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Viewing Specific Evidence Listed In Statement Of The Case (Soc)

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Notorious Kelly

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Hi,

It's tough deciding whether to file Form 9 to appeal when I am not sure exactly what evidence was cited and conclusions made about that evidence.

The SOC has a laundry list of material but no specific citations, just general statements.

How can I file a Form 9 stating why I am appealing when I don't know what the case is? Is there a way to view other peperwork used by the VA for my case?

Thanks!

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Chris Attig is right... this has been a well known fact for decades.....that we , as claimants, have no discovery rights at all.

You add that to the fact that VA C & P docs are paid by the VA (a conflict of interest) and none of this would ever be acceptable if we could file claims in a civil court.

But it is what it is.

I agree with Broncovet.....the RBA will be at the hearing...but who has time to go through all that at a VA hearing?

After VA gets done with my pending claim I am going to ask under Privacy Act, 5, USC 552, for a CD of my RBA for the last 20 years.

But then again I geared that claim for the BVA because,after 20 of dealing with my RO, I do not believe they will read my evidence at all yet the BVA sure will.

I made sure the BVA had copies from me of my most probative evidence for my DMII AO death claim.

I was sick and tired of knowing my RO (and I testified to this in H VAC testimony during Shreddergate) that much of my evidence for many of my claims had been lost, or destroyed by shredding.
I feel like I know my RO's MF personally ( MF-the Mysterious Force who removes the good stuff from our C files and sometimes puts it back in AFTER they deny the claim and don't list it as Evidence.)

Nice reminder Vync...the movie "Article 99" ! That movie years ago sure put a pulse on the VA that non vets, who saw it, probably never considered before.

At the time of the movie, it seemed like an exaggeration at first, but time has proven VA has gotten worse that what this movie depicted.

And "Unnatural Causes" , a movie made in 1986, comes to my mind too----Maude Victors , a VBA employee (true story) played by Patti LaBelle, dealing with John Ritter as a very ill Vietnam veteran,is the first person in the USA to realize that Agent Orange might have a link to the disabilities Vietnam vets were getting.

If she had not been so aggressive, we might not have Nehmer or AO presumptyives today at all.

I read that VA got so fed up with her because she kept researching AO that they reduced her VA office to a broom closet. Not much different than the way the VA treated the Phoenix whistleblowers.

FOIA... dont forget that the 'response' time for the entity you FOIA, only regards a 'response" from them to the request, usually within 20 days I think.

I have had 2 responses recently in writing from the FBI for example on a FOIA.

I have to respond to their response today, so my response time deadline to them doesn't run out.

For my VA Central FOIA, Margaret Peake (FOIA Officer VA Central )called me up a few days after I filed it and we discussed what I asked for by phone and she sent it very quickly after that.

Other FOIAs can take longer.......to get the stuff or to get their records request denial ,which they must give good cause for if denied.and you can appeal that.


I have added to my FOIAs lately on a specific matter, that I request expedited treatment of the request due to the public's right to know, caused by the Phoenix VA situation.




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Chris Attig is a great lawyer but I disagree with some of his points.

Your VA med recs and C & Ps belong to you. If you request them under the Privacy Act, 5,USC 552, they usually get a faster response then a FOIA request does because these are 2 different parts of the regulations in 552 and handled in 2 different ways.

Federal records, such as what I requested from VBA and VHA .under FOIA, are federal and not personal, like our C files and VA med recs are.

I have F0IAed the feds many times for 20 years. I still have Ken Starr's signature on some appeal stuff. ( Ken Starr -Clinton Lewinsky hearings)

He was the Solicitor General for federal FOIA appeals long ago.

One FOIA took 3 years but I got what I wanted.

Another sent to USDOL got me far more then I ever dreamed I would get and the info was very instrumental for one of my claims.

And one to the local VAMC years ago was a shock too as they inadvertently released VA job apps with SSA numbers and other personal data in them to me and they violated the rights of these VA (and eventually employed by VA) applicants.

Privacy Act 5, USC 552 in my opinion, is the best way to ask VA for copies of Your records.

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Good point, Berta.

I submitted FOIA for a C&P because it looked like I couldn't get it from VAMC.

VAMC ended up getting it to me quickly and the FOIA request on eBenefits shows timeline of 2015.

It's like tossing your hopes into a black hole.

We need to be more creative in putting heat on people to change this System.

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