Bva Status Of Claim

[john999]

I called the BVA and was told that my claim has been decided and will be shipped out to me next week. This is my CUE claim. My lawyer never got back to me, so I called the BVA ombudsman. I can't believe I will win this thing. It seems to outlandish that the VA would admit they made an error that will cost them retro from 1971. Who knows? I have the evidence, but I think the BVA will kick the can down the road. They will find some reason to mininterpret my CUE and decide that I was asking for a reweight of the evidence. Me and my lawyer made it plain that is not what we were saying.

[Josephine]

John

You go to court,

Betty

[Wings]

Ron,

I have never been able to figure out exactly what Cue is.

This is directly from the BVA Claim

To reopen a claim which has been previously denied and which

is final, the claimant must present new and material

evidence. 38 U.S.C.A. § 5108 (West 2002 & Supp. 2007).

Under the amended regulations, new evidence means existing

evidence not previously submitted to agency decision makers.

Material evidence means existing evidence that, by itself or

when considered with previously evidence of record, relates

to an unestablished fact necessary to substantiate the claim.

New and material evidence can be neither cumulative nor

redundant of the evidence of record at the time of the last

prior final denial of the claim sought to be reopened, and

must raise a reasonable possibility of substantiating the

claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(a) (2007).

I re-opened an earlier claim for " Chronic Anxiety" and was denied.

Many years later, I called the VA to re-open the claim and they allowed me to re-open the claim

on a letter from my own private doctor, but denied due to no mention of any treatment for anxiety in service.

I went to my local R.O and ask to see my C-file.

They grumbled, but I was erate and they allowed me to see it for I was not leaving without it.

At that time I ask to see my discharge and my reasons for my discharge and the Board of Psychiatrist who

discharged me.

The counselor laughed in my face and told me no such records existed.

I went home and hand wrote a letter to the St. Louis Archives and within 3 weeks received

a telephone call from a technician asking me exactly what I was looking for and I explained it to him.

Two weeks later all of those records arrived to me by mail.

I took all the Psychiatric records to the R.O and re-opened the claim again. New and Material Evidence.

Something that minds could not differ.

First C&P " more likely than not".

I was then transferred to another state.

Five months later a second C&P.

The second one a Personality Disorder.

Denied due to P.D.

I contacted the doctor who treated me in service some 40 years earlier and he wrote a letter for me.

He began my discharge and set up the Board to discharge me.

He stated he had read his medical records of me as I mailed them all to him

and had indeed treated me for anxiety and began my discharge.

I went to the BVA and remanded for another C&P by the Psychiatrist of the second C&P.

I was never allowed to attend any C&P and the AMC sent my file back several times for the examination.

AMC denied me.

They stated the medical records from 1966 - 1978 were illegible for they were in hand writing.

This doctor still held his medical license.

He picked up his medical records of mine and wrote a letter to the BVA of his treatment of me from

1966 - 1978.

I then looked on line for an Expert Psychiatrist and located one in D.C.

I traveled to D.C for a face to face evaluation of me and all of my medical records in service and all

records, even SSOC and all denials.

He knocked them down with these lines and his credentials were more than I could have ever dreamed of.

*Summary of Professional Opinion:

My review of the records show no documentation which would support the diagnosis of Personality Disorder.

There simply are no data which would support that diagnosis under the criteria provided in the Diagnostic and Stastical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.

No psychological or personality testing was done. There was never any showing of an " enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture... is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations... is stable and of long duration... (and) is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder." DSM IV TR, pages 287 - 288.

The " other mental disorder" which she clearly *DID* and *DOES *have, and for which she has been treated for 43 years, is *Anxiety Disorder. *

The veteran had no childhood psychiatric, difficulties or treatment, Her anxiety disorder began during her time in service. She has been treated for anxiety disorder for 43 years by a number of physicians.

Diagnosis: *300.00 Anxiety Disorder, NOS,Chronic, Severe, with Depressive Features.

This chronic, and in this veterans' case, disabling, mental disorder first manifested itself while in service and has required treatment ever since. There is no evidence to support the diagnosis of personality disorder made in 1964 and used as a basis for her separation from service.

Sincerely.

