Dav

[windy city]

Yesterday I had a meeting with a DRO for one of my claims pending about 1/2 before the meeting one of the people in charge of the DAV office called me into his office telling me that it was not in my best interest for this metting to take place because it was going to affect my rating and this rater can look into my file I informed him that I requested the meeting because his people told me that this was the next step to take but he continued to say that I requested the meeting so we went back and foward until the point that this a###### made me mad that I decided to not have the meeting after all. Today I realized I made a mistake and should have gone foward with the meeting and not let this indivdual talk me out of it, In my heart I felt that this guy was working for the best interest of the VA and not me. I need advice on this one I am thinking in chaging organizations and try to request another hearing because I know that I cen get this claim s/c. before I left is office he told me that to not put anymore claims in because they can look into my chart so what am I suppossed to do not file secondary claims because of fear of the VA looking into my chart or trying to reduce my rating.

[Rockhound]

Berta: You mention a lot about the OGC, Office of General Council, I presume. What is their function and how does that relate to helping you in your claims process? I don't think my claim has recieved proper handling and when I tried to file a CUE claim, the VARO acted like they didn't know what it was and they took it to mean an new claim to reopen for new and material evidence. It got so messed up, I got a DAV rep involved and he went with their thought and of course since I wasn't prepared with any new evidence, the claim went no where.

I had better luck with AMVET earlier and got a non service conected Pension, whiched helped me considerably with my SSDI claim.. But I guess he was to good, cause they fired him soon after I got my pension. Don't know why he was fired, since he did alright by me.

Is their a Web site for the OGC to read a Organization statemen?

(not the right word I think, but close)

RockHound

[Berta]

The VA General COunsel handled an FTCA malpractice tort I had.

They do much more then that-

http://www.va.gov/ogc/

I have used some of the Precedentel decisions for claims- under the Precedentel button-

these opinions arise from legal question issues that the Ros ask them to interpret.

They have a new reg- I spoke to the OGC lawyer who wrote it the other day and we discussed it at length-

Vet reps must now be re- certifified every five years-to maintain their accreditation-

this is the first type of recent significant oversight for reps that we have ever had-

also the OGC will accept and investigate complaints filed under 38 USC 14.633.

This same lawyer is handling my complaint against NYSDVA under this regulation. If a vet rep in any way fails to comply with the criteria in 14.633, the OGC can do what the reg says they will do- and the rep could potential loose their accreditation-one more way OGC oversights these vet reps-

They do a lot of other stuff too- and their site is very interesting- and the Pres Ops can be critical to some claims.

[Pete53]

It will be very interesting to see what happens.