ptsd Earlier Effective Date For Tdiu

[BlakePaigeStone]

I just saw ...yesterday, (on the VA's eBenefits web-site), that my claim has been moved, from the 'decision-phase,' to the 'closed-phase.' Is it unusual for a claim to skip the 'notification-phase?' Is this an indication of anything 'negative?'

I filed the claim on May 20, 2010; and ...it was for an award of retro-active TDIU benefits ...due to CUE. I've been rated at '70%/TDIU' ...for PTSD, since 2002. I was service-connected in 1995, at 30% ...however, I received all of my ratings at the same time ...in 2002. So, the VA rated me from 1995, to 2002, at 30%; then, raised/increased my rating to 70% in 2002 ...plus, awarded me TDIU - P&T. This was all done at the very same time; and ...I received everything in the very same envelope ...in May, 2002.

I claimed that the CUE was made because of all of the 'informal claims' for TDIU, that were ignored, between 1995 and 2002; including my VA Medical Center doctor's diagnosis, (inpatient PTSD program), of 'PTSD-Chronic - w/Unemployable' ...upon my discharge from the hospital, in December of 1995.

I claimed CUE since the claim had been 'closed' since June of 2003. However, the regional office followed-up with a request for me to complete a 'TDIU form,' and send it back. So, the CUE issue was by-passed ...right?! Could they have re-opened my old claim ...because of 'new and material evidence' ...instead? I was also awarded SSDI, very shortly after my VA award.

Does this smell like it could result in 'bad news' for me ...when I get my decision, in a couple of weeks? Does it look like I should prepare for an appeal?

Will '...anyone,' please advise. Thank you!

[BlakePaigeStone]

Berta, (and, other interested veterans);

I forgot to mention that I'd formally requested a copy of my C-file, in September, 2010; and ...it's considered another 'claim' on their web-site. That claim is still showing as being in the 'development-phase' on the VA's eBenefits web-site. I tried to see if I could get a copy of my file while my claim was being adjudicated. 'No such luck!'

How much time does it take to get a copy of one's file sent to them? Keep in-mind that my file ...is gigantic! It was, at least, two of those old, big, brown, tie-up folders; and ...that was back in 1995! I'm sure I'm going to need it, if this CUE/TDIU claim comes back with an outright denial of my requested retro benefit.

The uncertainty of the outcome of my claim ...is driving me back into that old emotional-state that I remember from my '...1995-to-2002 VA-claim experience, all over again!'

[Hoppy]

“The dated medical reports, of the increases in my disability, which occurred after my original claim was filed, were apparently never adjudicated by the regional office; as …all of my VAMC medical records, (from VAMCs in Philadelphia, PA; Coatesville, PA; Lyons, NJ; Atlanta, GA; and, the ‘Vet Center’ in Philadelphia, PA), were readily available to the regional office well before the time of my original award, (which finally allowed me to, formally, file for TDIU), in 2002.”

The failure to base a rating on all of the medical reports that were in the possession of the VA at the time of a rating is definitely a CUE.

“You are right about... 'being so glad to, finally, get a paycheck, (especially since I'd been unemployed, and homeless for so long), that I was too emotionally exhausted to even consider another fight with the VA, for mu full benefit! I think that i was afraid to even mess with them again; for fear of them telling me that they'd made a mistake,”

I just helped a homeless veteran in a situation similar to yours. He was rated at 50% and on appeal he was awarded 70% with TDIU. However, they stepped the rating and cheated him of two years at 100%. He was so afraid of them and so drained by all the bogus doctors he had to deal with that he did not want to fight them anymore. By bogus doctors I mean his treating doctors who would not take the time to write a report even though he had a duty to assist letter telling him the VA would not schedule any C&P exams until he got a report from a doctor. I eventually sent a letter to a treating clinician at another VA hospital and that clinician wrote a letter that got him service connected. His own treating doctors at a VA hospital would not take the time to write a letter on a slam dunk claim. Even though the claim was still appealable, the veteran decided to take the money he got and forget about the VA and all the stress they caused him by just trying to get one letter from a doctor who gave a sh*t.

