Additional Vcaa Notice Letter Related To Recent Cavc Decision

[71M10]

Greetings all:

Current Status: NOD filed 9/07, DRO review occurring, Waiting on decision/SOC

4/29/08 I received an additional letter from VA outlining all the rating criteria for my back injury increase that is under DRO review right now. The letter explained that this additional information was provided due to a recent court decision.... enclosed was an election notice (almost twin of VCAA) asking if I wanted 30 days before VA decides my claim or whether to go ahead immediately. It also said return of the notice was not required. Mailed it out the following Monday received my return receipt indicating VA received it on the 9th of May.

I called 1-800 number to check on status of claim, person looked it up asked about letter, I indicted they should have it back, individual checks system says its not logged yet and proceeds to tell me they are about 60 days behind in just logging this information into the system.

They send a letter saying should we wait 30 days or do you want us to act without waiting? It is implied if you don’t respond they will wait 30 days. You return the letter promptly but then find out the system can't process the response to this YES/NO question in under sixty days (due to volume).

So riddle me this Batman... will my returning the form letter saying please proceed immediately lock my file for 60 days while they work on entering the response? Or will they proceed after 30 days, but still spend the resources to log the answer even after it becomes a moot point.

It’s a miracle anything gets done in VBA.

Best regards,

Tyler

[Berta]

It must be about the Vasquez Flores CAVC decision

what gets me is that I never got the VCAA election notice and my POA acted like it was no big deal so I responded with what I had-then

the VA decided I had not sent any addiional evidence because I did not response to the election notice- which I never got-because they didnt send it to me- as clearly documented on the illegal VCAA letter I did get-that it was not enclosed.

I think Vasquez Flores is one more hurry up and wait deal-

A real VCAA notice looks like they will decide the claim after 60 days- this new CAVC decision makes it look like they can do that after waiting 30 days-

when the reality is that is usually takes years if the VCAA letter doesnt tell a vet exactly what they need or if they fail to send the Election Notice.

And of course the claim stands a good chance of going to the BVA only to be remanded for a proper VCAA letter to be prepared if they didnt send a correct one the first time.

Ridiculous

[john999]

But I think you did good by telling the VA not to wait but to go ahead and rate you.

If all your evidence is in you want them to not find excuses to put your file back in the pile and forget about it. They may anyway but at least you are not helping them to delay you. If you don't get an election form I think the VA just does nothing.

[Berta]

"If you don't get an election form I think the VA just does nothing."

Thst is the main reason my claim has been at the Buffalo VARO for over 5 years.

And the reason I got a remand in weeks and not years from the BVA.

It is prejudicial error to fail to send the VCAA Election form as well as a generic VCAA letter.

Since my POA inisisted at the time that my VCAA letter was legal, and even the director of NYSDVA did too-

that was one of my charges against them in my OGC complaint.He (former director) insisted in writing that my VCAA letter was legal but the BVA knew it wasnt.

It seems that nothing triggers the VA to really work on a claim but for the signed and returned VCAA Election Notice.

I called Ron Abrams NVLSP about this and he said I sure took the right steps to get that remand fast-

but I pointed out that this is what vet reps should be doing to prevent the backlog at the BVA due to remands over the VCAA and my POA refused to help me get it.

How many vets think they did get a legal VCAA letter only to find that the VA will not read their evidence and send them to the BVA-where afer over a year or more the BVA will remand the claim back to the RO-

Vets have died waiting for claims that were set up for VCAA remands-all because the VARO did not take the time to send them a legal VCAA letter in the first place.

In 2000 the VCAA was enacted-and was supposed to be our most important Duty to Assist Right.

The VA turned it into a scam and caused the backlog by failing to be compliant with the VCAA in thousands of veterans cases-

and their vet reps just stood by and allowed it to occur.

The reason my POA illegally revoked their POA with me is that after trying to get me to believe my VCAA letter was legal-for over 4 years at that point-

a NYSDVA rep actually looked at what I got as a VCAA letter-in their file on me- and immediatly agreed with me.

When I raised that point in response to VA on a legal VCAA letter I got on a different claim-

some dope at NYSDVA saw my response and immediatly revoked my POA.

There will be a status soon from the OGC on all that.

OGC already told me that revocation was illegal.

As long as POAs can fail to question an illegal VCAA notice (and NVLSP says they should right away)

claims will be in endless limbo and th backlog will continue to grow.