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]

Just now, GeekySquid said:

bingo... and I believe most of us have been there at some point

Yeah we have .... I have been contemplating putting together a very simple flowchart that shows the process in general so it can be shared so vets at least have a general idea of the process and what to do themselves.  I spun my wheels for 9 months with blank DBQs trying to find someone to complete them only to find out that they are completed automatically in the C&P ... literally that was my biggest hurdle.

[RBrogen]

1 minute ago, RBrogen said:

Yeah we have .... I have been contemplating putting together a very simple flowchart that shows the process in general so it can be shared so vets at least have a general idea of the process and what to do themselves.  I spun my wheels for 9 months with blank DBQs trying to find someone to complete them only to find out that they are completed automatically in the C&P ... literally that was my biggest hurdle.  Once I figured that out, it was a matter of educating myself more on conditions, nexus and what to expect during the C&P.  I tried leveraging a VSO but they took 2 months and still hadn't even submitted the initial claim info so I pulled it back and have done it all myself.  I went from 20% to 90% in 6 months and now after the last 2 C&Ps within the last month I am on track to hit 100%.

 

 

[Buck52]

If a Veteran has had a Injury or diseases  while in the military  .

he/she needs to educate him/her self with the CFR's And study the condition \ Injury they have to claim  rather or not that condition came up years later after the military.

...he/she needs to check the rating criteria for the condition claimed  and present these in his claim ''statement of support ''of claim along with medical records to support the claim ....with Qualified Dr. Opinion 

Never say I deserve this and that rating ....> let the criteria rating chart speak for you. apply it to your claim.

  if you have all the above  the examiner will or should in most cases add that into the DBQ  its dotting all your I's and cross all your T's before submitting your claim   Always recheck your forms before submitting them.

Its always good to take extra copies of your supporting evidence to your C&P Exam  because some times the VA fails to send the examiner all your supporting evidence   if they don't have it...you will  (just in case)

 

Some Veteran need a VSO to help them....the ones that do just need to make sure the VSO is highly experience and ask about is win/loss record

Remember the Rater looks at all the above and if your evidence meets the rating criteria  then that's what you should be rated  if its lower  then Appeal the rating decision.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Buck52

[RBrogen]

UPDATE:  Just got a UPS Overnight shipping notice about my records being sent to me.  Fingers crossed it is the correct, full file ... will find out tomorrow morning.

[Patton]

That is great news. Hopefully you have better luck than I did. 

I have wrote the BDD, in hopes they can help me locally. I know that they have full access to my records, as they have printed things out for me in the past. So let's see what happens.

[RBrogen]

Look what came in the mail this morning ... about 2900 pages of goodies.

Edited August 14, 2019 by RBrogen