Berta, Vicki , Morgan Please Your Further Advice

[jlshand]

Hi Berta, Vicki, Morgan

I'd like to ask your opinion about the following. In my ever growing more detailed supplemental which I have described earlier, I've included three citations from the BVA to try and help establish a relationship between DM!! CAD And AFIB.

Vicki was kind enuf to publish the VA's guideline on evaluating claims and it ,as you undoubtedly know, doesn't give credence to BVA citations as precedent setting tools.

Should I in your opinion delete these from my write up as being immaterial and possibly getting in the way of some rater reading thru the rest of the letter?They come pretty early in the write up.

You know, as in " this guy is using references to stuff I don't have to use to evaluate so he must be full of S&*T and I dont have to bother with the rest of this report"

Guess I'm getting gunshy but would like your opinion.

Thanks

[vaf]

I have a tendency to overload a claim, but that's mostly because I don't want to have any self-doubt once I hand the package to the guy at the counter at the Post Office. I reference the decisions, and include the entire decision in my claim as an attachment. I highlight the relevant parts of the decision.

Although it's not precedent setting, they have to justify why the previous decision doesn't apply to you.

Also, you'll notice in their decisions, at the Board level anyway, that previous cases are cited as precendent.

As I mentioned previously, I have no faith in the VARO and assume that everything is on its way to the Board, and eventually to the Court, anyway. Might as well frontload your ammunition.

[jlshand]

Ok Vicki,

Never noticed that they themselves reference BVA cases.....Ummmm Interesting! Isnt it an obscene that we have to play these games in a non-adversarial relationship?

Did the citation I published do you any good?

[Guest Berta]

In my opinion- hit them with the medical evidence first, referring to it specifically -and you can also attach copies of what you are referring to from your SMRs or meds recs, etc.

Highlight anything at all that any doctor has said that supports your claim-

dont overlook any medical entries at all. If you have gotten past SOCs on resolved issues- look them over too-they might have something that meant nothing at the time but is probative now.

I consider any CAVC , or OCG pres op or BVA decisions as some icing on the cake- but also do not overlook any good medical abstracts or studies on the net to support the medical evidence you have.

Stuff from Merck (they use that themselves), Johns Hopkins Med , the ADA, or American Heart Assoc.-

any good references that support your claim.

Still they will want evidence medically specific to your disability. Have you asked your doctor to render an opinion that would help you? I also would remind them that the Benefit of Reasonable Doubt is fully applicable to your claim.(38 CFR 3.102)

[vaf]

Yes, the citation helped a lot, I'm including it with a specific question as to why the same logic was not applied to our claim. Thanks!

[Angela]

Can you provide a link to any BVA decisions you've found that reference previous BVA decisions or give me some specific language I can search on to find them?

Thanks!

Angela

[vaf]

Try this one...

http://www.va.gov/vetapp05/files5/0529032.txt

Under "Reasons and Bases" - - you have to dig through it, but the references are there.

We know about this one up close and personal...