B. Cxxx M.D. D.L.F.P.A.

Forensic and Clinical Psychiatry

Expert Witness*

Bxxx Cxxx, M.D., a forensic and clinical psychiatry expert and a Yale Medical School graduate, specializes in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis. He is Senior Attending Psychiatrist and Past Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. A Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Executive Councilor, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, he has served as consultant to attorneys, examiner, and expert witness in state and federal courts and in courts martial.

Services

Dr. Cxxxx areas of expertise include Malpractice, Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence, Fitness for Duty, Independent Medical Examinations (I.M.E.), Dangerousness Assessments, Suicide, Sexual Misconduct (and Sexual Misconduct by Professionals), Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Stalking, Hospital Treatment Standards, Outpatient Treatment Standards, Workplace Violence, PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), Stress, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, Psychiatrists Peer Review, Ethics, Civil Commitment (of mentally ill to hospitals), Criminal Responsibility, Sanity, Diminished Capacity, Pre-sentence Recommendations to Court, Competence for Trial, Courts Martial, Psychiatric Evaluations, Psychiatric Malpractice, Professional Malpractice, Psychotic States, Psychosomatic Medicine, Personal Trauma: Adult, Adolescent, and Child, Medical Malpractice-Psychiatric and Custodial Issues.

Profile

Dr. Cxxxx a Yale Medical School alumnus and graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, has been practicing psychiatry-- clinical, forensic, and administrative-- for over forty years. His office is on upper Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC (where he sees adolescents, adults, and couples for consultation and treatment), and he also treats inpatients at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is Senior Attending and Past Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.

In his forensic practice, which is both extensive and varied, he has served as psychiatric consultant, examiner, and expert witness in all types of civil and criminal cases, in the courts of several states (CA, DC, FL, KY, LA, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV) as well as in federal courts and courts martial. He has worked on matters of all kinds where state of mind is at issue. His recent cases have involved issues of: malpractice; personal injury; stalking; sexual harassment; testamentary capacity; sexual misconduct by professionals; hospital standards; dangerousness assessments in the workplace; fitness for duty; criminal responsibility; competence for trial; presentencing recommendations to Court; eligibility for release from incarceration; Courts Martial.

Teacher of medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, where he is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry. In May 2003 he received the Roeske Award for Excellence in Medical Student Education from the American Psychiatric Association.

He is actively involved in the USUHS clinical research team which leads in the study of PTSD and other stress disorders. Dr. Crowley is a member of The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. He also does work at the Department of Defense’s Deployment Health Clinical Center at Walter Reed, for which in 2001 he was awarded the Army Certificate of Achievement by the Commanding General, North American Regional Medical Command.

Active in leadership roles in psychiatric organizations, Dr. Crowley is a Past President of the Washington Psychiatric Society; Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association; and Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. In the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, he was recently elected to the Executive Council, and earlier served on the Committee on Peer Review of Psychiatric Testimony. For three terms he was Chair, Guttmacher Award Board, the joint committee of the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law which annually judges and awards the prize for the best contribution to the literature of forensic psychiatry. Currently he serves on the Isaac Ray Award Committee, which annually selects a person who has made outstanding contributions to forensic psychiatry or to the psychiatric aspects of jurisprudence.

Licenses

Licensed: D.C. and Maryland

Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

Fellow, American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry

Executive Council, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

Professional Experience

Present Professional Practice:

Private practice of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis in Washington, DC

Senior Attending Staff and Past Chairman, Department of Psychiatry,

Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland

Psychiatrist, Deployment Health Clinical, Department of Defense, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Current Academic Positions:

Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the

Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

Member, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress

Past Professional Positions:

1982-1995

Staff Psychiatrist and Coordinator of Not Criminally Responsible Hearings -

Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, Jessup, Maryland

1972-1977

Executive Director - The Medical and Psychiatric Study Center, Inc.,

1969-1971

Founding Partner - The Potomac Foundation for Mental Health - Medical Director,

1963-Present

Private Practice of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Forensic Psychiatry - Bethesda, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

1963-1968

Psychiatrist, Montgomery County Mental Health Center

1961-1963

U.S. Navy Medical Corps: Active duty as Psychiatrist

1961-1963

Staff Psychiatrist, St. Elizabeth's Hospital 1963

Legal Experience

Dr. Cxxx has often served as consultant and expert witness for attorneys in most types of civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts, as well as in courts martial.

He has qualified as an expert in a number of jurisdictions, from Maryland and D.C. to California, from Michigan to Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, and enjoys traveling to meet the demands of suitable cases.

