Cue At Bva Board

[john999]

I have my CUE with the BVA Traveling Board member next Wednesday at the VARO in St. Petersburg. I have a lawyer who is doing a brief. Who knows if this thing will actually fly. The lawyer seems confident and stands to get a nice check. I am less confident knowing how slick the VA is in avoiding payment for past wrongs. I have to be at the VARO at 8:30 in the morning. Thank God, I can just shut up and let the lawyer do the talking. I have to get up early to drive from Tampa. The VA has tried to frame it as a case of attempting to weight the evidence both pro and con which rules out a CUE. My case is that the VARO did not weigh the evidence. They did not have the evidence before them even though the evidence was in the file. They have also attempted to claim that my service connected disability was not the reason I could not work. The reason, according to the VA, is a personality disorder(emotionally unstable personality) which incapacitated me and made me unable to work or to even relate to other people at the time of my original rating. My SMR's say depression and anxiety and the VA says schizophrenia in it original decision. For this I got a 10% rating. The report from my doctor which never saw the light of day at the VARO says unable to work or function at all in society due to chronic schizophrenia. What would reasonable minds make of this if they had seen all the facts of the case?

[carlie]

John,

What was your Judges name ?

Something I did after my last BVA Hearing

was to come home and enter my BVA Judges name

into the BVA search site trying to get an idea

as to if the Judge appeared to be pro-veteran

AND to see if that particular Judge showed

a high remand rate.

John, my Judge asked alot of questions.

I got my copy of my last BVA Hearing transcripts just yesterday.

On my issue of CUE in a prior Rating Decision

on page 11 it quotes the Judge as saying to me,

"Well let me say that was an excellent presentation,very well prepared."

I think your CUE is less involved than mine and maybe that's

why your Judge didn't have many questions.

Did you or your attorney request a copy of your Hearing transcripts ?

There is a cover page from BVA included with my transcripts.

A paragraph on it states,

"Please note that the Board's regulations give you the opportunity

to file a motion to correct this transcript if you believe it does not

accurately reflect what was said at the hearing.

Such a motion must be filed within 30 days of the date of this letter.

The motion must be in writing and must specify error(s) in the transcript

as well as correct wording to be submitted. 38 C.F.R. 20.716.

A motion should be forwarded to:

Board of Veterans' Appeals

...................

Now, also something on this cover letter that made me laugh

and realize again how screwed up VBA is at every level is

their very first sentence.

"As requested, enclosed is a copy of the transcript of your hearing

before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) in Gulfport,Florida,

on September 18, 2009.

I only live in Gulfport - the BVA Hearing was held at the

RO in St.Petersburg.

Something so simple and even that was incorrect.

No accountability.

John - I hope it goes well, time to sit back and wait for now.

jmho,

carlie

[jerrbilly]

The CUE in my case was acknowledged by the VA, now just going through the signing off part. I will keep my fingers crossed though since anything could happen. If I have to go in front of the BVA I will definetely interest myself in getting a lawyer that specializes in VA claims.

jerr

Jerr

If I was going for a CUE claim with a DAV VSO I would just blow my brains out. My lawyer does understand CUE. Please don't go in there with a DAV rep. Get a lawyer. If there is serious money involved hire an attorney that does VA law. Is your DAV rep going to write a brief? That is what is needed. Don't wing it.

John

[carlie]

John,

At both of my BVA Hearings the Judges had many many volumes of

claims files there and I asked the second Judge, "is that all mine?"

He told me those were the claims files of all the Hearings

he was having that day.

Could that be the case with all the volumes your Judge had there ?

carlie

[john999]

Carlie

My judge was a black guy and it happened so fast I don't even remember his name. He was doing an assembly line with many claims one after the other. He was not friendly or unfriendly. I did not even need to be there really. It was all in the brief and in the records. The issue was cut and dried. Did they or did they not consider my doctor's evidence? Either way they made an error according to my lawyer. I will ask him about the transcipt. He did ask for a "complete" copy of my file.

[Berta]

I bet you both did an excellent job- and dont forget-the CAVC has reversed some CUEs that BVA denied.

It seems to me however that you certainly had a VERY good basis for CUE.

[carlie]

My lawyer's contention was that if the VA had considered my doctor's report in 1973 I would be entitled to 100%, so that was an error.

The main issue was not that the evidence was not weighed correctly, but that crucial evidence was excluded that if it had been weighed would have resulted in a 100% schedular rating. The board member was ready to tell us that we did not understand CUE, but after reading the brief he said we did understand it.

John,

So is it your contention that your doctor's report in 1973 with

the correct facts, as they were known at the time, were not before

the adjudicator and as such

the statutory or regulatory provisions extant at the time were incorrectly applied

thereby costing you the benefit of compensation at 100 percent or IU

AND

also costing you the years back to 1973, which would have after all these years, now be protected by the 20 year rule ?

That is another thing that comes to mind with me, is that if the CUE claim

is successful - then your rating would have the 20 years of protection.

John,

Do you want me to merge your two separate topics that are both titled as

"CUE at BVA Board" ?

jmho,

carlie