Rebutting Va's "presumption Of Regularity"...

[broncovet]

In other words, "Who's is telling the truth, the VA who says they dont have the document, or the Veteran who says he mailed it in"?

The VA is given a free ride here. The courts ALWAYS favor VA...and the Veteran is assumed to be a liar. (What ever happened to the "benefit of the doubt"? 38 USC 5107)

If you are in a dispute with VA, I humbly suggest reading ASK nod's analysis of the presumption of regularity, and rebutting it.

https://asknod.wordpress.com/category/presumption-of-regularity-2/

[paul554]

Remember, the VA itself does not enjoy a presumption of regularity, the government does. Hence, this is why evidence that you mailed in items carries such weight, because the government controls the post office. This is also why you shouldn't use fedex or usps in these instances. This is why it's hard for the VA to claim that one agency of the government (the VA) enjoys the presumption, but another (the post office) should not.

[Vync]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you mail something, be sure to make a copy of it. Sometimes accidents can happen to planes, trains, trucks, and delivery vehicles. We had a UPS plan crash near the Birmingham airport last year. If you mail off your only copy and something goes wrong in transit, you are up the creek. At least with some form of tracking proof, you can argue with the VA that you at least sent it. Also, don't fire and forget. What I mean is don't just blindly ship the package. Keep an eye on the news until you either get the signed green card back or have monitored the tracking number online until it has been proven to arrive at its destination.

[Fat]

Hopefully with the VA Information Centers all documents will be uploaded so the veteran can be judged on the medical merits of his/her claim.

[ArNG11]

We are discussing the VA. I am not sure that we as claimants will not run into the same problems that we do with regular standard mail. I think the electronic method will be a two edged sword. I would like to see something as simple as returned receipt or like when you send an e-mail through a government system, how you get a notification that the intended recipient has received and opened the e-mail. That would be some heavy unbeatable evidence.

[Chuck75]

We are discussing the VA. I am not sure that we as claimants will not run into the same problems that we do with regular standard mail. I think the electronic method will be a two edged sword. I would like to see something as simple as returned receipt or like when you send an e-mail through a government system, how you get a notification that the intended recipient has received and opened the e-mail. That would be some heavy unbeatable evidence.

That might work if you had the actual Email address of an individual, and not some sort of generic masking address.

More than ten years ago/ before 9/11, if you had .gov access, you could pull up virtually every federal employee phone and email.

Post 9/11 they got more than a bit paranoid.

[john999]

The VA mailed a copy of my decision and appeal rights to the wrong address and it was returned as "Addressee Unknown". Does the VA have Presumption of Regularity? This is in court as we speak. It has been said that since I received compensation I should have known a decision was made and should have filed an appeal. This was in 1973. Let your mind dwell on the VA in 1973 and how *&&^%$ they were. They simply refused to look at my evidence, gave me a low ball rating and then sent the decision to the wrong address. Then they say I had every avenue of appeal and did not timely appeal. How do you win in such a situation? I was just 21 years old and knew nothing about the VA shilly shally. My doctor said I was 100% and the VA said 10% disabled. Of course, the VA just totally ignored my doctor's explicit statement. No problem because in those days they did not have to list any of the evidence they used in a decision. I would like to win just for spite since I don't need the money, but I would like 30 years of retro.

John