Every entry on DA Form 2465 exists because a record system needs it in writing. The form's official title is CLIENT LEGAL ASSISTANCE RECORD, and it is raised whenever an office must client legal assistance record in a way that survives the departure of everyone involved. Memory does not transfer between assignments; a filed document does. The edition dated 07/01/2018, status ACTIVE, is what stands here, spread across 2 page(s) and about 184 fields — a count that reflects how much detail the receiving system requires, not how much the drafter wishes to give.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by TJAG, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by (AR 27-3). That division is the reason a form can outlive several changes in the process it serves.
The heading blocks come first because the record is retrieved by them, not read into. Name as official records spell it, identification number, unit, date of preparation — those four are the index, and everything below them is content that only surfaces once the index has done its work. A form filed under a name written casually is not lost in principle, only in practice, which amounts to the same thing.
Much of the form's behaviour follows from its being a fixed page. Tab order was set at build time along the reading sequence, which is why tabbing catches boxes a pointer passes over. Exclusive groups release one choice when another is made because a record cannot carry two answers to a single question. Single-line fields refuse to wrap because every entry must print where the layout expects it — text beyond the width is lost at the margin, visible on screen to the end. That is what remarks areas and continuation sheets are for. Marking a field that does not apply matters for a related reason: emptiness is ambiguous, and a reviewer reading the file later cannot distinguish an omission from a decision.
Signing is the act that makes the document evidence, and until it happens the entries are only a proposal. Additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — each stand for a separate judgement, dated when applied so the record shows who accepted what and in what order. The common faults all damage that record in the same way: a blank mandatory field breaks the chain of required answers, swapped digits in an identification number detach the document from its subject, an inverted day and month misplaces it in time, and stale data from a reused copy states things nobody meant to state.
Personal information may not be gathered silently, and the Privacy Act statement is how that obligation is met on paper: it names the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses and whether disclosure is mandatory. Because it exists to inform a decision, it belongs before the fields it covers rather than after them. A filled copy then holds personal data and is stored and transmitted under the corresponding safeguards.
Download the form
Formats exist because completion happens under different conditions, not because anyone wanted variety. The published set is PDF, XFDL. A fillable pdf carries live entry objects, so typed text lands in fixed positions and stays legible whoever reads it later. A printable pdf drops those objects and leaves the page as an image, which is what an office needs where a screen is unavailable and a pen is not. The document itself is unchanged between them; what differs is the circumstance each anticipates.
The choice of application decides whether your work survives. Browsers render pdfs as documents to be read; where a viewer shows fields without a mechanism to store them, typed text disappears when the tab closes, and nothing announces the loss. A full reader treats the file as a form and preserves entries on save. The xfdl format comes from IBM Lotus Forms, used across Army systems because of the routing and signature functions built into it, and it opens in the Lotus Forms Viewer alone.
Downloads are free and unregistered. The material was published for general use, and the files are passed on unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ADDRESS
- ATTORN_A
- ATTORN_A_1
- ATTORN_A_2
- ATTORN_B
- ATTORN_B_1
- ATTORN_B_10
- ATTORN_B_11
- ATTORN_B_2
- ATTORN_B_3
- ATTORN_B_4
- ATTORN_B_5
- ATTORN_B_6
- ATTORN_B_7
- ATTORN_B_8
- ATTORN_B_9
- CASE_A
- CASE_A_1
- CASE_A_2
- CASE_B
- CASE_B_1
- CASE_B_10
- CASE_B_11
- CASE_B_2
Disposition is prescribed, not chosen. (AR 27-3) names the destination, whether that is a specific office, the unit administrative channel or the personal record, and the applicable records schedule governs how long it survives there. Both rules exist to keep the file consistent across offices with different habits. Take your copy before the document leaves, since it will not come back.
Series and number are how the DA series signals which documents belong together, and the grouping follows real process boundaries: a shared proponent or directive usually means a shared purpose. A form cited on the face of another is part of that same transaction, and continuation sheets, covers and transmittals complete it.
Revision follows the process, which is why editions appear without a fixed interval, and the printed date rather than any version number identifies them. Nothing on a stored copy signals that it has aged; the check is manual. Work already completed under a superseded edition stands as filed, because the record was made under those terms and is properly interpreted under them.
One boundary should be stated clearly. What is distributed here are copies of published Department of the Army forms; the site is independent, issues nothing of its own, and holds no position in the system it describes. Proponency, prescribing directives and retention schedules operate without reference to it. Consequently nothing here is legal advice and no assurance about acceptance is possible. Questions about a particular entry, a requirement or eligibility belong with TJAG or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2465?
- CLIENT LEGAL ASSISTANCE RECORD
- Which edition is current?
- 07/01/2018
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TJAG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA
- 14-REQUIRES PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT (AR 340-21)
- 04-PUB NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGNERS (NOFORN),