Court Order To Expedite A Claim?

[Hoppy]

Pete, and others,

This subject came up under another thread. However, I started a new topic to deal with this. I am interested in the possibility of a court order or congressional order to expedite a claim. Is this a real possibility???

I have been researching a problem that involves RO's routinely disregarding adjudication procedures that were defined by a federal circuit court review of existing law. The result of the RO's disregard of this procedure is that the RO fails to schedule a C&P exam that would have been scheduled if the RO properly applied the federal circuit courts defined procedures. As a result the claims are routinely denied without the benefit of a C&P. Not only did the RO ignore the federal court in the case I am working on it appears that the BVA is remanding way to many of these determinations. I am of the opinion that this ongoing failure needs to be investigated as a willful disregard for the procedures defined by the court.

This involves an erronous preadjudication determination that a new claim is an attempt to open a previously denied and closed claim. Even tough the veteran submitted a letter explaining this was a new claim the RO adjudicated the claim under the laws applicable to a previously closed claim. The veteran was not provided any explanation of how this determination was made. There was no reference to applicable laws. The veteran recieved a letter explaining that because his claim was previously closed the VA would not schedule any exams.

The veteran is put in a position to obtain an opinion outside the C&P process. I have received price quotes of up to $4,000.00 for a C&P for the claim I am working on.

I have some connections and was able to get the attention of a VA C&P examiner who works at a local VA hospital. The examiner I found has taken an interest in the claim and has written a very good opinion in favor of service connection. What is really good is that in the first paragraph the examiner provides a complete history of their qualifications including the fact that they have performed C&P exams for over ten years.

I am upset that the case was denied based on a report we got from a primary care doctor. Now that we have the new report I want the claim re-adjudicated on the same time line that it would have been adjudicated had the RO obtained the C&P. I am not interested in going through the appeal process because the RO decided to ignore the instructions of a federal court. The claim was not properly processed. I am thinking of contacting the federal court and the congress and advising them that the RO's are ignoring the procedure defined by the federal court.

Edited September 19, 2009 by Hoppy

[Pete53]

All I can say is "Writ of Mandamus"

On second thought ask for a Hearing at RO. That is the way I got 100% and my claim was sitting at the BVA when I did it. Everyone told me I was a fool. The dumb RO thought that my claim had been remanded. This is personal experience not an opinion

[john999]

Yes, I think a personal hearing might get it moving. You at least get the chance to explain your position to a human being. I think getting things fixed at the lowest possible level is best inside the Beast (VA). Congress and the courts have no idea what is going on inside the VA. Since none of them are disabled vets they probably can't conceive of how screwed up things are at the VA.