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Ken Carpenter Has Joined My Cue Before The Cavc

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john999

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I was checking the CAVC website and saw that Ken Carpenter has joined my lawyer to act as co-counsel to argue my CUE before a panel of judges at the CAVC. He is doing it pro bono. I guess this is a good sign or my lawyer begged him for help? My hearing is 12-12-2013 at 10am. Does anyone have an idea as to why Mr. Carpenter would join my case free of charge just to argue it?

John

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I was checking the CAVC website and saw that Ken Carpenter has joined my lawyer to act as co-counsel to argue my CUE before a panel of judges at the CAVC. He is doing it pro bono. I guess this is a good sign or my lawyer begged him for help? My hearing is 12-12-2013 at 10am. Does anyone have an idea as to why Mr. Carpenter would join my case free of charge just to argue it?

John

John,

I'd send him a nice email and ask how you were so lucky to have him added

on as co-counsel.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I sent Ken an email and asked him how I got lucky? He has not responded yet, but I imagine it is an intellectual challenge. My hearing is actually on 12-11-2013 at 10AM. My POA, lawyer Karl Kazmierczak, has never argued an oral case before a panel. He knows the facts of the case, but I bet Ken knows the court better. My claim does concern a point of law that may never have been argued before, so help is accepted with gratitude. This claim screwed me for many years because since I had a complete medical opinion that fit all the VA's requirements in 1972 I assumed that private medical opinions cut no ice with the VA. I probably could have gotten a higher rating many years ago. The VA doctor who saw me for 15 minutes said my condition was mild while my private doctor who saw me for six months twice a week plus group therapy said my condition was severe (100%). The VA did not weight the evidence they just never considered my doctor's evidence and they admit it. You know VA rating schedules changed between 1972 and 1973. Both schedules mark me as 100% at that time.

John

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It's weird how the VA rates mental illnesses. If I remember you are diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder and Schizophrenia, both of them are on the SSA medical listing for total disability. Both of them are permanent and require lifelong medications. I am currently on 8 different types of medications due to secondary effects and I still cycle more than 4 times a year, although the symptoms are not as severe.

I know people with bipolar disorder have on average .5 episodes a year, 4 or more episodes a year if you are the rapid cycling type, compared to an average of 4 episodes in a lifetime for major depressive disorders. I also know schizophrenia and although it has not been proven yet for bipolar disorder that they are degenerative disease.

I have recently learned from my psychiatrist that PTSD is just as bad, I thought it was just a acute illness and that it resolves over time but learned that it was a chronic lifelong illness, he told me there isn't much information or studies about it because it was born through modern warfare and once a war was over, they would forget about the veterans until another war came along (He is nearly 70).

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If I remember you are diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder and Schizophrenia, both of them are on the SSA medical listing for total disability. Both of them are permanent and require lifelong medications.

RULE # 217

VBA goes by THEIR Laws, Regs, Criteria, etc . . .

SSA goes by THEIR Laws, Regs, Criteria, etc . . .

They are different.

One, is not necessarily bound by the other and they clearly

have different Laws, Regs, Criteria, etc . . .

If you try to apply one's criteria to the other - it does not work.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

No, I won't attend. It will be in person. I think they hold court at CAVC hq. I got an email from Ken and he says he has a argument the next day and believes he can help with my claim. He says we just have to wait and see even though he feels it is a viable case.

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