Getting My C-File For Nod: Between A Rock & A Hard Place

[TiredCoastie]

Really need some advice...how badly will I screw things up if I ask for a copy of my C-file now?

I'm sitting here waiting for the RO to do something...anything...with my reconsideration claim that my VSO strongly suggested I pursue before attempting an appeal. The reconsideration claim was submitted with new and material evidence along with a separate request to increase the rating on one disability that is SC but at 0% in April 2013. The claim decision which closed that I've asked to be reconsidered closed the end of December 2012. eBenefits shows the reconsideration claim stuck at "Gathering of Evidence." Clock's ticking... If there's no decision published before basically Christmas, I understand from hadit that will have to NOD prior to that date or face the strong potential that the original decision could stand.

I'm compiling my NOD and associated evidence. Wisdom of hadit experience says to get my C-file and read through it carefully. I've got the C&P exams from my initial claim separately through the VAMC that did them. I can request the C&P exams for the last claim, and will probably next week. But I don't have the C-file.

What will happen to my stagnated claim if I request the RO pull the C-file out of the claims' queue and mail me a copy of what they feel like sending?

Call me an optimist, but I'm holding out hope that they'll get to my claim once the drive to reduce the long overdue backlog subsides (and hopefully with the completion of that LONG overdue work rather than just sitting it aside to gather more dust). Hope in a good outcome is not typically a winning strategy. Usually there is positive action on our part, either up front or along the way, that gets the job done successfully. At least that's what the Chief always said in so many words.

I read somewhere that when someone drops a Congressional on the RO about a claim that's gone on all too long, the C-file comes out of processing and a different office answers the legislator. Then the C-file can take months finding its way back to the right place for processing to restart. Wouldn't asking for a copy of my C-file do the same?

So if I ask for a copy of my C-file, will I completely derail any possibility of my claim getting the appropriate attention at the RO prior to my December deadline? (The realist/pessimist side asks how much that really matters seeing as nothing's happened thus far...how can something be more scewed up than it already is!?)

[71M10]

The really upsetting thing about this is:

The VA is allowed to use the doctrine of "Administrative regularity" which allows them to say something happened as it should have without proving it. However, the reality seems to be that the majority of Veterans case's have some evidence in them that indicates the VA didn't follow their internal procedures or comply with the laws and regulations that govern the administration of Veterans benefits. There is overwhelming proof that this agency of government does not consistently do anything according to a consistant practice or regulation!

Throw in this ideal that it is a paternalistic non-advasarial system that essentially does not allow you to sue them and you have Veterans with less rights and legal protections for conpensation due to injury than the Delta Smelt in California or the Endangered Polar Bears (who coincidently are having the best Century ever on record)!

Where's the Tylenol!!!!

[FormerMember]

It's "Presumption of regularity" and you are completely right, sir. They ignore it in their decisions until they can no longer at the CAVC. About that time, the Judge(s) point to the VASEC's proclivity to use "post hoc rationalizations" for what happened. These rationalizations are predicated entirely on what happens in a world of unicorns and rainbows. It has nothing to do with the knife fight you have been engaged in for 10 years in a dark alley with a mentally challenged RVSR and his DRO sidekick. Fortunately for us, VA only rarely engages in destruction of records or loses them outright. More often, if you parse your records very carefully as I did, you find the dangling thread that, when tugged, unravels their cheap sweater (argument). They rarely go quietly into the night. Like an ADD kid, they will kick and scream until ordered to behave. That we have to wait for a decade sometimes is the crime. So many Vets lose because they don't proceed past Go! to the CAVC. And I guess I don't have to point out why that is.

[63SIERRA]

from what im observing, not getting a copy of your c-file is a huge mistake. Its like getting to see your opponents cards and they must show you. It lets them know, you are past the stage of trust , but to the stage of question and verify. In my dealings with VSOs they DO NOT want you to request a copy, with the reasoning that it will slow your case down>>?? REALLY .. lets process this. how will it slow my case down. ? will they become riled up like a rabid dog, because I question thier authoritiiiiii. Will they have to go to the records clerk and say hey, I need this file copied and sent to this veteran? will that process stop the cogs of the machine from turning, ? Will time stand still at the high and mighty VARO and the order of the purple hemmaroids become angry because of a request from a lowly claims monger, and they must unseat thier arse and go make copies, ? I tell ya, if requesting copies of a file, upset the harmony of the system, who gives a damn anyhow.

Anyone ever heard of forensic file examination? If you look REAL close at how they group, mark and tabulate your c-file, you can learn alot abt thier methods, and plan of denial. let the c-file talk to you. try to look it like you knew nothing abt your own conditions, and see what opinions would be formed from whats in the file. Not only what is in the file, but whats NOT in the file is crucial.

[FormerMember]

Defense attorneys in criminal cases call it "discovery". The police and the prosecutors don't like it any more than VA does.

[john999]

The VA refused to supply my lawyer with a copy of my file until we got to the BVA. My lawyer was using my copy. We noticed right away that the judge's copy was twice as large as my copy. The VARO was just too lazy to copy the whole thing for me and when I got it was a mess. Completely out of order and full of copies of copies. But it did contain my CUE from my very first rating decision in 1973.

[63SIERRA]

something else ive been doing is getting copies of my va records every 6 month. I put them in a envelope and date them then a big file box. This is a paperwork game, and the more organized you are the better for future issues. Its very interesting to read what the doctors and nurses are writing in the records, as soon as your done with your appt you can go get your records. . Its amazing how pieces of a big puzzle start to come together.. for instance Ive been trying to get my local va to get me an appointment with the orthopedic dr abt my ongoing back condition.

They refuse to refer me for an appt, after several tries. My former primary doctor (which I fired), called me for a phone conference one day, and said she looked at my back xrays and my back is fine.. WHAT A LYING SACK OF SHICK. I had been diagnosed with spondylolysis theses many years back, and there is no fixing that. So I looked in my medical records. there it was,, DR. sack o chit spoke with patient and informed him there is nothing wrong with his back. .Later I speak to the ex wife of my former drill instuctor who works as a clerk at the local va, she informs me that this doctor, has Alot of complaints against her, from patients and doctors alike. SO I go to a private, highly regarded doctor in my area, a specialist. A chiropractor. I tell him nothing abt nothing except my back hurts. His diagnosis. Spondylolysistheses at l5 with Degenerative disk disease. I tell him how the va dock said my back was fine, and he laughed and said the VA is so full of it, and he see it time and time again. This doctor is a christian, good man,with a stellar reputation and comes from a family of doctors, who are all chiropractors. Im sure he isnt going to lie, to get a little treatment out of a customer. So if you put 2 and 2 together, the fact that my former nurse, and former doctor at the VA refused to give me an ORTHO appt, then lied and said my back was fine. That should tell you something. They DONT WANT TO FIND OR ACKNOWLEDGE BACK CONDITIONS. Back conditions rarely improve, and cause alot of secondary issues. such as obesity, erectile dysfunction, sleep apnea, diabetes, and on and on.