john999

Like Pete says just let your lawyer handle it. They know this stuff like the back of their hands.

I did an Iris inquiry about my CUE claim. I had a hearing over 6 months ago. I made the inquiry a month ago. I got a response saying the VA is still working on the resonse to my Iris. They cannot even tell me the status of my CUE much less tell me when it will be decided. This is a legal issue. There is no development required. It would be a very large retro if I win. Being the pessimist that I am I doubt I will win at the VARO where the error occurred. If I lose at the VARO I am wondering if my lawyer will want to go forward with an appeal to the BVA and then the Court. He is the one who flew from New Jersey to represent me at my hearing, so he must think I have a case. The thing is how much more will he want to put into it if we lose at the VARO. I think we will lose becasue of the money involved (at least 20 years of retro and maybe 30 years if it falls right). I think they will try and wait me out in hopes I will die before I can collect, or get to the final appeal.

The phrase " After a careful review of the veteran's SMR's and current medical records it is my medical opinion that his current disability is likely as not related to his military service" makes a big difference. If you don't have something like what I phrased in the your IMO the VA will shoot it down saying the doctor did not review the SMR's, so how can he have an informed opinion about nexus? John is saying that in his reply, and I am just repeating it. You also need a current diagnosis. No diagnosis, no claim. What you are doing is identifying an injury or illness in service, a current diagnosis and a nexus between the two. Those are the three legs of a good VA claim.

If you go for a hearing it is OK to have a VSO there just to make sure things are on the level. It is good to have someone in the room who should know all the procedures. I would continue to do all the evidence building and planning the claim myself.

If you evidence is not listed there is no way to tell if the VA reviewed it ,or did not review it. That is a basic flaw. You say how does the Vet know the evidence was not reviewed? How does the Vet know it was reviewed? The VA says just trust us. Trust but verify. How can you verify if the evidence is never listed or mentioned in the decision? It seems to me not listing evidence is the CUE. That is not the same as weighing it. If they dont' list it there is no way to know if they weighed it. This leaves the vet in No Man's Land. In my own case the VA said I had a mild disability based on their VA records. My doctor said I had a severe disability and was unemployable. My doctor's report was never listed or mentioned in the decision. They did not weigh the evidence. They just never even considered it. The fact my doctor said I was unemployable should have been an inferred claim for IU.

The VA is going to put a contract out on Larry the guy running Watchdog.

The General will be carrying out Obama policies. He will not be free wheeling. He takes orders. I think things will get better for vets because most democrats did vote for mandatory funding. If the economy really melts down we may be the only ones getting a check every month.

If the BVA granted SC for PTSD then the C&P exam is probably to get a percentage rating. I could not understand your response, Ertle, about what the BVA said regarding a grant of SC for PTSD. Were you SC'ed or not?

The VA is sure as heck not reaching out to Vietnam Era vets. That is what I mainly see at my VAMC when I go there. I don't see hundreds of OIF/OEF vets. I see flocks of older vets. I get very sick of hearing "Welcome home OIF/OEF combat vets" when I call for an appointment at the VAMC. What about the rest of us? The PTSD group at my VA mental health center is all Vietnam vets.

My hospital records were used by the VA to award me an EED. I don't think you get it automatically without making a claim except it the rare, odd case. I did not just get the EED from the VA's goodwill. I had asked for an EED on my TDIU based on my SSD records, but the VA used my earlier hospitalization to justify the EED. I think they purposely avoided using my SSD records to justify the EED, and, instead, used the hospital records. It amounted to exactly the same date for the EED. If they had used my SSD date then that would mean that they should use that date to justify awarding many vets an EED who got SSD years before TDIU or 100% from the VA. The VA does not scan our VAMC medical records for potential claims. In the process of a ongoing claim they might make a inferred claim or decide that hospital records were an inferred or informal claim to benefits, but you have to have made a claim first. It is like the AO exam. The doctor may find AO related conditions but that does not spark an automatic claim for benefits at all. You have to file a claim and go for a C&P exam. In the last 40 years I have never gotten a letter from the VA saying "Mr. King, on examination of your medical and hospital records we are making a claim on your behalf for benefits".

McCool That is exactly the way to do a DRO Hearing. You can also bring a witness like a spouse to testify as to the effect your disability has on your moods, daily life, and general quality of life. I brought my wife to mine and it helped me feel more confident. She told them I was a wreck. She may have gone overboard a little on the pathetic wreck part. "Dear, now tell them what you really think".

