New Hampshire Veterans’ Legal Aid Advocacy Project

RSA 115-C creates a standing civil legal aid programme for veterans, and its eligibility clause reaches a population most state benefits shut out. The purpose, in RSA 115-C:1, is "to address the unmet, dire civil legal needs of New Hampshire's veterans, and to advocate and safeguard veterans' benefits or preferences to which they may be entitled under any state or federal laws or regulations, particularly in the areas of housing, employment and unemployment, and veterans' disability and pension claims." Note the subject matter. Housing, employment and unemployment, and disability and pension claims. This is an eviction, a wrongful termination, a denied unemployment claim and a VA appeal. It is not criminal defence. Eligibility, in RSA 115-C:2, is three alternative routes and the third is the important one. Paragraph I: meet the definition of veteran in RSA 21:50, which already includes a general discharge under honorable conditions and an uncharacterized discharge based on a service-connected injury. Paragraph II: be ordered to active duty resulting from action by Congress or the President for an expansion of the active armed forces under 10 U.S.C. 12301, 12302, 12304, 12305 or a successor statute. That covers a mobilised reservist or Guard member who is not yet a veteran. Paragraph III: "Be discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, as long as the discharge was caused, in some way, by traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual trauma, a combat related injury or illness, or other traumatic injuries or illnesses." That third route is the one to know about. It reaches a veteran whose discharge was other than honorable, provided it was not dishonorable, where the discharge was caused "in some way" by TBI, PTSD, sexual trauma, or a combat-related or other traumatic injury or illness. "In some way" is a deliberately loose causal standard. A veteran with a bad-paper discharge stemming from untreated PTSD, who is outside the RSA 21:50 definition and therefore outside almost every other benefit in this file, is inside this programme and can get a lawyer to work on getting the underlying discharge corrected. Who does the work, from RSA 115-C:3. The state veterans council serves as the intake coordinator, so that is the front door. New Hampshire Legal Assistance provides the legal representation. The council, NHLA and the pro bono section of the New Hampshire Bar Association coordinate with the veterans service organisations, the National Guard and other providers, and are directed to create general guidelines on case acceptance and priorities and to review them every two years. Three duties in RSA 115-C:3 shape what a veteran can expect. The parties must do outreach with veterans' service organisations and homeless shelters "to reach the veteran homeless population that may need legal aid advocacy services". They must work to increase the number of private attorneys available for referrals, "including, but not limited to, veterans' family law cases", which is the acknowledgement that legal aid itself often cannot take divorce and custody work. And they must provide information sessions and legal advice for veterans and their families. The programme reports annually to the governor, the general court and the state veterans council on the number of veterans served, the results, and, usefully, "the number of veterans that could not be served". That last figure is the honest measure of whether the programme has capacity in a given year. Now the caveat that has to be stated plainly. RSA 115-C:4: "Funding for the veterans' legal advocacy project established by this chapter shall be contingent upon the receipt of grants or federal funds for such purpose." There is no appropriation. The chapter creates the programme and then makes its existence depend on outside money, and requires a report to the governor and the general court on the availability and acquisition of federal appropriations and grants. So this is a statutory programme with no statutory funding. It has operated with grant support, and it may or may not be taking cases when you call. Treat the statute as authority that the programme should exist rather than a guarantee of a lawyer, contact the state veterans council first as the designated intake coordinator, and if the project is not taking cases ask NHLA and the Bar Association pro bono section directly, both of which RSA 115-C:3 names. Case acceptance is also guideline-driven rather than entitlement-driven. RSA 115-C:3, V has the council and NHLA set priorities, so meeting the eligibility test in RSA 115-C:2 makes a veteran eligible to be considered rather than entitled to representation.