The time before a deployment is a stressful one for most Sailors. Bills need to be paid, children taken care of, and affairs must be put in order.

The Navy Legal Service Office (NLSO) can help with the legal end of a deployment with their pre-deployment checklist. It has everything a Sailor needs to deal with almost any legal matter that could arise while at sea, said Lt. Karen Robertson, branch head and defense counsel.

Some of the more important documents Navy Legal provides Sailors are the power of attorney and wills. A power of attorney gives someone of the Sailor’s choosing the power to act as him in a legally binding manner while during his absence. A will lets a Sailor’s family know what his intentions were (i.e. burial arrangements, allocating possessions)

“If you’re going to deploy, you’d want to have a power of attorney if there’s something that you could foresee wanting to get done while you’re gone,” said Robertson. 

“What a power of attorney does is basically it gives someone the power to act as you,” she said. “It makes someone your agent to legally bind you. It could be a good thing but it’s also a dangerous legal document so you have to be careful.

“It’s necessary because you can’t take care of your legal business while you’re not here,” added Robertson.

There are different kinds of powers of attorney, each for a different purpose, she explained.

“There are things called special powers of attorney. They’re very narrow,” said Robertson. “A special power of attorney (SPA) can be used for a number of things. Say my husband and I are in the middle of buying a house when I deploy, I can give him a SPA so he can actually sign as me. If he signs my name with a SPA it’s as binding as if I were actually there signing it myself.  It can be very narrow for things like closing on a house or taking out a mortgage.”

Robertson said there are a number of reasons a Sailor could need a SPA.

“If I was going to deploy, I might give someone like my mom the power to register my car, take out a loan in my name or deal with my credit card companies for me while I was away,” she said.

Another kind of power of attorney is a general power of attorney (GPA).

“A SPA is very narrow and a GPA is very broad,” said Robertson. “It says, ‘I’m giving this person the power to act as me with any legal document. A general power of attorney is dangerous because it gives someone a blank check to do anything in your name. Both should be for people you really trust.”

Robertson said in her years with Navy Legal she’s encountered Sailors who’ve unwisely given a SPA to people they didn’t know very well. 

“We’ve heard horror stories of Sailors giving these to the girlfriend of the week, coming back and their apartment is cleaned out, their car is wrecked and their bank account is empty.”

Another to-do on the NLSO’s pre-deployment checklist is to get a will

“We recommend that you have a will, especially if you have a spouse but even if you don’t it can be used if you have belongings you want to leave to certain people,” said Robertson.

“It also lets your family know what your intentions were concerning things like burial arrangements,” she said. “Also, if you have a bank account with only your name on it then if you died, how would your parents get that money out? There are hoops they could jump through to do it but you could will it to them making things much easier.”

Other things to consider are living wills.

“Do you want to be taken off life support? Those are decisions that everyone needs to make and they should be made upfront just so their family knows,” said Robertson. “Often times that can turn into a legal battle if your family disagrees with it. If you feel strongly one way or the other you should have those documents made up.”