033 Administration; Travis Pickens, Ethics Counsel; OBA Women Helping Women Support Group; 5:30 p.m.; The Jim Calloway, Director of Management Assistance Program; Beverly Petry Lewis, Administrator Center for Therapeutic Interventions, Suite 510, Tulsa; RSVP to: Kim Reber MCLE Commission; Jane McConnell, Coordinator (405) 840-3033 Law-related Education; Loraine Dillinder Farabow, Debbie Maddox, Ted Rossier, Assistant General 7 OBA Appellate Practice Section Meeting; 12 p.m.; Oklahoma Bar Counsels; Katherine Ogden, Staff Attorney, Center, Oklahoma City; Contact: Rick Goralewicz (405) 521-1302 Tommy Butler, Sharon Orth, Dorothy Walos and Krystal Willis, Investigators OBA Law Day Committee Meeting; 12 p.m.; Oklahoma Bar Center, Oklahoma City and Tulsa County Bar Center, Tulsa; Contact: Tina Izadi Manni Arzola, Debbie Brink, Stephanie Burke, Brenda Card, Morgan Estes, Johnny Marie (405) 522-3871 Floyd, Matt Gayle, Brandon Haynie, 8 OBA Women Helping Women Support Group; 5:30 p.m.; The Oil Suzi Hendrix, Misty Hill, Debra Jenkins, Amy Kelly, Jeff Kelton, Durrel Lattimore, Center – West Building, Suite 108W, Oklahoma City; RSVP to: Kim Reber Debora Lowry, Heidi McComb, Renee (405) 840-3033 Montgomery, Wanda Reece-Murray, Lori Rasmussen, Tracy Sanders, Mark Schneidewent, 9 OBA Communications Committee Meeting; 12 p.m.; Oklahoma Bar Robbin Watson, Laura Willis & Roberta Yarbrough Center, Oklahoma City and Tulsa County Bar Center, Tulsa; Contact: EDITORIAL BOARD Mark Hanebutt (405) 948-7725 Editor in Chief, John Morris Williams, News Oklahoma Association of Black Lawyers Meeting; 12 p.m.; & Layout Editor, Carol A.