“I'd also prefer to, from personal experiences, keep my opinions ...of service organization officers, to myself. After all, my mother always told me... "if you can't say something nice about people, don't say anything at all!"<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

My mom told me the same thing. So I refrain from getting into name calling. However, my coaches when I played ball said to call things like I see them. I have no problem getting in the face of SO’s and doctors who drop the ball or write bogus reports. The supervisor of a DAV office threw me out of his office red faced and spit flying out of his mouth as he yelled at me that my claim was a looser and that I was wasting his time. I guess he thought he was a doctor who knew something about vascular diseases like angioedema. I walked down the hall and showed my service medical records to another SO from the California Dept. of Veterans Affairs who immediately decided to take the claim and fight it. The new SO got me 100% from a DRO with 6.5 years of retro.

Ever since then I tell veterans in California to get an SO from the “California Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

One thing that has been bothering me is that we are only hearing your side of the claim. You did not explain the logic the VA used in their decision. The thing that I am afraid of is that they sent you to a C&P exam in the early part of the claim (1995 or 1996) and the examiner wrote a report that minimized the severity of your PTSD. We had a veteran here a couple years ago who was relying 100% on hospital reports to fight a CUE by claiming the C&P they sent him to which the VA cited in the decision had no factual basis. The veteran did eventually get service connected. However, the CUE claim was denied and is still being appealed as far as I know. We have not heard from this veteran in a long time.

“How much time does it take to get a copy of one's file sent to them? Keep in-mind that my file ...is gigantic! It was, at least, two of those old, big, brown, tie-up folders; and ...that was back in 1995! I'm sure I'm going to need it, if this CUE/TDIU claim comes back with an outright denial of my requested retro benefit.”

I requested a copy of my C-file two times and never got it. When I went to my DRO hearing the DRO showed me the file. It consisted of three folders and was over a foot tall sitting on his desk.

[Berta]

I agree if that led to a legal error.

I didnt mean to discourage Blake-

I feel he should continue to pursue this but I also recall that in the olden days up to 2000 the VA cold deny anything by saying the claim was "not well grounded."

That sort of gave them the impetus to overlook stuff in the med records that they cold consider as not relevant because it might not have appeared to be well grounded at the time.

"Yes; I received the 100% disability rating." (for the inhouse program and this is when the Doc said "unemployable"

I am starting to look at this differently.I thought Rice V Shinseki might help here but it didnt.

And it seemed to me I saw many conflicting statements in some BVA cases as to informal claims for TDIU.

"According to the GURU who taught me about VA claims you need to turn arguments based on intrepretation of the evidence and failure of the VA to honor their "duty to assist" into factual errors."

YES- manipulate the DTA error (because none of us really got DTA rights prior to the 2000 VCAA anyhow ) into a factual legal error.

"Appeal and appeal until you run out of appeals. I can see why you got a lawyer."

Absolutely because any appeal or even responses to SOCs will draw them out and sometimes they put their foot into their mouths in the narratives of SOC, SSOCs.

Those feet in mouths -as documented in SOCs,SSOCS helped me succeed in my past claims.And are also relevant to my present AO claim.

Hoppy said "This is what happens when when claims take so long to adjudicate. The veteran is so glad to get a paycheck they are not real aggressive about getting the full benefit. I have seen service orgs drop the ball on this way to often. Is the Service officer so uninvolved that he could not ask you in 2002 if you have been working since 1995? Then file the appeal for the higher rating immediately."

SO TRUE. This is why I had to file my CUE claims almost 7 years ago.The rep had just received my POA and 3 weeks later he got my award letter.

He was so shocked at the 1151 award he didnt seem to care that the award was wrong and I was too dumb then and way too tired to even question what he said or to fight it.

I should get a decision on those CUES with my Nehmer claim's resolve.But they might be rendered moot and I have told VA they would be moot if the IHD decision is proper.

[BlakePaigeStone]

"The dated medical reports, of the increases in my disability, which occurred after my original claim was filed, were apparently never adjudicated by the regional office; as …all of my VAMC medical records, (from VAMCs in Philadelphia, PA; Coatesville, PA; Lyons, NJ; Atlanta, GA; and, the 'Vet Center' in Philadelphia, PA), were readily available to the regional office well before the time of my original award, (which finally allowed me to, formally, file for TDIU), in 2002."

The failure to base a rating on all of the medical reports that were in the possession of the VA at the time of a rating is definitely a CUE.

