A Law Against "remand"

[Steppenwolf]

My appearance before a travel board judge left both, my POA and myself with the impression that for maybe the first time the evidence in my case was heard and would be considered; instead she remanded it back to the BVA. As always with the VA some off the wall crap happened and my records or case or who knows what word to put on it is MIA.

[That fact i'll discuss in a separate post besides this REMAND post because it's one more chapter in the book of unbelievable stories about the VA.]

But here is what i heard from two different sources: a law is either about to be passed or one that has already been proposed to "put an end to this remand BS". One of the people who told me that is a service officer, the other is a congressman's aide. Both said basically the same thing: " a travel board judge has the power to make the decision. Remanding only passes the buck, slows things down, ties things up and puts the decision back into the hands of someone with less authority and who has already denied the claim." And if i am not mistaking invalidates any new evidence so they can hammer more nails into your cross with the " new and material evidence rule "

Has anyone heard about this and or have more specific news about it? Someone needs to propose the law ( bill? ) i would like to know who in our gov is truly an advocate for veterans rights and benefits. There doesn't seem to be many.

Is it easily known how many of our elected officials have served?

[jbasser]

The board remands claims back to the Regional office or the AMC. Thatis the BVA's way of adding time to your claim. They do too many of them.

You can wait for several years to have it corrected.

J

[Berta]

I havent heard this yet and am very interested-

Congressman Filner and two state Senators have an amendment I proposed to the VCAA. It would Definitely stop the NEED for thousands of remands.

I told them exactly why-

and all one has to do is search at the BVA web site to see what I mean-

VCAA has defied the VCAA in thousands of claims.

Either the vet or widow didnt know exactly what the VCAA letter was supposed to say (and got a generic one)

or they had a lazy vet rep (the reps get a copy of the VCAA for every claimant they have POA on)

and in my case the rep condoned the illegal letter I got and even his Director did.

This defiance of our ultimate Duty to Assist regulation has allowed the VA to put thousands of claims into limbo land-

if the vet does appeal to the BVA and the VCAA was prejudicial to the vet -then as you can see at the BVA web site itself- the claim is remanded due to the VCAA violation-

at that point often the evidence isnt even address because the VCAA letter was so prejudicial.

VA has turned the VCAA into a scam-I told this directly to COngressman Filner myself-by phone-and on the air-

there is no other word for it-

I sure have been griping a lot about the Remand situation-(but not in asking for the type of info you have gotten)-

to Congess and maybe someone listened.

If a vet or widow gets a proper VCAA letter and election notice-they know exactly what the VA says they need to award.

If all vets and widows got them- even a mail clerk with common sense at the VA could make a proper claims decision.

It isnt rocket science to properly adjudicate a claim-the VCAA was supposed to make it easy and timely.

Instead VCAA has been manipulated by the VAs with help from lazy SOs to make sure many vets will die before their claim is resolved.

BVA knows it , The BVA Chairman mentions it in his annual BVA reports to COngress, the H and S VACs know it- and vet reps know it.

VCAA has become the ultimate SCAM to vets and widows and

someone has to demand that the RO's defiance of the VCAA must change.

I am most anxious to hear any more on what you mentioned.

It would be great as long as those shredders are removed from the ROs.

Men and women- you can use the latest fiasco as an issue to raise with VA if they have ignored your evidence.

I am definitely raising this point because my SMC CUE claims were denied solely due to the VA claiming that my husband never filed a Section 1151 claim himself.

The VA said to him that his claim was in the rating board in April and then Oct 14,too over a decade ago- four hours before he died and it was in the copy of my C file I got some years ago.

That tells me when they got my CUE claims-they removed it or destroyed it.I am sending them the latest news in support of the fact that they had this claim from the veteran himself for over ten years in the C file and

they better find it now.

[Pete53]

Most Claims at BVA or either remanded or denied. There are precious few grants without the remand but oftentimes there are instructions to the AMC or the VARO when the claim is remanded.

I have heard nothing about no more remands but although delayed a remand is a good thing cause not many claims are ever granted at CVA.

[ammawa]

you all are right about the AMC... it's just a loading tank for claims to lay inorder for the BVA to stall you claim. Mine has been in there almost 2 years.

[john999]

Those remands add potential years to a claim. I had a remand due to an inadequate C&P. It took one year to get another C&P and that one was also a dud. It took another year to get a decent rating plus two more IMO's. Then there was aother year to get TDIU after being unemployed for a year.

[Steppenwolf]

i said that i would post this elsewhere and maybe i should but if i outline what happened here maybe someone can tell me if a seperate post needs to be created to find an answer to this question.

Quick back ground: My home VARO was St Pete FL. My home where i vote is CT. After a DRO hearing and denial in 04 i asked for a travel board hearing. Was told at some point that it wouldn't be heard until Oct 08. i called the DAV in CT and was told that the wait there was not long so in 06 i asked for my records to be transfered to CT. In sort order i was given a hearing date of June 06. As mentioned the hearing seem to go very well. My DAV service officer who was in the hearing with me was so optomistic after the hearing that he actually said you'll get 60-70%, then we will go for a full 100%. By august i got the remand notice. Disappointed my SO said after reading it that it wasn't so bad, explained why, and told me that a new decision would be made shortly. i asked " how long is shortly " he said with-in a year.

In Oct of 06 my house burned down. My SO put in a request to expidite a decision do to hardship circumstances. That request was denied by the same judge that heard my case.

My life changed in ways i would never have imagined after the fire. The ER supervisor at the VA med center in CT asked me to leave without triaging me when i went there after the fire for help. When i asked why she accused me of "drug shopping". Although a friend gave me a place to stay i was quickly falling into homelessness.

Everytime i called my SO he would say that the decison would be coming soon. Everytime i asked about it at another VA or would call the DAV and they would ask for my C number they would say that my claim was in FL. i would call FL and they would say that it's in CT. i would call CT and my SO would tell me to stop calling that he knew and i should know that my file was in CT. In the summer of 2008 i get a letter from the VA in CT that if i had any new evidence that i had 60 days to get it to them. In Sept 08 i asked the DAV in NC where i now reside about my case. They tell me it is in FL. i tell them that it always says that but that it is really in CT. An arguement follows. They call FL and sure enough my case is in FL. i call my SO in CT and tell him my case is in FL and he starts in on me again and it's a fight to tell him that i called FL and it's there. He calls FL and says that he doesn't know why it's there but i now have to write a letter saying that my home is in CT. i call my congessman he tells me i need a letter from the town saying that i'm a res of CT. He write a letter requesting that my file be sent back to CT. i hear nothing from anyone. i call FL and it's still there. Sorry, i do not understand the mumbo jumbo excuses they give for why it hasn't been sent back. i'm told they are done with it in FL and that it will be sent back. Now no one seems to know where it is. My SO blames me for calling so many places to try and find it.

If there was a glimmer of hope that the new evidence would be considered i think those hopes have been dashed.

Although i have a tort claim filed against the VA for non-treatment and consequnces resulting from the non-treatment; is it possible to file another tort claim for mishandeling this whole thing and now possibly losing my file?