FAQ

If we are unable to win your claim or get your discharge upgraded, our services are 100% free.  Only once we receive confirmation that you have won your monetary claim or your characterization of service has been changed will we accept payment.

No.  Anybody that tells you they guarantee they can win your case is not telling you the truth.  It is a long and arduous process and an outcome is never guaranteed.  We do our best to fight for you and we truly believe that we give you the best chance for success.  We do guarantee that you will pay nothing unless you win.

We looked for the best way to serve our Veterans and provide an excellent product at a fair price.  With most legal claims or discharge upgrade services you are paying for a person’s time and work product, not an outcome or verdict.  With us, we only request payment if we achieve the desired outcome.  

As you can imagine we receive dozens of requests every week from our Veterans.  We work hard on every case and each one takes weeks or months to complete.  We wish we could take every case, but due to high demand, this is impossible.  We will gladly take a look at your case and give you our best advice, but we may have to decline representation.

For a case involving a claim for monetary compensation from the military, we take all cases on a contingency basis and our fee is 20% of any monies collected.  The normal contingency fees you will find online vary from 20% – 50% depending on the type of case.  We are at the lower end of these fees and are proud of the representation we give our Veterans while maintaining low costs. 

For discharge upgrades, each level of upgrade is billed at a flat rate of $1,200.  That means if we win and you are upgraded from General to Honorable it is $1,200.  But if you are upgraded from Other Than Honorable to Honorable it is $2,400; if you are upgraded from Other Than Honorable to General, it is $1,200 because you were only upgraded one level.  Here are the levels of discharge so you can choose how high you want to aim with your current discharge:

1. Honorable

2. General (under honorable conditions) 

3. Other Than Honorable

4. Bad  Conduct

5. Dishonorable is the lowest possible characterization of service, but we do not take Dishonorable cases

While an “Uncharacterized” discharge is considered neither positive nor negative, we do receive many requests to upgrade these.  However, keep in mind they are very difficult to change.  All Uncharacterized discharges are billed at a flat rate of $1,200 should it be changed to either General or Honorable.

Absolutely.  We have had tremendous success upgrading General (Under Honorable Conditions), Uncharacterized, Other Than Honorable and Bad Conduct discharges.  It is not a simple or short process, but it can be done.

Once your discharge upgrade request is submitted it will take anywhere from 12 to 24 months to receive a response from the Army, Navy/Marine Corps, or Air Force Discharge Review Board or Board for Correction of Military Records.  So the sooner you begin, the quicker you can receive your discharge upgrade.

Your odds will vary based upon the severity of any misconduct in your Official Military Personnel File and your characterization of service.  At Peter Booker & Associates, we believe we give you the best chance to upgrade your military discharge and we never charge a fee unless we win.

Yes, an Other Than Honorable discharge can be upgraded.  Even a Bad Conduct discharge can be upgraded.  It is a challenge to upgrade these discharges to Honorable or General (Under Honorable Conditions), but it can be done.

Yes, but it is quite rare to get an Uncharacterized discharge upgraded.  An uncharacterized discharge simply means you were in the military for 180 days or less when your commander initiated your discharge.  The military feels that 180 days or less is not enough time to determine a characterization of service regardless of the reason for your separation.  At Peter Booker & Associates, we do accept cases with an Uncharacterized status based upon the merits of your case and our honest opinion or whether or not we can win.

Each service component has their own agency that contains a Discharge Review Board specific to that branch.  See the links below to visit their websites.  Those DRBs are authorized to vote upon discharge upgrade requests and change the characterization or reason for separation by majority vote.

• Air Force: Air Force Board of Correction of Military Records
• Army: Army Review Board Agency (ARBA) 
• Coast Guard: Board for Correction of Military Records of the Coast Guard
• Navy and Marine Corps: The Board for Correction of Naval Records

Good question.  Every case is different and many benefit from some form of representation.  Statistics do show you have a higher chance of upgrading your military discharge with representation than without.  We recommend you study your discharge and decide if you would be better suited with representation or without.

Most of the time you can appeal the decision of a DRB by requesting a personal appearance hearing or appealing to the Board for Correction of Military Records.  There are also ways to appeal with an additional Record Review hearing that few know about.

Like any other business, we have to charge a small fee for our services.  We do offer free services to some Veterans, but we contact them to offer our assistance.  So if you have not been contacted by us, this does not apply to you.