Ready To Hire Attorney - Who Do Y'all Recommend?

[MarkInTexas]

OK Folks,

Been a while since I posted on here, but I've been lurking and reading.  After receiving my SOC on several conditions, and being informed by the Houston VARO that they will be sending an SSOC within the week, I think it's time that I hire somebody a good bit smarter than I am, and who can navigate the BVA system.

I ran the gambit myself for the most part, obtaining all of my military medical and personnel records from NPRC when the VA said they couldn't find anything, getting an IME/IMO from Dr. Ellis in Oklahoma, an IMO from Dr David Anaise in Arizona, an IMO from my oncologist of the past 18 years, and a bundle and a half of my civilian treatment records.

I fought with the help of Ted Ebert of the VA to get 95 pages of medical records that belonged to other veterans out of my C-File.  (First denial and first SOC contained a ton of citations of these records, some of which were before I was even born.). I still have one record from some poor Airman whose name is nowhere close to mine, who has a rough condition that they still cannot seem to remove, but at least it's only one page now....I hope.

I requested and received three copies of my C-File, gettting a different number of pages each time, and always something new from my military records that they couldn't find before when they did their first rating.

I went through three C&P's, with an affirmative one in 2012, and two adverse ones in 2015 (after introducing Dr. Ellis' IME/IMO) and another in 2016 (after introducing Dr. Anaise's IMO).

I started all this in June, 2010, and have to say that it has been a ride, bumpy, but educational.

I've filed NOD's, Form 9 Appeals and all kinds of other junk, and have learned that eBenefits has a long way to go before being truly veteran friendly. (But it is better than the old VONAPP system that I used when I first started this mess.)

When I receive my SSOC in the next few days, (It should have already arrived by now, but hey...it's the VA, right?), I'll do whatever needs to be done to keep the ball moving, but old Mark is ready to let somebody else navigate.  I don't mind working, submitting to more exams, blood work, x-rays, etc, but I think I need an attorney to move on.

My American Legion guys, who have been friendly, etc. through it all have only really served to help me eliminate the long waits on the 1-800 number, and that's about it.  And of course, the VA finally has fixed that a bit and the waits are pretty small now.

So, question is, who do you folks recommend to help me from here as I enter BVA land?

Thanks again for the wealth of information so far, and I have to say that I would not have gotten the much-needed 20% that I received without your advice early on in this march.  Have a great weekend, and I look forward to hearing from everyone who has had experience with good law firms, and warnings from those who have bad experiences from others.

Mark

 

Edited February 26, 2017 by MarkInTexas

[john999]

I had a lawyer in my recent CUE claim.  What lawyers do is argue the law.  So your lawyer will set up a face to face hearing at the BVA and probably give them a brief that the judge won't read right away.

Then VA lawyers will read your lawyer's brief and if it does not open up a can of worms for a class of veterans they may remand it back to the VARO.  If your claim does affect a class of vets they will probably deny it and you can then go to the Court of Vet Appeals.   Now all bets are off and you will be dealing with a hostile and totally adversarial VA.  Now your claim is out of your hands and it is up to the VA lawyers and your lawyer to argue the case in front of a VA appeals court.  From the start of my CUE at the RO until I was finally denied at the Federal court took 7 years.  Lawyers cannot change facts and after the BVA they cannot add any new evidence.

 

Now I was doing a CUE and I learned just what a long shot many of these claims are even when it would appear to anyone with any sense of justice that you have a valid issue.  If you cannot win on the facts and evidence of your claim you cannot win with a lawyer.    However, if the facts and evidence of the claim have not been argued well then the lawyer can do that if he/she is a decent lawyer.  I say that if you are going to the BVA get a lawyer.  The lawyer should shape your claim for possible appeal to the Court.  You need to get all the evidence "in" at the BVA because beyond that point no new evidence can be brought into the case.  That does not mean the VA won't try.   Beyond the BVA the VA really fights dirty.  My claim was based on the undisputed fact that the VA did not include my IMO from 1973 in their rating opinion.   However, since the law at that time assumed that the VA included and considered every fact of a claim at the VARO level I lost because I could not prove that the VA did not consider my IMO even though they admitted at the BVA that they did not include it.  They still denied it.   Then the VA argued in front of the Court that I could not prove the VA did not consider my IMO.  How do you prove a negative?  I could not prove by the 1973 regulations that the VA did or did not consider my IMO even though they did not mention it one time in my rating decision.  At that time they did not even have to list the evidence they used to make rating decisions. 

 

With all this I would still hire a lawyer ( very experienced) if I were going to the BVA.   If the lawyer does not think they will win they won't take the case.  My lawyer believed and still believes we should have won the claim.  I believe it.  The VA believed it, but it would have made benefits available to an entire class of vets so they denied it.

 

 

                                            John 

 

 

[Buck52]

Mark

you might try Glover/ Luck Law firm here in Dallas, I understand that law firm has  lots of veteran experience, check with  hadit elder member broncovet  he has hired them and their members of NOVA

http://gloverluck.com/

 However I have not used them myself so can't say how they are? but look at their web site link I put up.

Edited February 26, 2017 by Buck52

[MarkInTexas]

Thanks, Buck!

Mark

[broncovet]

I have used Glover Luck and so far, so good!  

[allansc2005]

Mark, I can tell you who to NEVER hire, Rep For Vets!

They strung me out for 4 years, making promises, making up excuses for not returning my calls, LYING to me...!

They have numerous BBB complaints, and they have recently removed their commercials from TV.

[MarkInTexas]

4 hours ago, broncovet said:

I have used Glover Luck and so far, so good!  

Thanks, Broncovet!

Mark