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?

[Berta]

"is it possible to file another tort claim for mishandeling this whole thing and now possibly losing my file? "

I filed a tort last year for property destruction-I claimed a value at 4,500-there has to be a value to a tort-

I got the figure from the IMOs I had ignored by VA and my mailing fees for 4 years of evidence they never acknowledged-

I called the Regional COunsel as to why I was filing this-

not for the money at all but to get those clowns to read my costly IMOs- of course he would not settle it- and gave me time to file in Federal Court-

But by then the missing stuff had shown up in my C file-

(some of it)

I think veterans would have basis for class action suit against VA if their evidence was destroyed and caused them to loose compensation.

I am sure the legal community is considering that.

If I hear anything from VCS -whose lawyers started the class action in San Francisco-

I sure will let everyone know.

The way I see it- if any of you sent them evidence-and they lost, destroyed or misplaced it (which you can prove if it wasnt acknowledged on your SOC and if you have proof of mailing)-

evidence that was supportive to and critical to your claim- then I would think this is basis for class action law suit against VA.

And I sure will share that thought with some veteran's lawyers I know.

[john999]

I know one thing and that is you don't want your file going from VARO to VARO for any reason. As far as time limits for hearings I would not transfer my claim just to get a quicker hearing. Every time your claim leaves the VARO there is the possiblility of it being lost. Whatever your VARO or VSO tells you I would take it with a grain of salt. If you live close to your VARO that is the best situation. You want your claim file and your VARO close to you so you can more easily check it.

[Steppenwolf]

The way I see it- if any of you sent them evidence-and they lost, destroyed or misplaced it (which you can prove if it wasnt acknowledged on your SOC and if you have proof of mailing)-

evidence that was supportive to and critical to your claim- then I would think this is basis for class action law suit against VA.

And I sure will share that thought with some veteran's lawyers I know.

My service officer told me that there is a record of every time a case/record is looked at. He told me the name for it but i don't recall what it is. i asked him for a copy of it and he wanted to know why i wanted it. Each time i asked for it i was given a story...if such a record does exist that should prove one thing if not more: the date, time, person, and place where it was looked at. My guess would be this: if the case/records are missing that record of who when and where will also disappear shortly thereafter.

Made another call last week to find out where it is and once again i got no call back.

[Steppenwolf]

I know one thing and that is you don't want your file going from VARO to VARO for any reason. As far as time limits for hearings I would not transfer my claim just to get a quicker hearing. Every time your claim leaves the VARO there is the possiblility of it being lost. Whatever your VARO or VSO tells you I would take it with a grain of salt. If you live close to your VARO that is the best situation. You want your claim file and your VARO close to you so you can more easily check it.

It doesn't seem that i have a say anymore. The request to move it north thurned out at first to be a good choice. Then it got lost and it's like deja vu all over again.