Vfcs Vets Lawsuit Allowed!

[Berta]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...amp;type=health

This is incredible NEWS!

From NVLSP web site- vets news issues

Judge in S.F. allows suit charging VA denies some vets health care

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 11, 2008

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Back to Health

Veterans' advocates can proceed with a lawsuit claiming that the federal government's health care system for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan illegally denies care and benefits, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, a conservative jurist and a World War II veteran, rejected Bush administration arguments that civil courts have no authority over the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical decisions or how it handles grievances and claims.

If the plaintiffs can prove their allegations, Conti said, they would show that "thousands of veterans, if not more, are suffering grievous injuries as the result of their inability to procure desperately needed and obviously deserved health care."

He said federal courts are competent to decide whether those injuries were caused by flaws in the health care system and the VA's grievance procedures.

Conti did not rule on the adequacy of the treatment system, which will be addressed in future proceedings. But he decided one disputed issue, finding that veterans are legally entitled to two years of health care after leaving the service. The government had argued that it was required to provide only as much care as the VA's budget allowed in a given year.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Melissa Kasnitz of Disability Rights Advocates, said the judge had rejected the VA's "shameful effort to keep these deserving veterans from their day in court."

The next step is a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for an injunction that would require the federal agency to provide immediate mental health treatment for veterans who suffer from stress disorders and are at risk of suicide, said Sidney Wolinsky, another Disability Rights Advocates lawyer. That hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22.

The suit claims that the federal government's failure to provide timely treatment is contributing to an epidemic of suicides among returning soldiers.

The suit was filed in July by two organizations, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, as a proposed class action on behalf of 320,000 to 800,000 veterans or their survivors.

The groups said the VA arbitrarily denies care and benefits to wounded veterans, forces them to wait months for treatment and years for benefits, and gives them little recourse when it rejects their medical claims. The department has a backlog of more than 600,000 disability claims, the suit said.

A Pentagon study group reported in June that the system was understaffed, prompting the VA to announce staffing increases in July. The study group also found that 84,000 veterans, more than one-third of those who sought care from the department from 2002 through 2006, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress or another mental disorder.

In seeking dismissal of the suit, the Justice Department argued that Congress had barred federal courts from hearing complaints about the VA system when it established a special Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims in 1988 to review grievances over treatment and benefits. But Conti said the special court can examine only individual cases and has no power to consider "systematic, constitutional challenges." He said those belong in regular courts.

Conti also said the VA system, originally intended as an informal procedure to help veterans resolve their claims, has morphed into an adversarial process in which claimants have to comply with formal legal rules, often without a lawyer.

"It is within the court's power to insist that veterans be granted a level of due process that is commensurate with the adjudication procedures with which they are confronted," Conti said.

Efforts to reach the Justice Department were unsuccessful.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle"

[Stretch]

"The suit was filed in July by two organizations, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, as a proposed class action on behalf of 320,000 to 800,000 veterans or their survivors."

When the Vets Court was established in 1988, Vets were cheated out of class actions process. This could be the beginning, of restoration, of Veterans Class Action suits, rather than Vet individuals left on their own.

[Rockhound]

I don't have have medication coverage and I'm not particularly fond of the VA. I spend about a $100.00 in co-pays a month for my meds. It would average out a bit higher if I was on a medication plan and I wouldn't be guarentied that all my meds would be covered either.

I just wished that they would make in a standing directive that if a Veteran wanted a written opinion that they would have to comply instead of saying they didn't want to get involved with claims you might have against the VA for benefits.

Rockhound

[Berta]

I am anxiously trying to follow this whole matter-

I am considering a Class Action suit for vets and widows represented by my former POA reps but am waiting for my lawyer to relocate his office closer to me-

(he is taking over my old lawyers office- steps away from the state court building)

I would rather see if a class action could fly for ALL veterans and widows in the US of A -denied their DTA rights by virtue of VARO failures to send them a legal VCAA letter.

That class of veterans could easily be certified (a prime legal requirement to begin any suit like this)-

thousands of them are at the BVA web site.

I would pay for the filing and legal fees myself-

it would be the most important thing I could do ever to really help all vets and widows with VA claims.

(Unless my VCAA amendent gets proposed by COngressman Filner)

I think this state court action in SF court has ramifications far greater then the vets who began the suit ever imagined-

Edited January 13, 2008 by Berta