I got my SSD records just by requesting them. It did not take that long. I sent the VA my award letter which I got right away. That seemed to be enough. The C&P exam may not even happen, but if it does look at it as an opportunity to get 100% rating and housebound. From the tone of the hearing I think the DRO just wants to justify the rating he will give you to cover his butt. I had a DRO Hearing for an AO presumptive claim, and it took two months for them to send me the letter of approval, but I knew it was coming. The DRO could have just awarded me the claim then, but they had to go through the song and dance first. It is all about their butts and not ours.

We will prepare Yoggie well for his PTSD exam.

Vets are not shocked because we knew it all the time. The public should be shocked, but they are worried about their mortgages and 401-K's.

I went to my Vet Center some years ago. The couselor wrote a letter saying I had chronic and severe PTSD. The VA ignored that statement completely. What is the point of going to a vet center? The VA gives them no credit. If a VA resident says you don't have PTSD then you don't have it. I think I could have gotten treatment there for ten years and it would not have mattered. My IMO doctor mattered.

Rich As Berta says you surrounded the VA with evidence and they surrendered. Funny how the first awful decision was just a big "misunderstanding". They put you through hell for a year, and then you never get an apology just the acknowledgement that somebody goofed. This has happened to most of us. I know it happened to me. If you have solid evidence it speakes for you. The VA is careless with our lives.

No one can force you to have any kind of treatment. They cannot mandate individual or group therapy. The idea is that if you are getting any kind of therapy then you are documenting your ongoing symptoms. This is a good thing in VA land.

If a certain VARO had a record of approving say 10% of all claims for service connection. What do you think would happen if suddenly they began to service connecte 30% of all claims? I can tell you that there would be a massive investigation from the higher ups in the VA, and people would lose their jobs at the VARO. The hidden agenda is not written up in a secret report. It is just understood by all that keeping costs down in the compensation area is a goal. What would happen if a VARO that SC'ed 20% of clalims suddenly SC'ed only 10%? Nothing would happen, but probably the boss of the VARO would get a promotion. Does anyone think VA employees get a bonus for service connecting large numbers of vets?

Did Kipling ever go the VA? Didn't he write the "Jungle Book". The jungle is a better description of the VA in progress.

If you deploy to a combat zone you might have problems because even clerks get shot or blown up by bullets or bombs. You have to drive from point A to point B, and I know they still have roadside bombs. Do you have any idea where you are going? If it is Afghanistan that would be possibly highly unstable. You know that if the Army gets in a jam it is every man to the bunker line and that includes the cooks and clerks. The thing in my mind is that once you get to a combat zone anything can happen. In my unit in Vietnam a soldier cracked up and they just tied him up and pumped him full of drugs and evacuated him. It was a sight I won't forget with him screaming. This was from stress that boiled over because he should have been sent home long before that event. PTSD is not like acute combat fatigue where the soldier is better off if he quickly rejoins his fighting unit. What I see is that you want things to be as they were before PTSD. I don't think going back to a combat zone will make it better. How many more times are they going to deploy you after this? How much can you take before you have to be evacuated? You know these people are capable of treating problems you are having as a discipline problem. I bet their are some hard asses who still believe PTSD is just a soldier malingering. Some of those guys are in commmand.

I have never had a good C&P exam. I always have had to go to private doctors to get better evidence. The idea that only depression in your records could be valid for compensation reasons is dumb. Disabilites cause depression in many people. If you have chronic pain conditions that will cause you to feel depressed just from the medications. The C&P exam is the first bell of round one in a fight not the last.

Don't make eye contact. That is something they always harp on if you make eye contact. There is a standard check list they use based on appearance and other physical signs like trembling and shaking or crying.

Rich I would not even bring up the topic of doctor shopping. Stay positive and just present your evidence for PTSD. You have great evidence since you won at the SSA in front of an administrative judge who has a lot more on the ball than a DRO. DRO hearings are very informal. The DRO will keep a transcript of what is said when you go on the record. You just get your evidence organized, and write a brief outline of what you want to say. It is not adversarial. The DRO wants a nice and peaceful hearing. You have powerful evidence so that will speak for you as long as it is in the record. This is your chance to look a VA decider in the eye, and then he sees that you are a human being and not just a pile of paper.

I agree with Hoppy's idea of a hiden agenda on the part of the military and VA to deny claims to save money. Just look at our own claims here. Most of us were either denied or low balled on our original claim. Everyone here has been in appeals and some still are for years. It is not an accident. It is just understood that a denial is preferable to a approval when the evidence is not stark. Even if the evidence is air tight you can still get denied because you claim was not even read. I get back a decision that does not even resemble my claim or consider my evidence so I wonder if the system is so broken or currupt that it needs to be completely replaced.

The VA used the date of my last hospitalization to establish an EED for my TDIU. I was asking for them to use the date I was awarded SSDI, but they chose to go with the hospitalization date which was the same as the SSDI anyway.