Unepectedly Received ~800 Pages Of Documents From My File

[just a guy]

Hi,

This is weird and I'm not sure what to make of it, or even where to post this.

I had a DRO review in June 2013 in Roanoke, VA. I am pending a BVA board. Date TBD. No # yet.

I received an enormous package addressed to me via US mail from the Roanoke office. This package includes about 800 pages of documents relating to my claims.

Many of them have receipt stamps on the front or back from the receiving VA office. Some have the two holes at the top as though they were in some VA c-file. They appear to be originals and not photocopies.

What am I to do with this, and what if anything does it mean?

Was this some kind of VA internal mistake and they were not supposed to go to me?

As usual, no one at Roanoke will answer my calls or emails.

Thanks,

j-a-g

[Berta]

I sure hope it wasn't what they were supposed to transfer to the BVA.......

Did you make a C file request at some point????

Still... My C file was full of copies as I recall and one original document at the bottom that, for 8-9 years they had told me had 'never existed'.

Was there a I-8 form near the top of the stack?

They fill out an I-8 prior to BVA transfer and also there might be a 646 there too..if so that would sure concern me if these 2 forms were originals....

You could ask them via IRIS why they sent these originals to you.....this sounds like what they usually send to the BVA.Everything they have.

"What am I to do with this, and what if anything does it mean?"

It might be a screw up .

Personally if I got something like this I would go over every single thing carefully 800 pages....a lot for just a C file, ...does it include med recs and SMRs too?

and then I would copy and keep copies of anything I found to be relevant to my claim.

If in fact you find out that this should have gone to the BVA, maybe best to contact the BVA ombudsman (their email addy is here under search) and send it to them yourself, if they agree to that.

Hope this gets straightened out soon.

[Philip Rogers]

It sounds like an error. First I'd keep everything in order and then I'd make copies, for myself, at Office Depot/Staples or some copy place. Then I'd contact the VARO, in writing, that sent them and ask what to do. Remember "if it can't be read, it wasn't said." jmo

pr

[just a guy]

Thank you both.

Good advice.

Berta, there was no I-8 or 646. Just my docs, including MSRs.

I'll update the forum as I learn more.

Thank you,

j-a-g

[Fat]

I would get with your VSO and send the information back.

Make copies first because there seems to be a mix up somewhere.

"NEVER GIVE UP'

[Gastone]

J A G: You said DRO Review 06/13, not a DRO Personal Hearing, right. Did either you or your VSO file a FOIA claim for a complete copy of your C-File? I requested my C-File 09/12 and finally received it via UPS mid 01/2014. Package was about 8+ inches thick. I think that's about 1500 or so pages. It wasn't the complete file, only had documents thru end of 2012. All 2013 was missing. If you or your VSO had filed for it, there would have been an FOIA Claim listed on your E-Ben site.

I wouldn't just send it back to VARO that sent it, you probably have 2+ yrs ahead before a BVA Court Hearing. Did you opt for a Traveling Judge? Are the 800 pages in any semblance of order? I'd consider Scanning rather than printing everything, trees are screaming all over the world.

What does your VSO that handled your DRO Review say?

Semper Fi

Gastone

[GuaymasJim]

Without more information, it is impossible to know for sure. However, I suspect that since the VA is scanning C-files into digital formal, the actual paper files have to go somewhere. This has worried me a great deal, because the VA is going to have to do something with all the redundant paper files once a veteran's C-file is completely digitized. I have asked everyone I can think of what is going to happen to all of that paper; no one has been able to give me a dependable answer. If the plan is to scan and shred, then we all better be in full out panic mode. There are a lot of skeletons (pun intended) in those paper files. I don't believe I'm being paranoid by thinking that this would provide the VA a fantastic opportunity to coverup past errors by scanning only the "good documents" and then shred everything. How would any of us really know for certain that our "virtual C-files" would be complete when the actual documents no longer exist? My own C-file copy had numerous papes with only the front copied even with notations to see the back side. Two-sided documents used to be quite common.

