What Can You Attach To A Cue?

[Angela]

I just sent in my CUE but I included medical explanations from sites online. Will that information be considered NEW? It only explains the medial jargon used in my records. I didn't include any new exams or anything like that.

I also included some BVA decisions that also explained the medical jargon. Will they even look at those?

Angela

[Angela]

Berta,

My SO says that the VARO (Houston TX) won't even talk to him at all.

There is no need at all for you to apologize! I'M sorry. I didn't explain nearly well enough in my original narrative. I certainly didn't mean to snap at YOU! You've been the single most helpful and encouraging person I've dealt with during this entire process. Your answers to people with CUE questions have pointed me in the right direction time after time and I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am. I've just heard so many times that CUE is "legal" that its making me a little crazy!

If you look at DC 7332 you'll see that rating criteria for 0 - 60 percent are listed in terms of incontinence (which doctors do discuss in records of exams) but the criteria for the 100 percent rating states only "complete loss of sphincter control". Doctors never state this and if you try to look it up in any medical journal you come up with nothing. The only time this term is used is by the VA in relation to this DC. So they've stacked the deck against any veteran being rated appropriately for this disability.

When my original claim was decided I didn't know this and just assumed since the required statement didn't appear in my records I must not be nearly as bad off as some others, even though my doctors had been recommending ostomy. Only after reviewing BVA decisions did I discover that my records showed (sometimes EXACTLY) the same information as other vets who received 100 percent.

While reviewing BVA decisions I found that the VA has interpreted the rating criteria for 100 percent in several different (and in many cases diametrically opposed) ways due to the way it is written and because doctors don't use the language that the VA has perscribed. So, I tried to find out what the rules were for ambiguous rating criteria. So far I haven't found any statute that addresses this issue BUT... In Brown v. Gardner, (1994), the Supreme Court held that if a statute is ambiguous, any interpretive doubt is to be resolved in the veteran's favor. I will be pointing this out in my appeal if my CUE fails.

Let me ask you though... Now that they've received my CUE claim, they've scheduled me for a new examination. This doesn't seem right to me. Under their own rules they can't consider any evidence from a new exam when deciding my case, right? So, why the exam?

Should I refuse to go? or would that mean they'd just drop my rating to "0"? I don't want to give them an excuse to say it's a "Reopened" claim, and that's what it seems like they're setting me up for.

Your thoughts?

[Guest Berta]

Angela -I feel your CUE claim is excellent-

Why the exam? I sure dont know----maybe to see if the condition is still current and at 100%--

The CUE should resolve the past issue-

The exam could certainly set up a current 100%SC basis-I dont see this as a bad sign-

"Supreme Court held that if a statute is ambiguous, any interpretive doubt is to be resolved in the veteran's favor. I will be pointing this out in my appeal if my CUE fails" GREAT!

And I hope you have saved those BVA decisions or made a list of them?

Even though the VARO doesn't have to adhere to them, they have shown you the logic that I hope VARO will give to your claim.

I sure feel that no vet should miss a C & P exam -the VA would certainly try to drop their comp if they do that----

Angela you have done some great leg work here and you sure dont owe me an apology- sometimes I get a little abrupt myself----

and the legal ramifications of a CUE- it does all sound a little intimidating but your CUE seemed to fully satisfy CUE criteria-and you used their legalise in the best way you could-against their past decision-and

THEY will be intimidated.

CUE claims show the VA we aren't buying anymore-what they might have tried to sell us in a past unappealed decision.

They should be called KIP claims-Knowledge is Power caims because they show a veteran

has studied enough VA law to challenge them.

I have 2 CUES filed. I just love them. Glad to hear from you here Angela. Berta

OH PS "My SO says that the VARO (Houston TX) won't even talk to him at all. "

I just bust out laughing at this-

If he is like two or three SOs I had in the past that might be a very good sign. Otherwise he might screw up the CUE claim.

Edited February 1, 2006 by Berta