Dirty Dozen; 12 common ways to sabatoge your claim

[broncovet]

I am compling a list of the worst mistakes Vets make sabatoging their own claim.  Feel free to add more:

1.  Filing too late, or not at all.  Today is better than tommorrow.

2.  Not timely filing a NOD/I9/Notice of Appeal.    You need to understand most Vets claims are denied on the first round and most VEts have to appeal to get their benefits.  

3.  Not keeping a copy of any documents you send to VA. 

4.  Not sending your documents to VA certified mail, return receipt requested.  

5.  Not ordering a copy of your cfile.  

6.  Failing to send VA required information and applicable forms.  

7.  Abandonding your claim.  This means you have to "continiously prosecute" your claim.  VA loves to forget you.  Dont let em get away with it.  Send em an IRIS email, for example, "Please give status of xx claim filed on 08-24-2004." 

8.  Not having a nexus or a diagnosis.  

9.  Lying, or exaggerating your symptoms.  One small lie can mean one big denial.  Dont guess the date, look it up.  The VA will delay your claim for 3 years, then ask you the date, again.  If you guess again, and its different than your first guess, its lights out for your claim.

10. Not showing up for a C and P exam.  

11.  Moving and not telling VA your new address.  

12. Ignoring a proposal to reduce your benefits.  

Edited December 24, 2015 by broncovet

[john999]

When you go for a c&p exam be aware you may be under observation from the time you drive up to the exam until you leave the area.   That includes the waiting room and any place inside the c&p location.  I had something like that pulled on me.  Be aware anything you say at any VA contact  may be documented and used against you later.

[Buck52]

Good Point John999

[Buck52]

Also when you order your STR's  from St Louis  they may not send you what you need  so be very specific of dates as close as you can and request all records from your military service foreign and domestic.

 remind then its there ''Duty to Assist '' with getting your records to collaborate your claim as they are used as evidence

. Its in the Regs.

Here is an interesting read &good information from attorney Chris Attig

Veteran David Gagne had enough of the VA’s little JSRRC game, and appealed his PTSD Disability denial to the CAVC.

As a result, we have a new rule of law which says exactly what the VA has to do to fulfill the Duty to Assist.

Here’s how it played out.

The Veteran, while stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War, was building a road between 2 bases.

One day, he watched a truck back into and kill an NCO on the site.  The Veteran filed a claim for VA PTSD compensation years later, after he realized this incident was why he was having suicidal ideation and other symptoms of a PTSD disability.

The VA refused to ask JSRRC to verify the stressor, because the Veteran could not remember the 60-day window in which the event occurred.

Instead, the VA denied the claim for a failure to locate credible evidence of the stressor event.

The Veteran called “bullshit” – on appeal to the Court, he argued (through an outstanding advocate named Amy Odom at the NVLSP) that the VA’s Duty to Assist couldn’t be limited to 60 day windows.

The Veteran pointed out that the Duty to Assist is fulfilled only when future efforts to obtain records would be futile, or it is established to a reasonably degree of certainty that the records do not exist.

The VA, on the other hand, argued it was futile to ask the JSRRC to search through a years worth of records for a particular incident when the JSRRC and the VA had previously decided that it was easiest and most efficient for them to search in 60-day windows.

The VA’s attorneys – the Office of General Counsel – made the Veteran’s attorney brief the case, and go to oral arguments.

Only after oral arguments did the VA realize how bad its arguments were.

So, shortly after those arguments, the VA changed its position – expressly conceding that it failed to fulfill the Duty to Assist by not searching through the records as requested by the Veteran

Edited December 25, 2015 by Buck52

[Fat]

Great advice.......

[HorizontalMike]

When you go for a c&p exam be aware you may be under observation from the time you drive up to the exam until you leave the area.   That includes the waiting room and any place inside the c&p location.  I had something like that pulled on me.  Be aware anything you say at any VA contact  may be documented and used against you later.

BINGO! And that "VA SPYING" goes on not only during C&P exams.  I was waiting for my Polytrauma Psychiatrist evaluation in the waiting area of the Polytrauma Center in the VHA, and was approached by a gentleman who was obviously looking around tentatively (as if for someone in particular).  This gentleman approached me and introduced himself as a "chaplain"  so I immediately responded "No thanks, I'm agnostic" and dismissed him.  He returned and sat down next to me anyway, and began talking with me.  I eventually was called in for my psychiatrist evaluation and left the waiting area.  Three days later I found an entry in MY online VA medical Progress Notes from this very "chaplain" and I had NOT even identified myself!  While not damning, it sure put me on notice at how underhanded the VA can be and IS.

As it turns out, the psychiatrist had sent the "chaplain" out to check me out to see if I was going to be a threat.  Talk about pizzing me off!

[john999]

The VA fears us and at the same time they have no respect for us.   American commanders since the Revolutionary War have considered their enlisted men as scum.   The VA feels all vets are scum who just want a free ride. I have had this expressed to me by VA C&P exam doctor.  I found that out in 1972.  When you are in a combat zone the enemy is in front of you and behind you back at home.  I am not really paranoid, but this is my conclusion since I got out of the army in 1971.  We vets are so low in priority that any group with a few bucks can back down the VA and steal land right from under their nose that could be used to treat or house sick vets.  I have seen this in my city over and over again.  A national guard armory that was supposed to be converted to a treatment center for vets was instead sold off to the highest bidder.  The VA is still killing vets by delays and negligence while they put us through c&p exams where the doctors suspect us all of being frauds.

 

 

           John