Court Rules For Veterans

[Pete53]

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfaug09/nf081409-1.htm

[BoonDoc]

By the time the Supreme Court rules on this, congress will have incorporated a remedy for the VA into some back-water legislation.

Until the VA is forced into an action I believe this decision is just more lip service.

It will serve to instill hope where none exists.

Just my opinion.

sledge

Couldn't have said it better sledge!

Oh, there will be a lot of talk, and committees, and panels on this and that, lots of busy work, Congress may throw a little more money at it,make but in the end as long as the VA is a "closed loop" the system will stay the same, and I believe that's exactly how it's designed.

I would like to see The VA compensation, pensions,etc. contracted out.

Steven

[Testvet]

This lawyer is from the same law firm that is handling the PTSD case that is now in appeal at the 9th Circuit and the panel gave the VA and the lawyers a week to reach an agreement or they probably wouldn't like what the court will impose it's also the same law firm handling my pet project http://edgewoodtestvets.org/

It seems as if this law firm has gotten it's act together when it comes to taking on the VA

[broncovet]

Did anyone see the following VA "coverup" of fraud that they got away with, cited in this case? In bold are actual statements from this case:

The Federal court stated,

"The DVA conducted an investigation that confirmed that Mr. Cushman’s medical record had been altered"

However, no action was taken by the VAOIG for this fraud:

"The Office of Inspector General opened an investigation for fraud, but closed it three weeks later as unsubstantiated, two days after receiving the DVA’s response to the complaint."

The ninth court saw it differently than the VAOIG, however:

"The Ninth Circuit also found that Mr. Cushman’s medical record had been “fraudulently altered” and remanded the claim to determine whether he was entitled to retroactive disability benefits from an earlier date. Cushman v. Soc. Sec. Admin., 175 Fed. Appx. 861, 862 (9th Cir. 2006)"

[tagandbag]

Interesting case. It seems that courts and veteran attorneys are really starting to take the VA to task, which is good. It has been a long time to get where the courts are really challenging the VA. In my opinion there is a percentage of VA employees who have a mindset, that they work for the federal goverment and have there own set of rules. Like my attorney said, he knows half dozen or so RO's and some are impressive and some are not. Weeding out the latter of the two will take time. Some of these VA employees are probably having a bitter pill to swallow, when they are called out and told to follow the rule of law and constitutional right of veterans. Hope it is a sign of better things to come.

t&b

[Berta]

This is a biggy- then again-vets might have to exercize their rights in utilizing this decision to make it stick-

Maybe the actual court decision should be attached to every 21-526 and every re-opened claim.

Darn- the new VBM has been published and is on the way---- something like this always seems to happen before their publication date-so no discussion of this in the 2009 VBM--

[Hoppy]

WOW,

I have telling a veteran that the VA has been botching his claim so bad that it would raise some fifth ammendment issues. Then I explain the fifth ammendement to the veteran. The poor veteran does not have any idea what I am talking about. Now I find out that the fifth ammendement I have been talking about has not been invloved until this recent decision. Thanks to this deciosion they made me credible again.