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!?)

[blazer1996]

There is a BIG difference between having a number of legitimate ailments for which one is seeking compensation, and just listing everything you can think of, throwing it against the wall, and hoping something will stick. That is where "BE RIGHT" comes in. Its about credibility. If your claim is not credible, neither are you. Do a little homework...try to objectively look at your own claim in the same way that others will look at it.

On another topic...I love your sig...THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

[free_spirit_etc]

Ahhh.. but he is still going to keep me guessing as to how he contacted the BVA that made other people think he was out of his mind...

I can use my imagination and come up with many scenarios. Some of them would actually make good movies.

[free_spirit_etc]

I think the neck issue is particularly aggravating to me because they just danced around that for years. Yet, when my husband was on hospice he was prescribed morphine. He had lung cancer and a pancreatic mass. But every time he asked for morphine for pain, and I asked where he was hurting, he replied "My neck." So damn it! When a terminal cancer patient only asks for pain medicine because his neck hurts - it just grinds my soul to read all their drivel they created to keep from paying him benefits for the condition. He hurt his neck in service. He claimed it on discharge. Each exam showed some limited range of motion. They finally took an x-ray that at least showed some of the arthritis. And they still didn't grant SC. And it hurt him until he died.

[free_spirit_etc]

PG rated of course.....

Ahhh.. but he is still going to keep me guessing as to how he contacted the BVA that made other people think he was out of his mind...

I can use my imagination and come up with many scenarios. Some of them would actually make good movies.

[blazer1996]

It is also appropriate for me to disclose that my SC is ischemic heart disease. Its pretty cut and dried. You either have it or you don't. I very obviously have it and I have it badly enough that it is disabling. So, my problem was not a disagreement about my condition, it was more about getting someone to get off their bureaucratic ass and process my claim. I have real empathy for claimants who are in a "contest" with VBA about the nature or the source of their disability. I don't have that problem.

Edited October 6, 2013 by blazer1996

[free_spirit_etc]

Wow Blazer! I just posted a case in here the other day about a veteran who had a claim for increased rating for his heart disease and they denied the increase. The veteran died from the disease and they denied accrued benefits and DIC. She had to fight for that. It would seem like dead would be considered significantly disabled.