What Are the Three Types of Court-Martial? Summary, Special, General

The Uniform Code of Military Justice recognizes three types of court-martial: summary, special, and general. They are scaled to the seriousness of the alleged offense. A summary court-martial handles minor enlisted misconduct with tightly capped punishments. A special court-martial is the intermediate tier and can impose up to a year of confinement and a bad-conduct discharge. A general court-martial tries the most serious crimes and can impose any punishment the UCMJ allows, up to and including death.

Summary Court-Martial

The summary court-martial is the simplest proceeding in the military justice system. Article 20 gives it jurisdiction over enlisted service members charged with noncapital offenses.¹ Officers, cadets, and midshipmen cannot be tried by summary court-martial.

One commissioned officer runs the entire proceeding. There is no military judge, no separate jury, and no formal prosecution team. That single officer hears the evidence, decides guilt, and sets the sentence. The accused has no right to appointed military counsel at the hearing, though the accused can consult with a defense attorney beforehand at no cost.

The maximum punishments a summary court-martial can impose are:

Confinement for up to one month
Hard labor without confinement for up to 45 days
Restriction to specified limits for up to two months
Forfeiture of up to two-thirds of one month’s pay
Reduction in grade, but no punitive discharge of any kind

These ceilings come from Article 20 itself.¹

The Right to Refuse

An enlisted member can refuse trial by summary court-martial. Article 20 states that no person within its jurisdiction can be brought to trial before a summary court-martial if the accused objects.¹ Refusal does not make the charges disappear. The case can then be referred to a special or general court-martial, which carries harsher potential punishments and a federal conviction on the accused’s record. The command could also pursue administrative action instead.

A summary court-martial is a court proceeding and is distinct from nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, which is not a trial and does not produce a federal criminal conviction.

Special Court-Martial

The special court-martial is the intermediate tier. Article 19 gives it jurisdiction over any noncapital offense under the UCMJ, and it can also try capital offenses under regulations prescribed by the President.² Unlike a summary court-martial, it can try both officers and enlisted members.

Under Article 16, a special court-martial consists of a military judge and four panel members.³ The accused can request trial by military judge alone, and the case can also be referred directly to a judge-alone proceeding. An enlisted accused can request that at least one-third of the panel be enlisted members.⁴

Maximum punishments include:

Confinement for up to one year
Hard labor without confinement for up to three months
Forfeiture of up to two-thirds pay per month for one year
A bad-conduct discharge, the most severe discharge this court can adjudge
Reduction in grade

A special court-martial cannot impose a dishonorable discharge, a dismissal, or death.² When the case is tried by military judge alone without panel members, the ceiling drops further: no bad-conduct discharge, no confinement beyond six months, and no forfeiture of pay beyond six months.⁵

A wide range of commanders can convene a special court-martial, including any officer authorized to convene a general court-martial and commanding officers of garrisons, stations, vessels, brigades, wings, and similar units.⁶

General Court-Martial

The general court-martial is the military’s highest trial court. Article 18 grants it jurisdiction over any offense under the UCMJ, including capital crimes, and it can impose any punishment the UCMJ allows, up to and including death for offenses that specifically authorize it.⁷

A general court-martial consists of a military judge and eight panel members.³ In capital cases where the death penalty remains on the table, the panel expands to twelve.⁸ The accused can request trial by military judge alone in noncapital cases. As at a special court-martial, an enlisted accused can request that at least one-third of the panel be enlisted.⁴

The full range of punishments includes:

Dishonorable discharge for enlisted members, or dismissal for officers
Confinement up to life imprisonment
Death, for offenses that specifically authorize it
Forfeiture of all pay and allowances
Reduction to the lowest enlisted grade

Only senior commanders can convene a general court-martial. That group includes the President, the Secretary of Defense, the secretaries of the military departments, and commanding officers at the division level or equivalent and above. The Secretary concerned can also designate other commanding officers to convene them.⁹

The Article 32 Preliminary Hearing

Before charges can be referred to a general court-martial, the UCMJ requires a preliminary hearing under Article 32. It is the rough equivalent of a civilian grand jury or preliminary examination.¹⁰ The accused can waive the hearing in writing. If it goes forward, an impartial hearing officer, ideally a certified judge advocate, presides.

The hearing officer’s job is narrow. The officer determines whether the charges allege an actual UCMJ offense, whether probable cause exists to believe the accused committed it, and whether the convening authority has jurisdiction. The officer then submits a written report with a recommendation on how the case should be handled. The accused has the right to counsel at the hearing, can cross-examine witnesses, and can present relevant evidence.¹⁰

The Office of Special Trial Counsel

For certain serious offenses, including sexual assault, murder, and other crimes Congress designated as “covered offenses,” the Office of Special Trial Counsel now has exclusive authority over prosecution decisions. A special trial counsel determines whether a reported offense qualifies as a covered offense, and if it does, that counsel alone decides whether to refer the charges to a special or general court-martial. The referral decision is binding on the convening authority. If the special trial counsel declines to prosecute, the commander can pursue other action but cannot independently refer those covered charges to a special or general court-martial.¹¹

How the Three Compare at a Glance

The differences track jurisdiction, composition, and maximum punishment.

