Blowing Fuse! >:(=)

[Jayg]

After the usual long wait, back in March I finally get a DRO exam. Brought a supportive IMO to the exam. The DRO was satisfied with the IMO, but wanted a C&P to establish some numbers or some such. Well, a C&P on Foot related secondary conditions wandered rough shod all over my whole claim, falsely shredding every condition claimed misquoting or omitting comments from records all the way. Then this examiner ordered a couple more exams (MRI and a repeat of a Neurologists exam which cited problems but only gave "idiopathic" as cause.

In the meantime... my DRO got transfered to another area but was supposedly still to work his cases. Now. Finally. The report ordered from March this year has just been submitted to VARO as of a few days ago. I haven't gotten my hands on the final report yet but have no doubt it will be utterly damning. I'll be surprised if I don't have to fight to hold on to what I have! forget an increase! B)

Here's the kicker. The DRO who saw me, listened to my arguments and had some input from me? Yeah, well forget it. As of yesterday I find out that my file is back with the "appeals development team."

More than a year's waiting, counting the wait for the DRO hearing, just flushed away.

RIGHT... BACK... TO... SQUARE,... BLOODY... ONE!!!

Jim Strickland told me I probably wouldn't get a decision this year. Not surpising but looks like he was right again. And without a decision of some kind, I can do nothing, nothing but wait, and wait, and wait...

I am so mad I could.... (pick one- short of suicide or committing mayhem, ain't going there. <_< )

[broncovet]

Jayq...

Each decision must list the evidence it considers when deciding your claim. Look at that and see, for example, if your IMO's are on the evidence list. If they are not on the evidence list, that means that your IMO's...even tho they were in your file, were not considered. Its called "document mishandling"...it can be anything from simply overlooking a document in a pile...or it could have been misplaced, shredded, or lost and then returned.

Check that evidence list carefully, and compare and check off each piece of evidence to make sure you were not a victim of document mishandling. It is a very, very huge problem at the VA, even when those documents were not shredded..they need only be "gone" for just a few minutes to result in a bad decision for you.

[Josephine]

How true. When my file left the BVA and back to Huntington on my evidence sheet neither of

these two doctors were mentioned.

Here are the words directly from the BVA:

It is also noted that the medical opinions in

support of the veteran's claim, physicians' opinions in 2004

(VA) and in 2008 (private), were based on review of the

entire record and examination of the veteran. The Board

finds that these two opinions which favor a grant of service

connection are premised upon an accurate picture of the

veteran's history and current condition.

I am sure that is how the Va was able to start me in 1992 with 10% and this was for 5 years

and then to 30% and then up to 100%, when in fact I should have been 100% from 1992 to

date.

Betty

[john999]

Broncovet

Could what you term "document mishandling" be the basis of a CUE? I ask because if the VA has crucial evidence in their possession that they do not consider in a decision how can the vet get due process? You know in older rating decisions the VA did not even list the evidence they used in a decision. There is no way to know what evidence was considered in a rating. Here, again, how can a vet get due process when the VA could pick and choose what evidence in the record they would use, and what evidence they would ignore? In my original claim (1973) the VA had a medical report from my doctor, and their is no way to know if they considered it or not since they never listed or referred to it in their decision. This seems like a similar and fundamental error. Document mishandling is not new. The VA has been doing it for at least 40 years. They constantly fail to consider, or lose vital evidence. I did not even get appeal rights in my original claim. You talk about your flawed rating decision and process.

[Jayg]

Ok. I hear you. Don't like it, but I hear it. A couple points though.

The writ? Ok, No arguments.

The hearing? I was given to understand those were quicker to obtain than, say, DRO hearing (6 mo min.) I wasn't expecting to get it

a. next week or any such nonsense

b. "faster than anyone else."

"How long have you been waiting for a decision on your claim?" This time?" Since March 2008. The claim was first filed in 2004 with additional elements in 2005. I had the DRO hearing 6 months ago. How long after DRO hearing do people usually get their answer?

How do I check this "evidence list" please?

"If a vet rep told me what the rep from TVC told you-I would be on them at this point to let me know exactly what I would be "happy" with and what the exact status of the decision and the cash was."

I had debated that and he had hemmed and hawed at doing it. His take was it wasn't ok to say since it was 'officially written up. I'm thinking now I want to know what they're taking away (as I have no doubt they are!

I think that brings it up to date...

I feel John is right.

I see absolutely no basis for a writ of mandamus and I sure don't think you would get a hearing faster than anyone else does and it would add more time to your claim.

If a vet rep told me what the rep from TVC told you-I would be on them at this point to let me know exactly what I would be "happy" with and what the exact status of the decision and the cash was.

And I would ask that info from someone at TVC who could actually verify this.

(I dealt with TVC in a similiar situation but not a personal claim-I am in NY-not Texas-I ended up calling the highest person I could contact at TVC to get it straightened out. (The HBP on AO presumptive list info last year that was based on erroneous information from someone TVC and when it was published many HBP AO vets thought they could get an award.)

[broncovet]

John..

Of course I am no legal expert, but I agree with you that document mis- handling all by itself is Clear, Unmistakable Error. That is, if VA regulations are so flawed that its ok for VA employees to simply throw away VEterans evidence and then deny the claim based on lack of evidence, then, well that is an out and out admission that the VA is controlled by the mafia. If you do look at cases, the VA is required to consider all the evidence, and why would that exclude Veterans evidence shredded by an unscrupulous VA employee/manager?

If I hear about a judge who decides that evidence shredded/mishandled by a VA employee/manager is somehow the Veterans fault, and rules against the VEt, I dont know about you but I am going to get signs and picket for that so called "judge" to be immediately terminated.

A few weeks ago someone on this board said something about doing a search at the BVA or CAVC using something like "document mishandling" as a keyword and came up with literaly hundreds of cases.

According to VA watchdog, 41 out of 57 Regional offices had Veterans evidence inappropriately placed in the shredder bin. The bad news is this just covers ONE DAY..when the inspectors were there. How many RO's got wind of this inspection and fixed the problem before inspectors got there? How many THOUSANDS of Veterans had evidence shredded over many years, and had their claims denied? How many of these Veteran victims are homeless, or worse, committed suicide out of economic desperation?

The problem is so widespread, and has been occuring for decades, that I am thinking practically all of the denied claims deserved to be immediately approved because the VAOIG is basically saying that most RO's violated the law by doing this. Why must the Veteran pay the penalty when the VA violates the law? According to this article, an 89 year old Veteran died while waiting on the VA to appeal his case, so he never will get his benefits, and his family wont either.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/6683477.html

[john999]

Broncovet

You know in the face of that kind of massive wrong doing by the VA all claims in the system should be granted. Since they have proven over and over that the VA cannot do their job in a fair and unbiased manner then all claims should just be granted. It may come to that since the VBA is completely broken. Think of the people like ourselves who have fought for years to win our claims. We are the tokens since there is no record of how many claims are denied or approved. The VA does not keep records on this. Can you believe that? How can their performance be judged if the basic statistics are not there to study and take apart to see results.

This is no accident. In racial discrimination cases the judge looks at the statistics on hiring to see percentages. Since the VA does not keep records of ratio of approved to denied claims they could be approving just 10% of all claims. If a company only hired 10% of minority applicants then lawyers would be all over them. We have no way of knowing. The VA is like a horse with a broken leg. Put it out of its misery and come up with a new idea. Except for employing vets the VA is an utter failure in its mission. I would not let them operate on my cat if I had a cat.