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.

 

[RBrogen]

Can someone verify for me I'm reading this correct.  I'm showing this Rating Decision information saying that they apply a 6.3% bilateral factor for my bilateral conditions.  I thought it was supposed to be 10%

[Patton]

It is but when they add the VA math it comes out to 6.3%. You are lucky I only got 3.5%

 

[Patton]

Here is mine:

40% from 05/20/2014
60% from 08/11/2016 (Bilateral factor of 3.5 Percent for diagnostic codes 5271, 5257, 8520)
70% from 06/08/2017 (Bilateral factor of 3.5 Percent for diagnostic codes 5271, 5257, 8520)

I am at 80% now, but this is what it said after receiving my C-File in 2017.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Patton

[bm7388]

Yes....filed a FOIA in TN and c-file took about 4 months to arrive on disc. 

[RBrogen]

3 hours ago, Patton said:

Here is mine:

40% from 05/20/2014
60% from 08/11/2016 (Bilateral factor of 3.5 Percent for diagnostic codes 5271, 5257, 8520)
70% from 06/08/2017 (Bilateral factor of 3.5 Percent for diagnostic codes 5271, 5257, 8520)

I am at 80% now, but this is what it said after receiving my C-File in 2017.

I have no idea why they calculate the bilateral factor differently

[RBrogen]

Well after 20 years I finally found out why I was originally denied my bilateral knee issue because I have my C-File!  Apparently a physical therapist screwed up and combined 2 statements into one to make it appear that I had a pre-existing knee condition.  UGH!!!