Summary: enlisted only, one officer, no punitive discharge, up to one month of confinement.
Special: officers and enlisted, judge and four members (or judge alone), bad-conduct discharge possible, up to one year of confinement.
General: officers and enlisted, judge and eight members (twelve in capital cases), dishonorable discharge or dismissal possible, any UCMJ punishment up to death.

Right to Counsel at Each Level

Representation varies sharply across the three types. At a general or special court-martial, the accused is entitled to a detailed military defense counsel, a judge advocate who is a licensed attorney and certified by the Judge Advocate General.¹² The government provides this counsel at no cost. The accused can also request a specific military attorney, and that request must be honored if the attorney is reasonably available.¹³

The accused at a general or special court-martial can also hire a civilian attorney at personal expense without giving up the appointed military counsel. In capital cases, Article 27 requires that at least one defense counsel be experienced in death penalty law, and the government will pay for a civilian specialist if necessary.¹²

At a summary court-martial, the accused has no right to appointed counsel at the hearing and no right to a military judge. The accused can consult with a Trial Defense Service attorney beforehand, but that attorney does not appear at the proceeding. That gap in representation is one of the main reasons service members sometimes refuse a summary court-martial.

Appeals After a Court-Martial Conviction

Military appellate review is structured, and in some cases it is automatic rather than something the accused must initiate.

Courts of Criminal Appeals

Each branch of the armed forces has its own Court of Criminal Appeals. Review by the CCA is automatic when the court-martial judgment includes a sentence of death, dismissal of an officer, a dishonorable or bad-conduct discharge, or confinement for two years or more. For cases that do not trigger automatic review, the accused can file a timely appeal from any guilty finding. Even summary court-martial convictions can reach the CCA if the accused applies for review and the court grants it.¹⁴

Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Above the branch-level CCAs sits the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, a federal appellate court with five civilian judges. CAAF must review every case where the affirmed sentence extends to death. It also reviews cases that the Judge Advocate General orders sent up, and cases where the accused petitions for review and the court agrees to hear them.¹⁵ CAAF considers only questions of law, not factual disputes. After CAAF, a case can potentially reach the U.S. Supreme Court through a petition for certiorari.

Long-Term Consequences That Depend on the Tier

A court-martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction, and the tier determines which discharges are on the table. That, in turn, drives much of what happens after the sentence is served.

A dishonorable discharge, available only at a general court-martial, triggers a federal prohibition on possessing, buying, or receiving firearms and ammunition under 18 U.S.C. § 922.¹⁶ The ban is permanent and applies nationwide. A bad-conduct discharge from a special court-martial does not trigger that specific statutory prohibition, though state laws may impose additional restrictions.

VA benefits eligibility depends heavily on the character of discharge. Generally, a service member needs a discharge under other than dishonorable conditions to qualify for VA health care, education benefits, and home loan guaranties. A dishonorable discharge will almost certainly disqualify a veteran. For bad-conduct discharges and other-than-honorable separations, VA makes an individual determination.¹⁷

An officer’s dismissal, the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge, carries the same practical weight. It permanently ends a military career, strips retirement benefits, and is treated as equivalent to a felony conviction in most civilian contexts. For enlisted members and officers alike, the type of court-martial and the discharge characterization are among the highest-stakes questions in any military prosecution.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 820 – Art 20 Jurisdiction of Summary Courts-Martial
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 819 – Art 19 Jurisdiction of Special Courts-Martial
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 US Code 816 – Art 16 Courts-Martial Classified
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 US Code 825 – Art 25 Who May Serve on Courts-Martial
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 819 – Art 19 Jurisdiction of Special Courts-Martial
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 823 – Art 23 Who May Convene Special Courts-Martial
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 818 – Art 18 Jurisdiction of General Courts-Martial
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 825a – Art 25a Number of Court-Martial Members in Capital Cases
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 US Code 822 – Art 22 Who May Convene General Courts-Martial
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 US Code 832 – Art 32 Preliminary Hearing Required Before Referral to General Court-Martial
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 824a – Art 24a Special Trial Counsel
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 827 – Art 27 Detail of Trial Counsel and Defense Counsel
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 838 – Art 38 Duties of Trial Counsel and Defense Counsel
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 866 – Art 66 Courts of Criminal Appeals
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 867 – Art 67 Review by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 922 – Unlawful Acts
17
Veterans Benefits Administration. Applying for Benefits and Your Character of Discharge