*** Wings ***

[carlie]

Wings,

We need our research guru for this one.

Please check it out if your available and feel inclined.

I know you can dig deep.

Thanks,

carlie

http://www.hadit.com/forums/index.php?show...c=34145&hl=

[Wings]

Wings,

We need our research guru for this one.

Please check it out if your available and feel inclined.

I know you can dig deep.

Thanks,

carlie

http://www.hadit.com/forums/index.php?show...c=34145&hl=

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Try this guy.

Grey, Billie J. Law Librarian

Board of Veterans Appeals

810 Vermont Ave, NW (01C1)

Washington, DC 20420

Phone: 202-461-8182

Fax: 202-565-6372

Email: billie.grey@va.gov

[Wings]

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This is the html version of the file http://www.aallnet.org/sis/sccll/docs/aallhandout.doc.

Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

Quick and Dirty Internet Guide for Veterans Law

By Bernard J. Sussman, JD, MLS, CP

1st Law Librarian of the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (1990-2007)

Veterans’ claims are governed by title 38 of the United States Code. This title has undergone an interesting history. Executive Orders were used in 1933 and from 1935 Congress amended the Executive Orders as if they were statutes. Updated Executive Orders persisted until 1957, when the Executive Orders were divided into conventional code sections, enacted at the end of title 38, and the chapter with the Executive Orders was repealed. The next year, 1958, the sections were all rearranged and the entire title enacted as Positive Law.

Prior to 1957, 38 USC was titled “Pensions” and it made sense in the original US Code alphabetic sequence of titles, being tucked between title 37, “Pay and allowances”, and title 39, “Postal Service”. In 1958 the entire title was reorganized and re-enacted as positive law, and re-titled “Veterans Benefits”.

Until 1988 veterans had no assured recourse from dissatisfaction with decisions of the Veterans’ Administration; all the decisions were made within the VA. In that year Congress enacted the Veterans Judicial Review Act (VJRA) which reorganized the Board of Veterans Appeals and created the US Court of Veterans Appeals as an Article I court dedicated to reviewing appeals of BVA denials of claims. This court was subsequently renamed the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Appeals from this court may be taken to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Court, and from there to the US Supreme Court. Following the enactment of the VJRA, Congress also renumbered nearly all the sections of title 38.

Additional to 38 US Code, attention should be paid to the regulations adopted by the VA, in 38 CFR, which include detailed instructions on medical examinations for various ailments and how various afflictions are rated in terms of severity.

{This guide was worked up in June 2009, when Eric K. Shinseki was Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs.}

Current texts of both 38 USC and 38 CFR: The Lexis-Nexis publishing company prints an annual paperback volume of the currents texts of both 38 US Code and 38 CFR, titled Veterans Benefits Manual. The current price is $135 for the latest annual edition.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/store/catalog/pr...mp;prodId=12734

The publishers of both the US Code Annotated (Thomson-West) and the US Code Service (Lexis-Nexis) will be delighted to sell you the volumes of their multivolume annotated editions of 38 USC (the USCA version includes a volume of an annotated portion of 38 CFR), with the annual pocket parts. Similarly, the internet research services WestLaw and Lexis carry the current texts of both.

Current text of 38 US Code:

Government Printing Office website:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/us...amp;title=38usc

Office of US House of Representatives Law Revision Counsel website, choose title 38:

http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

Cornell University’s website:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/38/usc_sup_01_38.html

The Congressional Committees on Veterans Affairs publish, every two years, an updated version of 38 USC - which, however, consists only of the sections themselves and none of the Official Notes (such as Executive Orders), and includes an appendix that doesn’t appear in the US Code. The text of the version updated through February 17, 2009 is also available here as a PDF file: http://veterans.house.gov/documents/title38.pdf

Current text of 38 Code of Federal Regulations:

Government Printing Office website:

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-...38/38tab_02.tpl

Another Government Printing Office website offers the text of 38 CFR as it appeared since 1997. Note that the URL incorporates the year of the edition (each annual edition of 38 CFR is dated as of July 1st), so changing the year in the URL will obtain a different year’s edition:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/cfrassem...gi?title=200838

The VA’s own website offers its own text of 38 CFR, broken up into several “books”; see the last item:

http://www.warms.vba.va.gov/sitemap.htm

The Government Printing Office publishes its annual paperback edition of 38 CFR in October-November each year (updated as of July 1st), in two volumes, for approximately $90 for the set. At that price, the reader may prefer to buy the Lexis-Nexis volume, mentioned above, which includes the text of 38 USC, and prints the CFR text in one volume, in print slightly larger than the GPO’s edition and with a better index.

