Selection Of A Lawyer

[rthomass]

I feel compelled to warn all my fellow Veterans to be very selective in who they have represent them before the Department of Veteran Affairs.

I have as some of you know been envolved in an Agent Orange case for over 41 months now, for the bean counters it works out to 14, 600 days or 350,400 hours!

Once the lawyer I selected got my case remanded from the CAVC to the BVA and had me sign a paper in order for her to further represent me. I had precious few contacts with her to the point she seldom took my calls or acknowledged my paperwork. I was basicaly on my own. I developed my own case, did my own research, and pleaded my case without benefit of effective counsel.

I finally dismissed this lawyer and her firm and I am fervently getting another Lawyer up to speed as the local Regional Office refuses to render a final decision and insists on issuing an SSOC and returning the remanded claim back to the BVA for a decision; even though the local RO was given the option by the BVA to render a decision.

I tell you this as my brothers and sisters, we have only our selfs and each other....no one ...not he VA, Not the BVA...or even the CAVC is going to help you. It is your claim, you must be your own advocate, you must be agreesive, ruthless, cunning and even wallow in the gutter with the Veterans Administration.

A lawyer is a resource, a tool......but ultimately as President Truman said "The Buck Stops Here".

That firm I am talking about is Liberman & Mark, PLLC of Washington D.C. I absolutely do not recommend them. I am not trying to slander these lawyers but to warn you there are lawyers out there that are not looking out for your best interest. After the rmmand they have the Veteran sign a 20% agreement to futher represent the Vetrean at The RO level and hope they luck out by sheer number of Veterans Claims they have...for a few to bingo with them exerting as little effort as possible on the claims........a nice racket if I do say so.

Randall

Edited April 3, 2008 by rthomass

[broncovet]

Berta

Yes, I thought attorney fees were set at a maximum of 20%, so it is not clear how some can charge more. It is also not clear if they can charge the Veteran AND collect through the EAJA. Does anyone know?

[Berta]

I understand there is a EAJA offset preventing them from collecting both EAJA fee and chunk of retro-at least I think that is what this BVA case means.

Veterans have appealed legal fees they felt were too high.During that procxess the fees are not paid and the lawyer has opportunity to support the bases of their fee.

I helped a vet do this and found there is a 5 point criteria for a lawyer to be able to collect a legal fee due to a vet's successful award.In this vet's case he was at the CAVC years ago and lost and aggressively re-opened, went to BVA, then CAVC again- long story and then won at VARO level.

His lawyers wanted to bill him 20% dating back to his very first CAVC case and I printed off the docket sheet as evidence to show he was pro se at that time.

There are some interesting cases at BVA whereas the veteran challenged the attorney fees.I imagine most fees are fair- but then again-some probably arent at all.

http://www.va.gov/vetapp08/files1/0806164.txt

[allan]

The attorney I have is charging 30%.

[Pete53]

The attorney I have is charging 30%.

Your attorney may be surprised when he tries to collect from VA.

[john999]

I think the attorney should be the one to file the Form 9. If it is going to BVA the lawyer should write a brief.

[allan]

Thats alright by me. I believe It was 20 or 25% for my SSA attorney.

If it's limited to 20% than that's how the CAVC will work it out with him.

In some cases, the court can pay the fee's, can't they?