ptsd Claim Appeals

[scout1069]

I currently have 2 appeals going on. 1st appeal Dec 2009- Initial rating was for 70% PTSD, 20% cervical spine, 20% lumbar fracture L1 L2. So 80% combined on that one. VSO requested De Novo review.

2nd appeal was for TDIU which was filed Dec 2009 and was denied Aug 2010, appealed that one Nov 2010. VSO requested De Novo review.

My question is, will having 2 appeals in for De Novo review take longer since they are basically both for an increase in rating, but 1 is TDIU and the other was just appealing their original decision?

[deanbrt]

My claim is now on its 3rd remand. This time back to the DRO from BVA. I was told it would process 2/3 faster than others and in 45-60 days in Novembr. Now I am being given no date and told there is some lawsuit against the VA that is mandating all of the claims in it be processed faster than others. Has anyone heard of it? I had a 30% rating and my appeal for secondary injury has been going on since August of 2006. It has gone all of the way up to Circuit Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and back...

[Chuck75]

The Nehmer Lawsuit and court orders had/has this requirement. The VA (at least on the surface) ignored it by processing non Nehmer and other A.O. related claims before the Nehmer claims.

I believe the NLSVP? is the class action lawyer, and likely raised the issue, due to the VA's recent actions with the new presumptive conditions.

From what I've personally experienced, the VA was/is doing it's usual practice of placing simple claims in front of the older Nehmer claims for the same presumptive conditions.

In addition, the older claims often contain some VA paperwork that is obviously incorrect, and the result of default settings in various VA fillout documents/form letters, etc.

Some of these documents can result in an RO "read no further" decision, and a resulting improper denial. (The language "do not develop" is one of the many flags.)

Remember that the VA is a very bureaucratic entity, and bureaucrats have overwhelming tendencies to do things in certain ways. If a hundred cases fall under the court ruling, ten thousand cases

might be delayed, even though there is no logical or rational reason to do so. (You want us to do this, we were doing that, so we will only do this. -- and ignore the fact that we can do both.)

There are a few practical reasons, such as the requirement to determine the cases involved, find the case files and separate them for Nehmer processing. Actually, this should have been easy to do if the VA had done what it claimed it did some time ago..

"there is some lawsuit against the VA that is mandating all of the claims in it be processed"

There is also an issue that many A.O. veterans should be and are not listed by the VA as Nehmer class members.

You should also remember that the VA often tells the veteran one thing, and does another.

My claim is now on its 3rd remand. This time back to the DRO from BVA. I was told it would process 2/3 faster than others and in 45-60 days in Novembr. Now I am being given no date and told there is some lawsuit against the VA that is mandating all of the claims in it be processed faster than others. Has anyone heard of it? I had a 30% rating and my appeal for secondary injury has been going on since August of 2006. It has gone all of the way up to Circuit Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and back...

[deanbrt]

So, even though my secondary claim to a 30% rating is over 4 years old and remanded 3 times, it is being pushed back for the Nehmer claims?

[carlie]

So, even though my secondary claim to a 30% rating is over 4 years old and remanded 3 times, it is being pushed back for the Nehmer claims?

Perhaps

[deanbrt]

The evidence, I am told, very much favors me now but it just seems to be one delay or another. It is all disheartening......

Perhaps

[Chuck75]

It's really hard to guess, since the VA is consistent in it's inconsistency. Supposedly, there are multiple paths that a claim might go through.

Nehmer is just one path. PTSD likely is another. Recent claims from the current conflicts are also supposedly placed first on the priority list.

Us Vietnam vets with older claims that have been screwed up by the VA usually get pushed to the bottom.

One way the VA has done this to Vietnam veterans is to not place Nehmer claim veterans on the "official" Nehmer list that the VA furnishes to NVLSP.

Another one seems to be to treat an appeal of a non Nehmer claim as preempting an earlier or co existent Nehmer claim.

It seems that the type of claim involved in the "preempting" is likely a claim involving a percentage rating, and may be a low rating, such as 10%, and usually less than 50%.

The "hung up" Nehmer claim may be a scheduler 100% claim with additional special schedule compensation also applicable.

Perhaps