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Two Counties Have a Veterans Treatment Court — Graduate and the Charges Are Dismissed

Douglas and Lancaster counties run veterans treatment courts for justice-involved veterans facing criminal charges. A participant pleads, sentencing is withheld while they complete an 18 to 24 month programme of treatment, judicial supervision and veteran mentoring, and on graduation the court dismisses the charges. Separately, the University of Nebraska law school’s civil clinic has run a free one-hour legal advice programme for veterans.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

Douglas and Lancaster counties run veterans treatment courts for justice-involved veterans facing criminal charges. A participant pleads, sentencing is withheld while they complete an 18 to 24 month programme of treatment, judicial supervision and veteran mentoring, and on graduation the court dismisses the charges. Separately, the University of Nebraska law school’s civil clinic has run a free one-hour legal advice programme for veterans.

What it's worth: Charges dismissed on graduation, in place of a felony sentence — in two of ninety-three counties

  • No sum is claimed. The value is a dismissed charge and treatment received rather than money, and the alternative is a criminal sentence.
  • The weight reflects the difference a dismissal makes to employment and housing over the following years, not any payment.
  • Failure has a price. Where a participant does not graduate the withheld sentencing is executed on the plea already entered, so entering the programme is a decision with a downside.

Who is entitled to it

  • The programme is for the veteran who is facing the charges.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: Referrals are accepted after charges are filed and the case reaches district court
  1. 1Raise it with your defence lawyer early. The Lancaster court accepts referrals after criminal charges have been filed and the case has been forwarded to the district court, and application is normally made through counsel.
  2. 2Understand the bargain before you accept it. The general structure requires the participant to enter a PLEA before the court, with sentencing withheld during participation. Graduate and the court dismisses the charges; fail to graduate for any reason and the sentencing portion of the plea is executed.
  3. 3Expect 18 to 24 months. Both counties describe the programme at that length, with intensive community-based supervision through probation and treatment services through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  4. 4Prepare the application properly: it asks for detailed information about the military service including a copy of the DD-214, details of any physical or mental ailments, and further documentation.
  5. 5Participation is voluntary and informed consent is taken twice — once for evaluation and consideration by the court team, and again at the point of acceptance.
  6. 6The target population is veterans charged with felony offences who are diagnosed with substance use or mental health issues. Lancaster says so in terms, so a case without that diagnosis may not be a candidate.
  7. 7Ask for a mentor. Both programmes are built around veteran volunteers who act as peers rather than authority figures, and the mentor relationship is described as the thing that makes participants engage.
  8. 8If your legal problem is civil rather than criminal, the University of Nebraska College of Law has run a Veterans Coffee and Counsel programme — free one-hour appointments on estate planning, set-aside and pardon, record sealing, debt collection defence, rental disputes, bankruptcy, child support modification, divorce, name change and small claims. Check its page before travelling; it was not accepting cases when read.
Form
Formal application to the court coordinator, normally through your defence lawyer
File with
The Douglas or Lancaster County district court, after charges are filed
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionNebraska does not have a statewide veterans treatment court. The veterans department’s own legal page names exactly two — Douglas and Lancaster — out of ninety-three counties. A veteran charged in any other county is in the ordinary criminal system, and the usual summaries that say "Nebraska has veterans treatment courts" hide that.
CorrectionThe free legal clinic is not currently open. The University of Nebraska’s Veterans Coffee and Counsel page states the clinic is at capacity and is not presently accepting cases, and says it will add an application form when that changes. It is listed here because the department still points veterans at it.
Worth knowingEntering a treatment court is not a lighter sentence — it is a plea plus a withheld sentence. That is a genuine risk transfer: a veteran who does not complete the programme faces sentencing on a plea already entered, without the trial they gave up.
Known gapNo statutory basis was read. Nebraska’s problem-solving court statutes sit on nebraskalegislature.gov, which refuses every connection from here, so whether these courts rest on a specific enabling section or on the district courts’ general authority is unverified. The Douglas County programme page at dc4dc.com was not opened, so its eligibility terms are recorded from the veterans department’s description and from the Lancaster court’s own page.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.