To RAMP or legacy appeal?

autumn · February 14, 2019

recently one of my claims was denied and attorney is appealing it. the VA C&P agreed with the claim and attorney mentioned the denial was bogus/bs. pretty sure that was at the DRO level.

attorney asked me if i want to RAMP this appeal or legacy appeal. we already waited almost 3yrs when this denial came in and likely another ~3 years when it is legacy appealed, not on the RAMP system. my understanding is we don't lose appeal power going with RAMP, is that correct? attorney isn't getting worse results with RAMP than say the legacy appeal way i'm told. before i green light RAMP i want to ask, are veterans choosing the RAMP path now & finding it worth it say vs the legacy appeals?

autumn · March 19, 2019

On 3/14/2019 at 6:58 PM, OldJoe said:

Talked to my rep and I got the very distinct feeling that the only thing I can do now is wait for my denial paperwork.

Others can probably confirm this but the general impression I got was though I might get an A++ for effort being proactive and being a squeaky wheel, I am only hurting myself at this point because all the VA will do is fire off some boiler plate letter stating they just finished and are in the process of finalizing the claim/appeal.

And to top it all off, I found out I messed up with my CUE. I should have taken the hint when they stated that they "correctly" rated me under the system at the time. I thought my research had been thorough enough but evidently scoliosis wasn't added to the list until 2003. It took me quite some time digging to figure out how they went about amending the rating table. It is done in dribs and drabs but they never publish a yearly update of the rating percentages. You find these updates in the federal register and there are hundreds of these updates. Luckily at the bottom of the rating percentages they list the dates the system was amended, go through the dates and find where they added what you think you should be rated as. If it is there great, if not you have to go back to the next full table. The full table I found was the 1964 percentages rating system.

Even though I find to believe any of what they have done falls within the area of "duty to assist" I guess I do owe them a bit of thanks for shooting me down now before I go before the board. Now I know the correct system to argue my CUE under. I find it hard to believe that they could have "correctly" rated me when the only thing they used to use as a service connection after they had denied my claim over 20 years ago was my service records. Rules state that you have to have new and material evidence that can be used to support my claim, I didn't.

Oh well, now back to the game...

we're getting a bit off track from my orig question of "ramp..." no offense ...

i've always thought from browsing threads here that CUE's were/are tricky. unless one is versed in pas & current VA law. for me, fortunate to have a good attorney now that keeps up with all this because i cannot these days. so trying to read through those tables you mention and to know if VA actually made a mistake & then how to pursue that with correct wording is beyond many a mere mortal, moi.

that's great you can do it and in the end if you win you save some $ and too, hats off to those that can file successful claims on their own. thankfully there are a few good attorney's that really try to win and show the actual errors with correct wording and evidence, with that said, the fee is worth it.

i wouldn't even know where to look for the percentage rating system. i do recall, via hadit, showing the new items added to the rating system some years ago thinking probably will help some vets from the ME theater of the past decades. maybe even a few bluewater vets still alive. good for the VA doing that but i suspect very late for the veterans suffering from those new listed ailments.

"duty to assist"... humor of the day, right?

good luck