Hire A Lawyer And Va Will Pay Sooner

[Guest fla_viking]

Dear Fellow veterans & Friends

With this new law allowing in June lawyers at the VA level. You should hire a lawyer asap. There is one thing the VA hates to pay even more so than veterans and that is the veterans atty. I belive the VA will try to starve the lawyers who come on to help the vets.

The VA knows if a claim is going to win or not. If they deny the claim that means 2 or 3 years of appeals and hearings. The lawyers will be very happy with the VA foot draging because they get 20 to 30%. over a 5 year period of denials that would equal $25.000. Wherein if the claim is granted after 3 months at the RO level, The lawyer will $1.600.00.

The VA is now put in a doubel bind for those vets who hire lawyers. The VA knows if it plays out its silly stall games they are going to make allot of lawyers rich.

I have personal experence in this idea. For 25 years the VA denied denied denied. I hired my lawyer and within 2 months I had my 100%. To make sure my lawyer would not get rich. The VA authorized only 1 year back pay.

The vet can spend 5 to 10 years representing themselfs and then hire a lawyer who will get a % of that back pay. But hire a lawyer from the start will save allot of lawyer fees because the VA will grant the claim to cut off the lawyers. Also the VA could complex a case that a lawyer may not beabel to see your claim through all the VA fog.

Terry Higgins

[emmak]

:) Can you tell me if you are refering to June of 06 or 07 and do you know how the attorney is paid? I am confused on the VA paying to attorney fees

[Berta]

June 2007- I assume the fees will come out of the retro-but not sure and I dont have enough info to even ask some questions of NVLSP on this latest news-I can't quite get it yet-

By the way-if this comes in the form of a Reg added to CFR (probably it will) I will let you know if they allow public input in the Federal Register. We could make a public comment as to anything about this we find fault with.

I might not be here for a few days but will try-

Battle plan # 4 is in affect-for my claim-

I expect to hear from NVLSP-on another matter-soon and if there is time I will ask Ron or whoever contacts me- some of these questions-

I want to ask Richard Spaturo(attorney NVLSP) but don't quite understand this yet-

Larry (VAWatchdog)saw some points I made here as to the potentials here for money-aside from the claim itself and I did write about that to NVLSP.

I thought the news limited lawyers-to new claims, re-opens and NODs-does this mean also they carry over to the BVA and even to the CAVC?

then again a claim can turn on a good NOD and it has happened to me---

but evidence and VA regs were attached to the NOD.

PS Terry again I agree with you---

a good lawyer wont put up with the VA BS in SOCs.

But my responses to SOCs-unlike years of my past VA experience, have been continuously ignored-

does this provide for a lawyer to respond to a SOC with more evidence or to rebutt the VA crapola?

Edited December 17, 2006 by Berta

[Objee]

Structure of our appeals system and the attorney fee issue:

The VA claims legal system and attorneys’ fees

Once a veteran’s claim leaves the VARO, it goes to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The BVA

is simply an administrative tribunal established within the VA itself and is not a legal court.

There are no paid attorneys or other paid representation at this level.

Appeal of a BVA decision (once final) goes to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The

CAVC is an Article 1 court – an administrative court established by legislation but not a part

of the national judiciary. Its powers and privileges are limited. Here, paid representation is possible, subject to limits established in the enabling law.

(There may be financial assistance available under a federal law called the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). This law permits an appellant to ask the government to pay his or her lawyer’s fees and expenses. You can only apply for EAJA fees if you are represented by a lawyer and if you win. Since the CAVC rarely actually truly decides a case, “winning” for EAJA purposes is sometimes rather complicated. Whether or not your case qualifies under EAJA depends on the result in your case and the reason the case was resolved in a particular way. If it seems your case could qualify under EAJA, your lawyer will submit an EAJA claim to the Court and to VA.)

A final CAVC decision is appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal District. The CAFD is an Article 3 court, operating as part of the national judiciary as a “normal” court. This is the first stage at which all protections under the law are available to litigants. Paid representation is permitted and both fixed-fee and contingency fee agreements are honored, subject to a 20% of award fee maximum established within the creating legislation.

Appeals from a CAFD decision are submitted to the Supreme Court (the only constitutionally mandated court) which may either accept or reject the appeal for adjudication. There are no limits at law covering fee agreements except for the “unconscionable fee” prohibition.

Any Article 3 court may award attorneys’ fees as a part of the decision. The Federal Tort Claims Act, or FTCA, provides for an award of fees paid by government to the prevailing private party.

Ralph