Maybe the plan is to digitize the files and return the originals to us. I sure hope so!

[Vync]

I had a mysterious package arrive from the VA just like this, but it was only about 200 pages. It happened towards the end of my last claim. I had seen the DRO and they said I would receive the BBE in the mail about 1-2 months later. Opening the mailbox revealed a thick BBE, but when opened it was just copies of some documents I had submitted with no cover sheet or anything, but nothing from 10 or 20 years ago. A couple of days later my real BBE arrived.

A while back I made a request for a copy of my C-File. It arrived months later without warning via US Mail and was left in a couple of cardboard boxes on my doorstep. It included an official cover page in each box indicating they fulfilled my request. Each box contained copies of papers that were rubber-banded together in reams about 3" thick each.

Just in case folks here have never seen a C-file before, below is a picture I found online. Each of the brown outer envelopes is referred to as a volume. Sometimes C-files can consist of multiple volumes. If you got one of these in the mail, it would definitely make me wonder if they sent you the actual C-file by mistake.

[FormerMember]

The two holes at the top about 3 1/2 inches apart will appear as black spots indicating it came out of a c-file (old-fashioned) like the ones in photo above. Mine was wheeled in on a cart for my BVA Travel Board hearing in April 2011. It was seven individual folders and stacked up came to about 20 inches tall. 3715 pages. They contracted with an outfit in Janesville, Wisconsin (the cheese people) to do the digitizing. See it in living color.

See attached from my RBA (c-file) that went to the CAVC in 2012. Note the two holes.

[Vync]

Hey Asknod, Are you sure that picture in my previous post is not your c-file?

[63SIERRA]

they may have to bring my file in on a forklift .

[just a guy]

Asknod,

I appreciate that. However, one point of correction. The two holes are actual holes. They are not photocopies of holes. The "received" stamps are the actual stamps. None of this is photocopies. These are the real deal.

Makes me nervous as hell. What happened to my file? what happened to my claim?

If they don't know its missing how screwed am I?

[MarkInTexas]

The C-File I received back in July of this year was about 1200 pages, and also came in a cardboard box, via U.S. Mail. These were all copies, and each page had a "watermark" type background that said, "C FILE FROM VET" all the way down each sheet. The documents were copied front and back, and the background watermark was on every page.

Of course, included in this was 89 pages of medical records from other veterans.

Mine was expected because I had requested it way back in February of 2013.

Mark

[FormerMember]

Whoooo, doggies. The real meal deal? Okay, here's the take on it. The records had to go to Janesville for digitizing by the cheeseheads. Someone screwed up and mailed you what was supposed to be inventoried and warehoused. Remember, they are not allowed to destroy the original c-file---EVER. Mine had other Vet's stuff in it, too. Check some of it out attached. (Brian Wells' name doesn't even end with a "G" like mine so how it migrated into my file is a VA mystery). Shit happens. At the VA, it's apparently a full-blown shit storm 24/7.

If you have original stuff, my advice is to rent a safe deposit box and be sure to make copies. Sit back and see what develops. Eventually, someone from VA will call and ask if you received something weird. They really can't lose that and not have to account for it. By all means do not call the OIG or you'll end up being the one who gets investigated for stealing them from the RO. The best part of all this is if they deny for some inane reason and you rebut with the real McCoy. That would really roll their socks down.

Cleared in hot. Weapons are Free.

[just a guy]

Good advice.

Thanks asknod

[GuaymasJim]

nod, sort of coincidental that the files of another veteran were in my copy of my C-file. Everything needed for ID theft was there. And like your examples, they were Voc Rehab files.

[Vync]

Jim,

I had the same thing happen with my c-file. Someone else's paperwork was included in my box, but they were not VOC rehab files. I contacted the VA and they just asked me to mail them back. They acted like it was no big deal.