A little background on my case that might be helpful to anyone in a similar situation:
First diagosed with CLL in 1999. Filed for VA compensation in January, 2003, immediately after it was announced that CLL was being added to the list of Agent Orange presumptive diseases.
Awarded 100% for CLL in early 2004 with effective date of October 16, 2003. Award letter said October 16, 2003 was the earliest possible effective date under the law that added CLL to the presumptive Agent Orange list.
At some point, NVLSP filed suit over the effective date of CLL awards and prevailed in a lower court. VA then published Fast Letter 06-16 instructing VA raters to pay CLL claims to the date of diagnosis or date of claim, whichever was later. Further, the lower court ruling referenced in the Fast Letter required an outreach effort be made to current veterans receiving compensation for CLL as well as those with pending CLL claims. The outreach effort required that receipants and applicants be informed of the process to request an earlier effective date. However, receipiants were required to acknowledge that VA could recoup any excess payments if they (VA)successfully appealed the lower court decision. VA did appeal and lost their case in mid-2007. Since that time, I have twice requested and twice been denied an effective date earlier than October 16, 2003. Both times the stated reason for denial was that the law does not permit an effective date earlier than October 16, 2003. (The very date that the courts as well as the VBA Fast Letter declared invalid.)
Anyway, this is somewhat bizarre to me. Although English is my first language and I was a government bureaucrat who wrote similar nonsense for many years, I apparently cannot comprehend the language used by the VA. Black seems to be white and day apparently is really night.
Thanks for reading!