Won Appeal... Sorta

[jtg1966]

alright so i won my appeal...but the dro only sc'd me back to 1/09...back in may of 08 after i put in my nod...they sent me a SOC and VA form 9...well i've been homeless on and off for the last 20 years...and the SOC and VA form were returned as undeliverable...

however, i submitted information in jan 09 stating among other things that the VA had not acquired my clinical records from the service...

I wrote a letter to the secretary of the va in jan 09, and a letter to my senator and congressmen one in 0ct of 08 and one in jan 09...i got three letters (one answering the senate inquiry, one answering the congresstional inquiry, and one answering the letter to sec va) back from the director of the st petersburg VARO on feb 20 09 stating that the information that i submitted in jan 09 would be accepted as my va form 9 if i was in agreement...and that a representative from the RO had spoken to me on jan 26 and that i agreed to continue with the appeal and that i elected a bva travel board hearing...

the dro has interpreted the information filed in jan 09 as a request to reopen my case...what about the three letters from the director of the RO stating that i was in appeal? I spoke with my POA and they agree that the dro is wrong with his effective date...and that they tried to get him to assign an appropriate effective date...but that he won't budge...they say that the only way to get an appropriate effective date is to nod the decsion and appeal again....WTF?

the three letters are identical execept for the salutation...

I attached one of the letters...

thanks in advance for the wisdom of this forum---john

appeals3.pdf

[jtg1966]

seriously....anyone got any ideas....

[jbasser]

NOD the effective date when you get the award.

That will keep it open until you can get all of your evidence in.

J

[Berta]

I dont know if this will help you-

this is from my BVA award:

"This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals

(Board) on appeal from a February 2004 rating decision by the

United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional

Office (RO) in Buffalo, New York, which denied service

connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and denied

entitlement to special monthly compensation (SMC) for accrued

benefits purposes. Although the appellant is already

entitled to benefits "as if" service connected for the cause

of death under

38 U.S.C.A. § 1151, there are a number of ancillary benefits

to which she would not be entitled absent a finding of actual

service-connected death; hence, there has been no full grant

of the benefit sought.

The claimant perfected her appeal with regard to service

connection for the cause of death by filing correspondence

accepted in lieu of a VA Form 9, Appeal to Board of Veterans'

Appeals, in January 2006. Although this was outside the one

year period from the February 2004 denial, and beyond the 60

day period from issuance of a statement of the case (SOC) in

September 2005, the claimant submitted or caused to be

created additional evidence requiring the issuance of a

supplemental statement of the case (SSOC) in December 2005;

therefore, the time for perfection of the appeal was

extended. 38 C.F.R. § 20.302(:)(2) (2008)."

what this means:

in

September 2005, the claimant submitted or caused to be

created additional evidence requiring the issuance of a

supplemental statement of the case (SSOC) in December 2005;

therefore, the time for perfection of the appeal was

extended. 38 C.F.R. § 20.302(B)(2) (2008)."

I raised hell and got them to CUE themselves-

if the VA accepts anything in lieu of formal I-9 (I dont recommend anyone doing what I did here)

they have complete appellate rights-

I dont see how the DRO could have considered this as re-open- maybe the DRO didnt understand what "in lieu of" means.

".they say that the only way to get an appropriate effective date is to nod the decsion and appeal again....WTF?"

Bull S---

The DRO can be asked to CUE themselves on that.

What has the POA suggested to do?

[Berta]

Need to add - and maybe this should be moved up top to Claims Research for more input

"that i submitted in jan 09 would be accepted as my va form 9 if i was in agreement...and that a representative from the RO had spoken to me on jan 26 and that i agreed to continue with the appeal and that i elected a bva travel board hearing."

Do you have hard copy proof of that conversation or does your vet rep?

[jtg1966]

berta.... the letter from the VA is attached to this post....

[jbasser]

Brother if they cant find you that gives them the protected AMMO to deny you. It is imparative for anyone that has a claim with the VA be reachable by the US mail. If you are homeless, get a PO box and have the mail sent there. Dont make that mistake again. You are just asiking for the VA to play games with you.

J