Affiliations

President, Washington Psychiatric Society, 1996-97

Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

Chair, Manfred S. Guttmacher Award Board, APA, 1999-2002

Council on Psychiatry and Law, APA, 2002-2008

Isaac Ray Award Committee, APA, 2004-2010

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law:

Executive Council, 2007-2010

Committee on Peer Review of Psychiatry Testimony, 1995-2001

Ethics Committee, Washington Psychiatric Society, 1981-1990

Other Professional Positions & Major Appointments:

Past President, Washington Psychiatric Society

Executive Council, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2007-2010

Academic & Administrative Appointments:

Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Member, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress

Hospital Appointments:

Senior Attending & Past Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, MD

Publications

Recent Publications:

"Law and Psychiatry: Assessing Civil Competence," Journal of Psychiatric Practice, November 2006, Vol. 12, No. 6, pages 402-405

"Assessing Civil Competence: A Case Vignette," in American Academy of Psychiatry and Law Newsletter, September 2006, pages 14-15

Book Essay and Review on "Clinicians in Court," in Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, Vol. 66, No. 4, Winter 2003, pages 368-69

"The Assessment of Danger in Everyday Practice" and

"Measures to Take After Diagnosis of Violence or Danger"

Psychiatric Times, June and July 2003

PTSD and Trauma (with USUHS Team)

Full publications list available on request

Presentations:

Presentation of Videoptaped Testimony of Two Opposing Experts in Army Court Martial

--Dr. Cxxxx for the Defense; Dr. Grieger for the Prosecution

--Jury Verdict: Not Guilty.

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, Miami Beach, Oct. 19, 2007--presentation of Peer Review Committee

"Comprehensive Psychiatry: Patients with Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms and PTSD," at American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, May 26, 2005, Symposium 92

"Dealing with the Media," in course titled "Establishing a Forensic Practice," American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, October 17, 2003

“The Future of Psychiatry” in “Practicing Psychiatry in 2003.” Symposium 7, American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, May 19, 2003

"Dangerousness to Others: Assessment in Psychodynamic Practice." Paper presented to American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry at its Winter Meeting in San Antonio, December 7, 2002

Community Health Seminar, sponsored by Suburban Hospital, at Bethesda Chevy Rescue Squad, Jan. 23, 2002

“Psychological and Behavioral Responses to Current World Events: Healthy Versus Pathological”

Professional References

Attorneys with whom I have worked recently include:

Gary W. Brown, Fairfax, VA (703)934-1188

Christopher Burgess, CPT JAG U.S Army, Christopher.Burgess@us.army.mil

Judith Catterton, Rockville, MD (301)294-0460

William J. Crain, Covington, LA (985)892-4801

Steve Gibbins, Austin, TX 1-800-344-2441

Steven Hamilton, Chevy Chase, MD (301)652-7332

Alison D. Kohler, Towson, MD (410)823-8200

Armin U. Kuder, Washington, DC (202)331-7522

Gary J. Ogg, Pittsburgh, PA (412) 471-8500

Diana Savit, Bethesda, MD (301)951-9191

Wendy L. Shiff, Baltimore, MD (410)539-6633

William Vernon, CAPT JAG USAF, William.Vernon@tyndall.af.mil

Peter L. Wechsler, Miami, FL (305)789-2725

Daniel W. White, Alpena, MI (989)354-4106

Education

College - Washington and Lee University

M.D., Yale University, School of Medicine

Education and Professional Training:

Washington and Lee University, 1950-53

Yale University School of Medicine, 1953-57; M.D., 1957

St Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington DC

Rotating Internship, 1957-58

Psychiatric Residency (3 years), 1958-61

Graduate, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, 1975

Consulting Practice: All States

You can't hear my whistle, but I am sending it out to you anyway!!! WOWEEEEE!!!! ~Wings

[john999]

Betty

I still think they owe you. Are you pursuing it? That staged rating of yours was just fraud. They cheated you. It depends if you want the stress. If you hire a lawyer he gets the stress. Your staged rating never made a lick of sense. It was just an invention of the VA to save money at your expense. It is par for the course. Nothing personal. Those of us with old claims really got the giant screw. They hide behind the walls of CUE while propogating the fiction of CUE as a fix. Sure if you can wait ten years and find a lawyer to take you case.