If You Have A Recent Decision

[broncovet]

The VA has BURIED IN THE FINE PRINT a new rule effective Dec. 9, 2009.

YOU MUST NOW FILE AN NOD WITHIN 60 DAYS.

No longer do we have a year. Go to Carlies post for details, but if you have a recent decision START YOUR NOD NOW!!! Tell Every Veteran you know!!

http://www.hadit.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33793

Thanks..Carlie..you heard it on hadit, first!

[Vync]

Our VSO's? lol

My DAV rep is on vacation until next Monday...

[broncovet]

It IS on the VA website..tho you would have to read through thousands of pages to find it, when it should be on the very front page.

I emailed Larry Scott...he couldnt even find it on the VA website when he knew what to look for..much less a poor Veteran.

Of course, VSO's are helping the VA keep this under wraps so more Veterans can be "burned" with it.

I asked Larry to publish an article about it and post it on watchdog..lots of Vets read that, and Vets that dont probably wish they did. I wish I read it years ago!

I think this is what Shinseki meant about a 21st Century VA:

"The NEW VA...burning even more Veterans with ridiculous new rules designed to take further advantage of Vets well into the next century "

Edited January 5, 2010 by broncovet

[10thFO]

Carlie, thanks for the clarification, although I will have to look up what a "contested" claim is.... To me that would be plain English, and even legalise for a claim that they denied or interpreted one way that you are in fact contesting and not agreeing too.

If your interpretation holds to be true I bet my shrink wished I would have stayed off of hadit yesterday and today, until after my appt. Although the good thing about it, after seeing her for 2.5 years, I think today is the first time she never mentioned that I didn't have PTSD. She must have finally got residency as she didn't have to go see the head guy to change my med's. So today's visit actually went pretty well for once. So I scheduled another in a couple months just to make sure she wasn't tricking me.

[carlie]

10thFO,

The definitition of those two are posted in the other thread

on this same subject.

carlie

[Wings]

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The VA can NOT ammend or change current laws and regulations in 38 Code of Federal Regulations or 38 US Code --unless and untill they have first published Notice in the Federal Register.

I have subscibed to the Federal Register tracking here http://regulations.justia.com

[Berta]

If the NOD filing period was ever proposed to be dropped to 60 days I assure you the entire vets community to include all the vet's lawyers would be in an uproar.

The VA would have to publish the proposed rule in the Federal Register allowing plenty of time for everyone to gripe about it.

It is absurd to even suggest the NOD filing period would ever be altered this way- except for contested claims- which are few and far between and the 60 days deadline is clearly stated by the VA in the initial decision.

A "contested claim" is when two individuals are fighting over the same benefits.

Say a vet has 2 wives (he forgot to divorce the first one or it was a valid common law marriage which-in some cases not all-VA would recognize) and the vet dies and both 'wives' file for DIC.

This would be a contested claim

Example at BVA:

http://www4.va.gov/vetapp97/files1/9707715.txt

“Therefore, this case

involves simultaneously contested claims because the denial of the appellant’s claim for DIC benefits was based on the fact that there is no common law marriage under Thai law, and the veteran was already married to another woman in the United States. Only one of the women will be recognized as the veteran’s spouse by the VA, and thus be entitled to DIC benefits.”

Or say the vet contested (or the lawyer) a legal fee payment – I helped a local vet with one of these claims- his lawyers wanted their fee paid from both of his CAVC claims- He was pro bono on the first CAVC case and got a remand.Their fee was $8,000. We contested that aggressively.There weren't worth more than 20 bucks in my opinion.I helped him get his award.They did nothing at all to find his evidence.We had to file NOD in 60 days as this was a contested claim.

Here is a BVA example of those types of contested claims:

http://www4.va.gov/vetapp09/files1/0900459.txt