W. S. Hein & Co. offers the entire Title 38 CFR from 1938 in several formats. It is available on the HeinOnLine in the Code of Federal Regulations library. The DVD edition is in PDF format and is searchable using the Adobe Acrobat Reader’s standard search tool. The print edition is in 80 books covering 1938 -2007. The older years are important because a veteran’s claim is always reviewed based on the laws and regulations when the decision was originally made. Also, intervening changes to law or regulation must be reviewed to determine which is more favorable to the veteran.

Various VA manuals: The VA’s website contains search engines and links to a multitude of VA publications, including many of the manuals used by the VA in administering benefits. This is its Web Automated Reference Materials System (WARMS). Some of these manuals used to exist in hardcopy but now are available, even inside the VA, only online this way: http://www.warms.vba.va.gov/sitemap.htm

Various VA forms: A great many documents, including forms for applying for or appealing benefits decisions are here as PDF files: http://www.va.gov/vaforms/

VA General Counsel Precedent Opinions: Approximately the same time as the VJRA, the VA General Counsel’s office began distinguishing its legal opinions between those which were to be considered Precedential and those which were not. The Precedential Opinions and some earlier or non-precedential opinions can be found on Lexis and Westlaw. The VA’s website offers Precedential Opinion grouped by year:

http://www.va.gov/ogc/precedentopinions.asp

A non-governmental website, HadIt, also offers summaries of Precedential Opinions:

http://www.hadit.com/VA_General_Counsel_Precedent_Opinions

BVA Decisions: Decisions of the Board of Veterans Appeals are not commonly published, but many from recent years are available online: http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html

CAVC Decisions: Decisions of the US Court of Appeals of Veterans Claims (originally known as the Court of Veterans Appeals) are published by West in a series known as Veterans Appeals (“Vet.App.”), issued in monthly advance sheets which include, as an appendix, decisions on further appeal published in F.3d or S.Ct. These monthly advance sheets are combined to produce a hardcover volume roughly every 8 or 9 months. With few exceptions only panel and en banc decisions are published, and only these have precedential weight.

The CAVC’s own website offers the text of its decisions, via an ISYS search engine:

http://www.uscourts.cavc.gov/research_cour...onsOpinions.cfm

... and grouped by year:

http://www.uscourts.cavc.gov/orders_and_op...eviousYears.cfm

... and the current year:

http://www.vetapp.uscourts.gov/orders_and_...ns/Opinions.cfm

Federal Circuit Decisions: The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, located in DC, hears appeals from CAVC decisions. These are available, of course, on Lexis and Westlaw. There seems no specific website for the veterans cases, but they can be distinguished by the appearance (in most instances) of the name of the then Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Free access to the Federal Circuit decisions can be had on the Lexis free service, LexisOne (choose the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals):

http://www.lexisone.com/lx1/caselaw/freeca...yCaseSearchForm

The Federal Circuit’s own website offers the text of its own decisions, including many unpublished ones, arranged by date. The veterans cases can be distinguished on this list by its origin as “CAVC” or the then-Secretary’s name as defendant: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/dailylog.html

Supreme Court Dispositions: The US Supreme Court is the only venue for appeals beyond the Federal Circuit. Only a very few such veterans cases have gotten full opinions in the Supreme Court and almost all the rest have been denied certiorari. The aforementioned LexisOne search service can provide the few full opinions. The denials of cert can be found on the Supreme Court’s chronological lists of Orders - the URL includes the October term year of the list (again, identifiable by the name of the Secretary):

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/08ordersofthecourt.html

The VA has just started publishing “Veterans Law Review”, which is available online:

http://www.va.gov/vbs/bva/lawReview_MailCopy.htm

The VA’s own website offers a variety helps, including in the topic of veterans’ benefits:

http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA/

and in the topic of health administration:

http://www1.va.gov/health/index.asp

and the online version of its annual booklet on Federal Benefits for Veterans:

http://www1.va.gov/opa/vadocs/current_benefits.asp

The Social Security Administration has a useful webpage on Disability Benefits for Wounded Warriors:

http://www.ssa.gov/woundedwarriors/

The US Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has its own website, which offers news and some helpful guidance:

http://veterans.senate.gov/

Similarly for the US House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs:

http://veterans.house.gov/

Before I forget, Veterans Re-employment & Hiring: The enforcement of a veteran’s right to re-employment at his old job or preferential hiring at a new job is not handled directly by the VA, nor are cases about it heard by the CAVC. This aspect of veterans’ benefits is handled by the US Dept of Labor:

http://www.dol.gov/vets/

West prints an annual paperback devoted to this topic, The USERRA Manual: Uniformed Services Employment & Re-employment Rights, for $135:

http://west.thomson.com/productdetail/1542...ductdetail.aspx

The University of Arizona Law School has a useful webpage:

http://www.law.arizona.edu/Library/Researc...USERRA/info.cfm

Another useful webpage tries to connect veterans with employers especially interested in hiring former servicemembers: http://www.military.com/vetcareers?ESRC=ov...bs4.kw&np=1

.... the Congressional committees and a good many of the non-government websites devoted to veterans’ concerns include some guidance and useful material on this topic.

