Do Attorneys Speed Up Claims Process?

[hurryupnwait]

This is from a post made on another forum. I have an attorney and it seems that my claim with him is following this pattern.

"To get back to the original question as to whether getting an attorney will speed up the claims process, I will say that in most cases, yes it does. Let me explain.

Current laws and regulations prohibit an attorney from charging more than a very nominal fee unless the claim for benefits is in appellate status. What this means is that if your claim is granted on the first go round your lawyer has essentially represented you for free. Let's just say that lawyers don't like to represent you for free.

So what many, if not most, lawyers do is to try to get the matter under appeal. They want the Regional Office to render a decision as quickly as possible so they do everything they can to encourage a quick decision even if all of the evidence is not of record. They don't want your claim granted at this point, they want it denied so they will have something to disagree with which let's them go "on the clock" as they say. Now they can start running a tab on you. That's why many lawyers start trying to waive all of your rights from the beginning in an effort to coax a quick decision out of VA. This is what I meant when I said that a lawyer will often speed up the claims process, but it isn't a speeding up that is to your advantage.

It's after the lawyer get's a Notice of Disagreement filed that they start dragging out the process. At this point they are essentially running up their bill. They tend to do very little actual work but they do send a litany of form letters to VA appearing to be claiming just about every benefit VA has to offer in all manner of legalese language. Not because they actually think you are entitled to any of this (heck, most don't have any idea one way or the other), but they hope to so bamboozle the non-legal claims processors at VA to the point that somewhere along the way they won't dot an i or cross a t or otherwise commit some due process error. At this point they will more often than not again waive your rights and demand that your claim be sent to BVA without any further action at the Regional Office.

So why do they do this? Two reasons.

First, should BVA actually grant your appeal they will get a cut out of your backpay. By this time there is usually a nice little bit of retroactive pay built up. Unfortunately in more cases than not your claim would have been granted anyway even without the lawyer, but this way the lawyer gets to share in your good fortune.

Second, even if your claim is not granted, if the lawyer has managed to accomplish his earlier goal of getting the Regional Office to miss something or otherwise make some mistake that results in BVA remanding the appeal to correct this mistake, the lawyer can collect a fee directly from the government under the Equal Access to Justice Act. This means that he collects whether you ever do or not. Unfortunately many of these remands by BVA are for shortcomings that were manipulated into happening by the actions of the lawyer.

In conclusion, until you have exhausted the claims process within VA itself and are ready to appeal a BVA decision to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claim, you should stay away from lawyers. A much better bet is to find a good VSO who knows the VA claims process and who isn't trying to earn a fee off of you, and let that person help you "

Any comments?

Paul

Edited March 29, 2009 by hurryupnwait

[oldman273]

I had the chance to use the Sevices of a group of Lawyers who work for Us vets as they do probono work from cases that in their opinion the VA did not do their job once it goes through the last court which I hope I get his right the BVA? I know this was the final court that it went to. I was contacted by this group I thought it was an Idenity scam but I was assured it was legit and the way they tore into the VA case I am thinking that my case will at least be brought back to be looked at again. I had my claim looked at and now I am wondering if I can file a cue based on what they brought up? Berta if you want to see this case shoot me an E-mail i will gladly shoot it to you to look at I am not doing this to advertise I just wanted your thoughts on what they did for me for free no fees just good work on their part. Have good day and this is the first time I used a Laywer on anything I ever had with the VA. Adios and have a good day..

[Capt.]

Hello ,,,,,, I have been there and done that....... Had 4 VSO's messing around with my claims. One was good but too overworked and I could not see him enough. The other just did not know what he was doing and was overworked. Another one was good and he and I are still friends though he is retired and I was his last case. I now have a lawyer that is very good. I would never ever ever take a vso when you can get a lawyer.A lawyer will take your claim after looking at it and deciding if it has chance of succeding. Obviously the lawyer is not wanting to take a case claim , put his or her work into it and then get a loss for her/him, and the Vet. I know that the VARO can only do so much to mess with the Vet , and there will come a time when they must stand tall and answer it. Especially when the BVA starts looking at it too. Rules and laws with a lawyer , come out better than a VSO trying it. In almost all cases. I am waiting now at the Appeals process and lets see how it goes. I hope all is well and wish you well with your claim. God Bless, and REMEMBER no matter what you do.....NEVER GIVE UP......C.C.

[entropent]

IMHO, there should never be a case where an attorney is needed. There is enough info and support on this site to permit the vet to prosecute his own claim. All a lawyer does is take a cut of your back pay. Do a little digging around in the regulations, and you can get a feel for the system. It's not rocket science. Lawyers always slow down the process, as do Congressionals.

[Pete53]

It should work that way but it does not. I think that Lawyers make the VA focus more and do their job. 20% is not that big a bite in my opinion.

[gdsnide]

It should work that way but it does not. I think that Lawyers make the VA focus more and do their job. 20% is not that big a bite in my opinion.

Pete, I tried for 7 years to get comped all to no avail. Then I got a Lawyer & within (Maybe not this long) I was 100% T & P

GARY

This was before I found hadit. Last claim I filed sailed right thru th RO but my Mentor Berta has taught me a lot about the VA

GARY

[john999]

If everybody played by the rulebook we would not need jails and judges and lawyers, but we do need them.