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Thoughts on maybe dismissing my attorney, feedback appreciated

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Axilleas

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Hello everyone,

I've been somewhat more vocal these last couple weeks as everything seems to be coming to fruition, or elaborately xxxxxx...Unfortunately, i dont knwo enough about the va to offer any advice so here i am coming to take...hahaa

Seriously though, I knew the fee associated with legal representation. I was also well aware I'd be lucky if the attorney actually worked a quarter of what he was being compensated and was willing to sacrifice the pawn and kill a king back then. However, while for the better part of 5 years he's been able to offload responsibility to the VA for lack of response - the more research of my own i do, the less it appears he's even done than most of the shittier lawyers i've seen complained about. One of the biggest things that kills me is he should always be the more informed party between me and him about this type of stuff...And, i'd say he's uninformed or clueless more than 50% of the time he gives me reason for one thing or another.

I had caught my first felony at the end of 2016 for heroin possesion. I didnt talk to him much up till around spring time this year because it wasn't my top priority and i had to do a few months of county jail...Anyway, i initially  contacted upon release to see how everything was going. And he's more or less despondent. When i ask if my drug addiction/legal trouble could be used to strengthen my cause he told me no...on the contrary, felons aren't normally well received with favorable reviews - and that drug addicts are even less likely to get anything because the board "would hate to give someone so irresponsible a hunk of tax-payer money to buy drugs with." I was obviously crushed, and had yet to come to understand my lawyer often speaks without reason or knowledge. He then reassured me not to worry, he wouldn't drop me as a client since ive been with him for quite some time but that "he doesnt know of an attorney that would represent me" given those factors. Just to highlight the nature of my relationship with him.

I told him tdiu is really just not a goal of mine anymore since i had filled a decade ago and my conditions had only worsened and that P&T was really the only end game for me. When i asked if if the drug addiction could be used to highlight the 8 years out of the corps i was clean and sober until i snapped he said "if we get you in front of a board - you might find a judge that willing to hear it that way." Where does this guy actually come in if he can't even use a little courtroom rhetoric to help advocate my case? I personally filed the NOD by spending 20 hours in the law library chasing each component listed for denial to rebute, although that was prior to having him...and really come to think of it don't know one real contribution he's made to this effort.

Now, i wish i saved the post where one guy was complaining, thinking about changing lawyers for like 6th time and a hadit member and attorney just ripped him in half as a pariah on hard working people...naturally, the last part caught my eye and this guy went on about how lawyers for claims generally go out of their pocket for private doctors, and experts that can support this or that, and that for clients with little hopes of making any substantial money often run at a deficit. He is an attorney, and i've never met an honest or charitable one - so maybe they're more realistically doing whatever best helps facilitate their investment. If my attorney did just that, made sure he saw a return on his "investment" which i guess is very little, i'd be more than happy with that. But, I'm really just struggling a reason to keep him employed with me. I'm not a bad guy, or one who goes back on his word...And even if i find he's been pretty much dead weight i've carried wont cherish giving him his pink slip.

I dont know guys...I'm allegedly in the works(aren't we all") for a six figure award...bringing my side kick there roughly $30,000 give or take some. What would you guys do here? How could i approach exactly what contribution he's made thus far. Or perhaps tell him fee or no fee he's in it for the long haul, and if he cant lawyer up a way to solidify my P&T then *Insert some legal ramification" and if not applicable, and i have no way to entice his hardest effort than i likely have to walk...

Thank you all, and I'm praying the forum member esquire who i mentioned comes across this. I need a counterweight here.

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The last thing you need is bad blood or bad communication between you and your attorney.  Clear up both of those, and many, if not all your problems will be solved.  

You may need to swallow a little pride and admit he knows more than you do about VA law (highly likely).  

As far as the expired POA, discuss that with him also...when you call to inquire the status.  Again, I have not seen a pOA expire, this would almost never be in the vets best interest. 

As always you can cactch more flies with honey than vinegar, so call him up, after you have prepared some questions, where one of the early ones would be if he got paid, and explain you did not *yet" get paid.  

Be non threating, friendly, helpful.  You will have plenty of time to get mean later if the situation warrants it.  

