Appeals Response Form

[donews]

blank_appeals_response_form.pdf

I have attached a form I received with a recent decision on a claim.

Has anyone else seen or received this form?

What stage of your claim did you get the form?

[tssnave]

Don - I'm with you.

Manitou - I've worked in a university setting so I know what you mean about department forms that make life easier for faculty, staff and students. However, what bothers me is that the vet must state what he DISAGREES with in a NOD and this form has to do with what you AGREE with. You are assuming that by inference the VA will assume if you only agree with issue A you don't agree with issue B but the way the form is written it is NOT clear whether or not the vet disagrees with an issue they don't list as agreeing to.

Let me see if I can make this a little more clear (going on no sleep here so give me a little grace) - if there is an apple and a pear in the bowl and I only take the apple, that doesn't necessarily mean I do or don't want the pear. I could be saving it for latter, I could not give a rip one way or the other and ignore it, or I could just hate pears and don't want it. But you don't know which of those three possiblities it is that I feel just because I took the apple.

Now, out of the fruit bowl and into the VA mixing bowl - I have a hypotetical claim for busted knee and PTSD. They got the knee decision right so I agree with that and state as such on this local form. However, the VA doesn't know if I disagree with my PTSD decsion, if I am taking the time to further develop my claim by getting more evidence in within the 1 year appeals timeframe, or if I'm just so happy over the big rating on my knee that I don't care one way or the other about the PTSD because I am going to play out the knee for IU.

The requirement for an NOD is for the veteran to state what they DISAGREE with and this form only lists what you agree with leaving the rest entirely up to interpretation. Given there are other possiblities than disagreeing with a rating it would be inefficient for the VA to assum that if you don't agree then by default you disagree. Plus, again, agreeing with one part does not meet the requirement of disagreeing with another.

While the intent of the form may or may not be to help or mess up the veteran it is, IMHO, too ambiguous to use as an NOD because it does not specifically meet the requirement to tell the VA what you disagree with. Plus, as a veteran, there may be issues involved with your claim that you don't know about up front so you need to maintain your rights of appeal and you are signing those away when you say you agree with something that may have more to it than meets the eye. How many of us look back on our claims after a couple of years on hadit and reading the VBM and see what we missed? The VBM says to make sure and maintain your rights to appeal all issues and I suspect this form prevents that because you state you agree with their Decision.

I hope this makes sense and if it doesn't, well, grab an apple and maybe after I get some sleep I'll make more sense.

The form could be innocuous but it could also be a device to close legal remedy for claims on appeal now that vets can get attorneys to help with their claims. I wish we had a VA lawyer on the board who could chime in with their opinion as to whether or not it is helpful, benign, or dangerous to fill the form out as written.

Thanks,

TS

[Ron II]

...

I hope this makes sense and if it doesn't, well, grab an apple and maybe after I get some sleep I'll make more sense.

The form could be innocuous but it could also be a device to close legal remedy for claims on appeal now that vets can get attorneys to help with their claims. I wish we had a VA lawyer on the board who could chime in with their opinion as to whether or not it is helpful, benign, or dangerous to fill the form out as written.

Thanks,

TS

Not that it matters, but I agree with much of what you say and if there is a chance that the form could be used against a vet, then by no means should it be used. However, I still

believe that malevolent actions were not the intent of the VA; I think they were trying to help.

I still think there are many good employees at the VA as a whole.

Ron

Edited March 19, 2008 by Manitou Sprgs

[mitchell3006]

I think I'm going to have to jump in on Ron's side. This form shouldn't hurt anything. It meerly cuts out inferring anything. "Inferring" can be synonimous with "assuming". This way you nail down what the VA can close the file on. You still have to file a specific NOD about the others. Maybe it will speed the process a little...Course maybe frogs wouldn't bump their butts... <_<

Mark

[donews]

I talked with the DAV rep today at the RO in Winston-Salem, the same RO that sent this form out to me.

He said he has never seen this form before or even heard of it for that fact.

I guess it could be something the DRO himself uses not neccessarily the RO.

The DAV rep said he was going to see if he could find out from the RO about the origin of the form as his interest was peaked when I described it to him.

He didn't think it was meant as a trap type form either, so he is with some of you on that thought process.

I told him what I put on it just to be on the safe side and he said it never hurts to play the cautious note when dealing with the VA.

It's nuts, dealing with the VA almost has me running around freakin paranoid. I feel like I have to be suspicious of every call and or letter from the VA.

I hear to many horror stories where a vet was given the "soap without the rope" because of some form or phone call or soemone twisting their words and such.

Ok im done rambling on now.

[tssnave]

Manitou,

I live less than 2 hours from our state's VARO so in a sense, the folks that work there are my neighbors and I agree with you. For the most part they are just like the rest of us living and trying to take care of our families. I understand they are overworked which can lead to stress and hasty decisions.

My concern is not that the individual VA employee is malveolent (though I do wish they would take the time to read all the evidence and apply their regs properly) but it is that the VA management is trying to implement something that will hinder the veteran if they get down the road to court. This is a paper process for us but we forget that it is actually a legal proces and we are not lawyers but the VA sure has lawyers on their side and squash the unrepresented veteran at the court level (unrepresented vets lose way more often at court than ones who lawyer up at that point).

I wish Berta would fax this form to some of her lawyer buddies and ask them what they think. Berta? What say ye? Will you send this form along to the lawyers at the VBM or NOVA and let us know what they say?

Thanks,

TS

Edited March 20, 2008 by tssnave

[Ron II]

Manitou,

I live less than 2 hours from our state's VARO so in a sense, the folks that work there are my neighbors and I agree with you. For the most part they are just like the rest of us living and trying to take care of our families. I understand they are overworked which can lead to stress and hasty decisions.

My concern is not that the individual VA employee is malveolent (though I do wish they would take the time to read all the evidence and apply their regs properly) but it is that the VA management is trying to implement something that will hinder the veteran if they get down the road to court. This is a paper process for us but we forget that it is actually a legal proces and we are not lawyers but the VA sure has lawyers on their side and squash the unrepresented veteran at the court level (unrepresented vets lose way more often at court than ones who lawyer up at that point).

I wish Berta would fax this form to some of her lawyer buddies and ask them what they think. Berta? What say ye? Will you send this form along to the lawyers at the VBM or NOVA and let us know what they say?

Thanks,

TS

Very good...I agree; thanks. <_<

Ron