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]

5 minutes ago, Berta said:

I just downloaded the letter-remanded to the RMC- if they do not react to it timely ( I dont know how to define 'timely' when it comes to the VA,by all means sue them in a District court- you  very seem well versed  in handling that without a lawyer- but please request from the district court , the state where the RMC is, a copy of their Rules and Procedures.

It is a lot to read but a good guideline to this type of action. You will probably get the Prisoner guidelines as well. More prisoners probably file more Pro Se  District Court cases than many non incarcerated people do.

They have more access to a law library at most prisons then I did when I sued the VA.

 

Thanks Berta .. I have a template that is all set ready to go, all I need to do is take it along with the fee waiver request to the clerk and file it.  No lawyer needed as it is pretty cut and dry relief/injunction.

[RBrogen]

UPDATE:  Okay bear with me on this one.  So as you may have read in this thread that I got a denial for my C-File request via FOIA Appeal from the Office of General Counsel for the VA citing Exemption 6 as the reason.  As it was so perfectly documented here by GeekySquid, this was actually illegal given the fact that in the first paragraph of the Exemption 6 rule it states that Exemption 6 CANNOT be invoked with the requesting your own records. 

Last Monday, I figured out of the "why not closet", I'd try to call the FOIA Liaison number on the letter that was only 3 days old and see how this decision could even be considered.  Come to find out that the person listed as the contact was and has not been the FOIA Liaison for a while.  The person was very nice and gave me the number of the current FOIA Director.  I called expecting an assistant or voicemail but was very surprised when the Director actually answered the phone.  My initial thought was that the FOIA Director's tone was that I was bother/interrupting her.  I succinctly explained my situation, and told her the reason cited in the letter for denial and she didn't say anything about that UNTIL I said, "How can this be invoked when the US Justice department rules for Exemption 6 clearly state in the first paragraph that the Exemption 6 CANNOT be invoked when one is requesting their own records."  Her entire demeanor shifted to one of concern and interest.  She said " I don't know who said that in the letter but it definitely isn't accurate" to which I replied the name of the Chief Legal Counsel, and the FOIA Director said, I know her personally and she knows better.  She asked me to send her a copy of the letter which I emailed to her and said she'd reach out to the appropriate people and see what was going on.

I followed up on Friday because I hadn't heard from her and she wrote me back saying she had reached out to the Records Management Center (RMC) for explanation and was waiting to hear back.  Today I sent another followup and she almost immediately sent me a note back and said that she had heard back from the RMC Director and that they are asking the team that is assigned to my C-File FOIA to work my request this evening and that I should receive a response soon.

I still have my Federal US District Court suit waiting to be submitted as a backup plan if I don't get my C-File in short order.

I'll keep you posted.

Edited August 7, 2019 by RBrogen

[Buck52]

Sounds like your just getting the run-around

Try emailing this lady

MaryAnn.Wentzel1@va.gov

 

She help me about 6 years ago get My C-file After I had been trying to get it for over a year...I email her and I recieved my C-FILE on CD in about 2 weeks.

[Patton]

Mine was closed over 3 weeks ago and still haven't receive it. I understand that it takes a little longer since I live in Germany, but I have received other things from them within 7 to 10 days. I really need to see what is in it before my next C&P Exam. They had denied my claim, then the reviewer reopened my claim. Talking to them, it sounds like the Examiner did not collect the information they had requested. If I knew what that is, then I could address their concerns. 

Edited August 8, 2019 by Patton
wording

[GeekySquid]

4 hours ago, RBrogen said:

current FOIA Director.

please inform her that another vet, me, has had 4 FOIA requests flatly ignored and left unresponded to by VA New Orleans. Actually VAMC. VARO new orleans claims they have lost 4 significant records VAMC New Orleans created and wont' bother to look for them.

[Patton]

Yesterday, I received yet another disappointment from the VA. I had requested my C-File but what I got was 21 pages of it and 6 of those pages were me requesting it. There is 1 page showing that they had requested VES to conduct my C&P Exam, but nothing else. No DBQ showing why they denied my claim. Also, there is nothing in it as to why the reviewer reopened the claim? I had called them after it was reopened, but all they would tell me was that the Examiner did not collected the requested information they needed to resolve my claim. That is telling me that there is a paper trail on it. It took them 6 months to send me useless information. 

Now if I would have the one year to file my appeal, I would not be armed with the information needed to address the issues in the denial. By the way, I never received the denial letter either. This is not acceptable!

I guess I am going to have to call them tonight (morning in the U.S.). I am not sure what I am going to say yet, but something needs to be done about this.

RBrogen - hopefully you can get your issue resolved.

Sorry for the rant!