"You are right about... 'being so glad to, finally, get a paycheck, (especially since I'd been unemployed, and homeless for so long), that I was too emotionally exhausted to even consider another fight with the VA, for mu full benefit! I think that i was afraid to even mess with them again; for fear of them telling me that they'd made a mistake,"

I just helped a homeless veteran in a situation similar to yours. He was rated at 50% and on appeal he was awarded 70% with TDIU. However, they stepped the rating and cheated him of two years at 100%. He was so afraid of them and so drained by all the bogus doctors he had to deal with that he did not want to fight them anymore. By bogus doctors I mean his treating doctors who would not take the time to write a report even though he had a duty to assist letter telling him the VA would not schedule any C&P exams until he got a report from a doctor. I eventually sent a letter to a treating clinician at another VA hospital and that clinician wrote a letter that got him service connected. His own treating doctors at a VA hospital would not take the time to write a letter on a slam dunk claim. Even though the claim was still appealable, the veteran decided to take the money he got and forget about the VA and all the stress they caused him by just trying to get one letter from a doctor who gave a sh*t.

"I'd also prefer to, from personal experiences, keep my opinions ...of service organization officers, to myself. After all, my mother always told me... "if you can't say something nice about people, don't say anything at all!"<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

My mom told me the same thing. So I refrain from getting into name calling. However, my coaches when I played ball said to call things like I see them. I have no problem getting in the face of SO's and doctors who drop the ball or write bogus reports. The supervisor of a DAV office threw me out of his office red faced and spit flying out of his mouth as he yelled at me that my claim was a looser and that I was wasting his time. I guess he thought he was a doctor who knew something about vascular diseases like angioedema. I walked down the hall and showed my service medical records to another SO from the California Dept. of Veterans Affairs who immediately decided to take the claim and fight it. The new SO got me 100% from a DRO with 6.5 years of retro.

Ever since then I tell veterans in California to get an SO from the "California Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

One thing that has been bothering me is that we are only hearing your side of the claim. You did not explain the logic the VA used in their decision. The thing that I am afraid of is that they sent you to a C&P exam in the early part of the claim (1995 or 1996) and the examiner wrote a report that minimized the severity of your PTSD. We had a veteran here a couple years ago who was relying 100% on hospital reports to fight a CUE by claiming the C&P they sent him to which the VA cited in the decision had no factual basis. The veteran did eventually get service connected. However, the CUE claim was denied and is still being appealed as far as I know. We have not heard from this veteran in a long time.

You just reminded me of something that I'd long since forgotten. I did go to another C&P Exam, sometime shortly after arriving in Atlanta, Ga. It must have been in 1996-1997 ...since I moved there right after leaving the VAMC-Lyons PTSD program, in December of 1995.

That VA doctor told me that... 'I didn't even have PTSD!' (Remember that... 'this was right after getting out of the VA PTSD program, in New Jersey!) I didn't even mess with the VARO-Atlanta anymore! I moved back to the Philadelphia, PA metro area in 1998-1999. Wow; I had forgotten about that experience. That's probably why I was awarded the 30% rating ...huh?! Hmm-m-m!

"How much time does it take to get a copy of one's file sent to them? Keep in-mind that my file ...is gigantic! It was, at least, two of those old, big, brown, tie-up folders; and ...that was back in 1995! I'm sure I'm going to need it, if this CUE/TDIU claim comes back with an outright denial of my requested retro benefit."

I requested a copy of my C-file two times and never got it. When I went to my DRO hearing the DRO showed me the file. It consisted of three folders and was over a foot tall sitting on his desk.

[Berta]

Comer V Peake might help you;

http://veteranclaims.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/single-judge-application-comer-v-peake-552-f-3d-tdiu/

"I did go to another C&P Exam, sometime shortly after arriving in Atlanta, Ga. It must have been in 1996-1997 ..."

Do you have copies of those older decisions?

[john999]

The failure to base a rating decision on all available evidence is a CUE, but you can still lose your claim for a benefit. I know becasue the BVA admitted the RO made a CUE in my claim back in 1971, but denied my claim for a higher rating based on the exclusion of available evidence favorable to the veteran. Now my denied CUE sits at the Court of Vet Appeals waiting for the VA's response to my lawyer's brief. When the VA makes a CUE by not basing their rating on all available evidence the VA gets to say that the evidence excluded would not have "undebateably" changed the outcome of the rating. The also can say that "reasonable minds" would not have changed the rating even if the VA made an error. This is why you need to hire a lawyer to argue against these excuses and loopholes. They won't turn loose hundreds of thousands of dollars without some rabbit punches to the back of your head.