The Join Legal Assistance Office is here to help service members, qualified family members, and retirees with basic legal matters. We can assist you with personal matters ranging from consumer law, powers of attorney, family law, estate planning, military rights and benefits, immigration, taxes, and notaries. We can also assist your command with preventative law and pre-deployment briefs.

Do not handle your consumer law issues alone. At JLAO, we ensure that you’re benefiting from all federal and state law protections. Commonly we assist individuals who are having problems with their landlord or fighting debt collectors. We can negotiate with businesses to get clients lower interest rates or settle debts. We also offer advice and services for major purchases and debt collections. If you are purchasing a car, house, cell phone, or electronics an attorney can review your purchase agreement before you sign on the bottom line. Marines often end up with high interest loans or unsatisfactory products because they are pressured to sign contracts without the advice of an attorney.

We provide many family law services, including adoption, custody, non-support, paternity, and uncontested divorces. An instructional brief on divorce is offered every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m., covering our divorce services, types of divorces, the divorce process, as well as assistance with completing and filing court forms and documents. Please utilize our walk-in hours for matters dealing with adoptions and name changes.

Our attorneys assist service members and their dependents with U.S. citizenship applications and other basic immigration issues. A Citizenship brief is held every Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Citizenship walk-ins are Monday and Tuesday, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Immigration walk-ins are on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Other legal services we offer include wills and powers of attorney, notaries, and answers to general legal questions. If you need a will or power of attorney, we provide a brief on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 a.m. Afterward, clients meet with an attorney and wills are prepared within a follow on appointment for execution. If you need documents notarized, we offer this service Monday-Friday from 1 p.m. to 4:40 p.m.

We offer unit briefs on preventive law, wills and powers of attorney, and pre-deployment. Please contact our office for scheduling.

If you have questions that require the assistance of an attorney, walk-in hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 a.m., and Wednesday at 1 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. Remember to bring all supporting documentation so our attorneys can best serve you. The Joint Legal Assistance Office is located in Bldg. 22161 in the 22 Area, off 11th St. across from the airfield. More information can be found on the internet at http://www.pendleton.usmc.mil/base/legalassistance, or on Facebook, at keywords: Joint Legal Assistance Office - MCB Camp Pendleton.