C-File Law Suit

[RBrogen]

Curious if anyone here has gone through the FOIA and had to ultimately sue the VA in Federal District Court to force them to provide their C-File in a more timely manner?  FOIA's are required to be fulfilled in 20 business days by law assuming no special circumstances.  Obviously the VA isn't going to respond to anything in 20 days but when it goes on for 6 months or longer that is ridiculous and slows our ability to address claim denials/issues quickly.  I just filed a FOIA appeal and was sent a letter from the Office of General Counsel, Veterans Administration that my FOIA request was DENIED under FOIA Exemption 6 but remanded to be provided via the Privacy Act.  The issue is that the Privacy Act process has no deadline so they can take as long as they want, while the FOIA actually has deadlines and a process for relief when they don't do what they are supposed to.  From my understanding, this is a tact the VA uses to confuse people into thinking it is a Privacy Act request and not a FOIA request.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Patton]

8 hours ago, Berta said:

Me too about 3 weeks ago- Sometimes the IG determines they cannot look into complaints- it all depends on what it is about----

And their web site says to try to do all you can to get the complaint rectified by other means.

I read that too. The problem I have is that the VA has information on me that they are not willing to share with me. Sounds like you are having the same issue. This is just another way for the VA to hold all the cards. 

I not sure how to put a case together for this but I will figure it out. 

[GBArmy]

I believe what Asknod/Alex is saying is only 11 won the writ process because the action was completed before it actually go to the judge i.e. no longer necessary because the deed was done.

[RBrogen]

26 minutes ago, Patton said:

I read that too. The problem I have is that the VA has information on me that they are not willing to share with me. Sounds like you are having the same issue. This is just another way for the VA to hold all the cards. 

I not sure how to put a case together for this but I will figure it out. 

From my understanding, you can get the information "forcefully" via FOIA/FOIA Appeal/Law Suit in US District court.  I have the complaint for the law suit completely filled out so all I would need to do is go to the local US District Court magistrate and file it and it would then have the court order them to release the information in a "short period" of time.

[Patton]

3 minutes ago, RBrogen said:

From my understanding, you can get the information "forcefully" via FOIA/FOIA Appeal/Law Suit in US District court.  I have the complaint for the law suit completely filled out so all I would need to do is go to the local US District Court magistrate and file it and it would then have the court order them to release the information in a "short period" of time.

Wow, I never thought I would get this many replies. Sorry for the high jack RBrogen. I just thought that it was related to your post.

I think I would have a problem with a Law Suit, since I work for the U.S. Government in Germany. I am going to do a little more research but I am going to get them to fix the problem.

[RBrogen]

6 minutes ago, Patton said:

Wow, I never thought I would get this many replies. Sorry for the high jack RBrogen. I just thought that it was related to your post.

I think I would have a problem with a Law Suit, since I work for the U.S. Government in Germany. I am going to do a little more research but I am going to get them to fix the problem.

No worries at all .... the more info out there for all of us the better.

[FormerMember]

21 hours ago, RBrogen said:

I'm confused by your post probably because of my lack of experience/knowledge of the Writ.  It seems you say on one hand to file a Writ and then later you say only 11 people have won a Writ since 1990?

Correct me if I am wrong here. The relief you seek is a claims file in your hands. Is that correct?  If you file the Ex Writ and VA complies by supplying you with your claims file, why would you win the Writ? Once VA complies,they dismiss the Writ as being moot as there is no longer any case or controversy. Now, if VA did not comply and provide you with the file, the Court would grant your Writ and sanction the VA Secretary with a monetary fine until he complied. And they would still force the Secretary to supply the claims file under continuing sanctions. 

As for the VAOIG, their job is to investigate VA abuses, medical malpractice, the correct procedures for doing claims, timeliness in complying etc. They really have to power to sanction the RMC or the Secretary for individual mistakes or errors. There is a legal path to correct inequity and deprivation of due process. If anyone has any luck with OIG getting the claims file, please report back here and tell us.