Lets Play Veteran Lawyer With Me

[Mr cue]

i am have a problem find cases or precedents. where a claim was won and then there was a cue and then there found that the orginal claim was still open and unadjudcated. so the effective date where the claim was won is now the original claim date. and its the same issue from the orginal claim. so lets see i got to have fun with this or i be just be sitting here upset with va games as most are. so lets have fun.

[akwidow]

In the BVA decision granting my DIC, it also mentions a 1969 claim my late husband made for injuries from Vietnam. They mention the fact that the claim appears to be unajudicated...and are sending it back to the RO for consideration.

I had never heard of this claim, and will pursue it.

Here is a good one though. At the time of the 1969 claim, my vet was living in Brooklyn, and the RO for him then is I don't know which. His RO at time of death was Anchorage. Anybody got any clues where the old 1969 claim will end up?

[LarryJ]

In the BVA decision granting my DIC, it also mentions a 1969 claim my late husband made for injuries from Vietnam. They mention the fact that the claim appears to be unajudicated...and are sending it back to the RO for consideration.

I had never heard of this claim, and will pursue it.

Here is a good one though. At the time of the 1969 claim, my vet was living in Brooklyn, and the RO for him then is I don't know which. His RO at time of death was Anchorage. Anybody got any clues where the old 1969 claim will end up?

Send in an IRIS. Ask where it was filed and which Regional Office now has the claim.

[akwidow]

thanks, Larry - will do.

[LarryJ]

thanks, Larry - will do.

By-the-way, the VA Regional Office servicing Brooklyn would be:

Department of Veterans Affairs;New York Regional Office;245 West Houston Street;New York NY 10014

(Not very far from Katz's Deli, which incidentally is where Meg Ryan had her orgasm in the movie "When Harry Met Sally".)

Edited January 19, 2010 by LarryJ

[Berta]

Carlie mentioned:

"Being that he is 96 now,and issues are remanded, I hope if he dies before this claim is settled, a relative can step in on his pending claims issues."

In all claims except for AO claims- only a surviving spouse can -in this case- be eligible for substitution as the claimant.(deaths after Oct 2008)

I bet the VA saves plenty of cash when a veteran dies without a surviving spouse.

AO claims- I need to stress this point in the AO forum.

AO Cash HAS TO BE PAID PUT- (Nehmer V Veterans Administration)

For the 7 years this Feb VA had my AO claim, along with my evidence I would add the name and address of my lawyer who handled my will and gave them contact info for my next of kin in the event I died before my AO claim was awarded.

I knew the evidence I had was solid for an award under Nehmer.

As you all know (because I really griped about this fiasco here) my 2 award letters from the VARO never mentioned any cash at all they owed me and I had to go over the RO heads on that.They cued the letters when I asked them too-= but only by preparing an award letter that was worse than the first one I got containing errors in VA case law that were overwhelmingly stupid.

In Nov I got a possible diagnosis of what could have been a very serious life threatening condition-of course I got countless medical tests -CT etc etc-and Thank God it was a treatable condition with symptoms that could suggest 2 other life threateneing ones- it was a very stressful month-

but I pulled out and updated my death file (which we have discussed here that all vets and widows should have) and got my business in order-until this diagnosis was ruled out-whew!

I mention this as I had to get tough with the VA on my money-my daughter- who will handle my estate has Federal classified job-she helped some vets with their claims and to get some medals they didnt have on their DD 214s but now a days she has no time at all to deal with the VA.

I had to attempt to resolve my issues before I got on ice so she wouldnt have to deal with them.They screwed up her very first claim but they fixed that in 3 weeks.

And again I made sure VA had all of my legal and estate contact info in any correspondence I sent to them.As it is my claim is in authorization waiting for the RC to do something so the check is almost in the mail but my long point here is-

Nehmer stipulates that any retro due a deceased veteran under AO regs will be paid to someone- and the VA MUST seek their next of kin-in the legal order of succession for next of kin or by putting the money into any Estate account that the vet's death has generated.

I have discussed Nehmer countless times with NVLSP lawyers and I sure believe (and mentioned this to them that VA is NOT seeking next of kin Nehmer beneficiaries at all.

They broke the Nehmer court order countless times in the past and they cant even handle many new Nehmer claims they get as it is.

When I re opened my AO Nehmer claim in 2003 my POA rep said "Nehmer who?"

He gets his VA comp under Nehmer and didnt even know what I was talking about.AO vets and widows need to read the Nehmer COurt Order so that VA cannot attempt to defy it like they did to me.

Carlie raised a good point- the VA should seek next of kin for ALL retro payments- but they will never do that-it would take a brand new reg -that will never happen.

They only do it now because they are forced too by the Nehmer COurt Order for AO retro- and they dont even do that right.

I took extraordinary steps in Nov to get my claim resolved only because I didnt think had much time left on this earth-

I learned a LOT by doing that which might be helpful eventually to someone here in similiar situation-AO retro is supposed to be sent to a special division-the RO failed to do that in my case-I didnt know the actual internal procedure until late November.

As it is however - I was found to be in exceptionally good health but the stress of a possibly very serious disease sure got me to get on them good.What I learned from that was priceless for any AO vet or widow who VA is attempting not to pay under Nehmer.

AO awards could easily become 6 figure amounts due to the unusual EED ramifications of Nehmer-thus prime reason for ROs to ignore this court order every way they can in AO awards.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Berta

[Berta]

yulookin

this link has the Fast Letter that now prohibits VA from delaying payment of partial grants-

http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nfjan10/nf011110-3.htm

You might get a check any day now-on the award you got - but if not- a copy of this Fast letter sent by you to the RO might get them moving on your award.

I discuss delays in payments with our SVR producer from time to time- we cant figure out where the money goes-

(I would have it invested in an overseas bank )of course VA doesnt do that.)

during these delays or what the advantage could possibly be to the RO to hold onto any established award payments.

Once an award is authorized the claim goes to Finance and they used to be so fast that the check would come days before the formal award did.

Since the VA had to write up a Fast letter and send it to all VAROs- this tells me these delays in payments were becoming SOP at VAROs and not just a few isolated cases.

Larry's point at Watchdog on the 120 days is excellent-

how do you appeal an award and why should you have to appeal because they didnt send the money right away.