Va Responsibility Of Assisting Veterans In Developing Evidence

[autumn]

[Writing for the high court, Justice Samuel Alito said, “The (Department of Veterans Affairs) is charged with the responsibility of assisting veterans in developing evidence that supports their claims, and in evaluating that evidence, the VA must give the veteran the benefit of any doubt. Rigid jurisdictional treatment of the 120-day period for filing a notice of appeal in the Veterans Court would clash sharply with this scheme.”]

the above taken from this article:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/03/ap-high-court-allows-flexibility-for-ill-veterans-030111/

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regarding the above statement, exactly "who" at VA is charged with this? the doctor(s), VARO, technicians, advocates, etc?

[carlie]

[Writing for the high court, Justice Samuel Alito said, "The (Department of Veterans Affairs) is charged with the responsibility of assisting veterans in developing evidence that supports their claims, and in evaluating that evidence, the VA must give the veteran the benefit of any doubt. Rigid jurisdictional treatment of the 120-day period for filing a notice of appeal in the Veterans Court would clash sharply with this scheme."]

the above taken from this article:

http://www.armytimes...eterans-030111/

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regarding the above statement, exactly "who" at VA is charged with this? the doctor(s), VARO, technicians, advocates, etc?

autum,

To "assist" veterans in developing claims the VA is supposed to make two attempts to get records identified by the claimant or

their representative, one they have a signed ROI, with names and addresses, etc...

The VA is also to provide a C&P examination if under certain conditions but not under all conditions.

The VA doesn't legally have to "give the veteran the benefit of any doubt", until and unless, the evidence is in relative equipoise.

Also, I do not remember the word "any" as being included in the reg for BOD, but I could be wrong on this.

I'm too tired to research it right now.

[Berta]

Carlie is sure correct-the word 'any'does not fall into the regs.

I too am too tired to find the BOD regs-but then I remembered it was in my award from the BVA:

"Based on this evidence, the Board finds that the weight of

the evidence is in relative equipoise exists in this case.

Resolving reasonable doubt in the appellant's favor, the

Board finds that the criteria for service connection for the

cause of the Veteran's death have been met, and the service

connection for the cause of the Veteran's death is warranted.

38 U.S.C.A. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102.

ORDER

Service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death is

granted."

[Pete53]

Many of us consider benefit of the doubt to mean that if one Doc says Depression and another Doc says no depression than VA must grant.

The VA is only obligated to consider benefit of doubt when the evidence for the grant is relatively equal and their is the chance that the benefit should be granted.

It rarely comes up but if you like to read BVA Claims every once in a while it is mentioned and a grant or remand is ordered.

If you want to win a claim and there is doubt you had better make every effort to find an MD that will take your side and write a Medical Opinion that satisfies the VA with their language and their procedures. An example would be the Doc should examine and read the available records than diagnose and link to service.

[john999]

With the VA you don't want there to be any doubt. You want to just surround and crush them with evidence. If you have to spend an extra thousand bucks getting IMO's to make your claim doubt proof it is worth it. If benefit of doubt really existed the way we think of it most vets would get SC'ed the first time instead of having to file endless appeals. My doctor said I could not work 40 years ago due to 100% SC condition and the VA doctor said something along the lines that I got on well with other mental patients. Guess what the VA came up with: 10% rating based solely on what the VA doctor said. Now if I had had 2 other opinions maybe I would have gotten benefit of doubt. When you split hairs with the VA you usually lose.

[autumn]

With the VA you don't want there to be any doubt. You want to just surround and crush them with evidence. If you have to spend an extra thousand bucks getting IMO's to make your claim doubt proof it is worth it. If benefit of doubt really existed the way we think of it most vets would get SC'ed the first time instead of having to file endless appeals. My doctor said I could not work 40 years ago due to 100% SC condition and the VA doctor said something along the lines that I got on well with other mental patients. Guess what the VA came up with: 10% rating based solely on what the VA doctor said. Now if I had had 2 other opinions maybe I would have gotten benefit of doubt. When you split hairs with the VA you usually lose.

understood & i've thousands on IMOs all waiting to be filed

sad as it is to say, its helpful to know others get the same wild off-the-wall comments from the VA doctors. they must be trained via the VA to do that

[autumn]

If you want to win a claim and there is doubt you had better make every effort to find an MD that will take your side and write a Medical Opinion that satisfies the VA with their language and their procedures. An example would be the Doc should examine and read the available records than diagnose and link to service.

i have a doc that did this, and it helped immensely. any other doctor could have done it but he is well versed in the "language of the VA"