State Government Agencies for Veterans’ Concerns: Every State government also has an office devoted to veterans, which deal with a wide variety of topics, including employment, rehabilitation, and applications for various forms of benefits and assistance from federal and state agencies. Links to these agencies are on the VA’s website: http://www.va.gov/statedva.htm

Unofficial sources of help:

There are many other sources of information and assistance to claimants for veterans’ benefits (and claimants may include, besides former servicemen, their civilian dependents), which are not run by the government - which may enable them to be more candid and assertive in providing assistance. Some of these are well-established veterans’ organizations and some might be rather evanescent in terms of their usefulness or presence on the internet:

One list from the VA’s website:

http://www.va.gov/partners/init/index.htm

Another list from the CAVC website:

http://www.uscourts.cavc.gov/helpful_links

The ABA Law Student Division has a National Veterans Service Initiative, which issued a booklet in 2008 with many useful URLs: https://www.abanet.org/lsd/veterans/

On the assumption that readers will find the largest and best known veterans’ organizations on those resources, I here mention some less well known ....

The National Veterans Guide is published by the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation:

http://www.nationalvietnamveteransfoundation.org/

John Marshall Law School’s Veterans Legal Support Center (in Chicago):

http://www.jmls.edu/veterans/

which carries its own blog:

http://blogs.jmls.edu/Veterans/default.aspx

... this has made available, through the Illinois bar’s continuing education program, a book on “military service and the law”, which is probably equally useful outside Illinois:

https://www.iicle.com/booksandproducts/Prod...=3200&OID=0

HadIt is a website not yet included on most of the other lists, that appears to be very helpful:

http://www.hadit.com/index.html

Another very informative website, whose provenance is a bit unclear but evidently associated with the VA Watchdog, is: http://veterancourtcodes.com/

The National Business Institute offers an audio CD with a course book for its May 2009 Continuing Legal Education seminar on Obtaining Veterans Benefits. The URL is far too lengthy to reliably be typed. In case the link stops working, the main site is http://www.nbi-sems.com/, the catalog number for this course is 49878CDRA and the price is $199, and the phone number is 800-930-6182. Purchase includes the seminar book and audio CD of the presentation.

http://www.nbi-sems.com/Details.aspx/Obtai...alFormats,N:305

[Wings]

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Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C http://www.llsdc.org/fed-reg-cfr/#Older

Finding Older Issues of the Federal Register and CFR

The Federal Register has been published daily each federal working day since 1936 on newspaper quality paper. Only the earliest issues, from March 14, 1936 to June 1, 1938, were republished on better quality paper and repaginated in a bound form much like the bound form of the Congressional Record. A few libraries hold the entire Federal Register set in paper form and continue to bind the daily editions like other periodicals, but most have discarded their paper copies in favor of microform or electronic copies on HeinOnline.

The annual Federal Register Index, is generally retained by libraries having microform copies. Federal depository libraries, academic law libraries, and Federal agency libraries are all good sources for finding older issues of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations, but they may not have complete paper sets. Searching for the titles on OCLC may help you locate libraries that have the years and titles that you are interested in obtaining and HeinOnline has a near complete historical CFR collecdtion.

The William S. Hein & Co., Inc. and LexisNexis Academic and Library Solutions (LNALS, formerly known as CIS - the Congressional Information Service) both sell microfiche copies of the Federal Register from 1936 to the present. With the Hein subscription comes a hard copy of the annual Federal Register Index (albeit somewhat reduced in size). LNALS also sells the annual CFR (or its annual supplements) in microfiche from 1938 to the present.

Federal Register & Code of Federal Regulations -- Federal Register coverage is comprehensive and begins from inception (1936). Multiple browsing and searching features are available, as well as additional content such as the CFR from inception (1938) as well as the United States Government Manual from inception (1935) and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents from inception (1965).

HeinOnline Subscription Options http://heinonline.org/home/subscriptions/S...ifications.html

Edited January 22, 2010 by Wings

[akwidow]

This is a huge resource we should all bookmark.