How Do I Write a Letter of Reprimand Rebuttal? - Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart

Jocelyn Stewart is a UCMJ court-martial attorney who specializes in defense of allegations of sexual assault for all branches of the military worldwide. In this video, Jocelyn describes how a service member should rebut a letter of reprimand.

When putting your thoughts together about how to rebut a letter of reprimand, it's important that you are speaking in the first person. You are speaking directly to the general officer who's issuing this letter of reprimand. But what's also important is, as you're framing your argument, is to make sure that you're being understood in a way that, number one, conveys your professionalism, but number two, also conveys the message that it is that you're trying to set. As you are making statements of fact, it's important to be weaving into your argument, weaving into your memorandum, those specific documentation that's going to back up what it is that you're saying. Otherwise, it's going to simply come across as very self-serving, and it's not going to be something that's going to be taken into consideration.

And finally, if you are also going to be addressing the underlying misconduct, it's very important that when you're addressing that specific area of your rebuttal, that you are annotating and documenting anything that you, yourself have done to correct this error or to rehabilitate yourself. Because fundamentally, that's what the issuer of the reprimand wants to know, is that this inquiry, this investigation, and finally the reprimand, has been sufficient to address the issue so that you can come back from it and continue to serve.

For questions on how to respond to a GOMOR or letter of reprimand, contact the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart at 1-888-252-0927.

[damonvharris]

Does this fit for a QMP Board? Thank you.