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right on bronco....i'm definitely approaching cautiously. First i dont want him knowing i'm aware the va wont be peeling his 20% off, or reveal anything i do know. I wont ask him about the soc he received nor why it so coincidentally arrived around his filling the bva. I'll probably not talk to him at all and will probably end up withdrawing the appeal once the letter is confirmed and in my possession. Hopefully he catches on, that there was no appeal won. No attorney fee eligible, and if he sends me a bill for more than 1200$ I'll bring out the big guns and threaten to take it the State Bar that he so poorly represented me - he actually compromised his clients well being by stalling the very thing i was after!

You're right, he's an attorney who's probably handled a few cases before..He went through law school. I'm an engineer. Our areas of knowledge couldn't be more distinct. However, I dont need 4 years of harvard law to see such a clear and obvious progression. "client files dro review as last effort to resolve locally, without appealing. Client hires me to represent as dro favorable decision unlikely. Dro sends back denial, of other issues. Primary issue sought not mentioned. BVA appeal sent to VA a month thereafter (possibly listing all issues sough or the ones i knew of.)*2 years elapse* Client asks for update, VA remote login reveals "grant." Inform client the BVA likely sent the claim back to RO for adjustment. Appeal therefore overturned and fee anticipated."

xxxx NO BUDDY, you got a surprise coming too. hahaha....

thats the monologue he more or less had based on how he explained everything and the way he explained how it was granted after all. Like i said he's either an idiot or a straight up snake. thanks everyone! will let you all know how it unravels...

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OH MY GOD GUYS!!!!!! .....Checked Ebenefits just now to see if there was follow up to IRIS.....thought id check the AB8 out for the hell of it. I SHIT YOU NOT ITS ALREADY UPDATED!!!!!!! I cant believe it!!!!!

I'm taking 5% of the would be attorneys fee and donating to this website, and your service. Thank you all for just being veterans, having the grace, integrity, and determination to get to the bottom of whatever shit is thrown in front of you! From murder alley in downtown Fallujah, to some corner of the Vietnamese jungle. You guys and your community provided light in a period of shade, information in a time of silence.....please continue what you're doing. When backpay arrives, i'll pay it forward best i can - god bless the idiot attorney!  

YEABUDDY!!!!.png

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5 minutes ago, Axilleas said:

Checked Ebenefits just now to see if there was follow up to IRIS.....thought id check the AB8 out for the hell of it. I SHIT YOU NOT ITS ALREADY UPDATED!!!!!!! I cant believe it!!!!

congrats to you..

 

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Thank you Geeky...you guys think it's premature to withdraw the appeal that never should have been? Without the tdiu as a source of contention the other issues are not something worth (in my opinion) going all the way to the bva for. My back injuries and tbi from a few ied's have only gotten worse, with years(last three specifically) of va documentation stating such. I'm currently at a VA domiciliary where the doctors agreed the drug addiction was a coping mechanism after years of struggle....Point is i have far more evidence to support a more thorough and comprehensive claim a RO would probably grant and save me the grief. Since i cant introduce new evidence at bva....I'm thinking it's time to pull the plug on this

 

*** just saw my identity avatar. I was def. affiliated with the navy, but i was a corporal of marines. not an E3 seaman.....*****

Edited by Axilleas
clarity
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8 minutes ago, Axilleas said:

you guys think it's premature to withdraw the appeal that never should have been?

hopefully one of the elders like berta or asknod or buck52 will chime in on this question. I only know that there can be negative consequences down the road with appeals that were withdrawn.

I see it in many of the decisions I have been reading about my own claims. The vet will have withdrawn an appeal or claim and then a few years later they are trying to get the BVA or Court to decide on some part of that same issue.

just as a question, this

13 minutes ago, Axilleas said:

evidence to support a more thorough and comprehensive claim a RO would probably grant

tied up with the appeal information? if it is not related, then they "should" not affect each other.

I suspect the existing appeal will be denied or declared moot relatively soon, since if I remember correctly it was about the TDIU award your lawyer didn't tell you had been awarded. If I am not mistaken they may also send you a letter telling you it is moot and asking you to withdraw it. The elders can chime in here too.

17 minutes ago, Axilleas said:

*** just saw my identity avatar. I was def. affiliated with the navy, but i was a corporal of marines. not an E3 seaman.....*****

one, the marines belong to the navy...hehehehehe... and two, the rank there is a measure of your experience and involvement on Hadit, not your military rank. I am old Navy Chief and here I am a lowly E5 right now..lol

you can go to your profile and add your actual rank in the comments section.

 

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