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Precedent Setting CAVC cases cited in the M21-1

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JKWilliamsSr

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A couple months back before I received my decision I started preparing for the appeal I knew I would be filing.  That is how little faith I had in the VA caring about we the veteran. 

One of the things I did is I went through the entire M21-1 and documented every CAVC precedent case that the VA cited. I did this because I wanted to see what the rater was seeing.  I could not understand for the life of me why so many obviously bad decisions were being handed down.  I think the bottom line is that the wrong type of people are hired as raters.  I think raters should have some kind of legal background.  They do not need to be lawyers but I think paralegals would be a good idea.

There have been more than 3500 precedent setting decisions from the CAVC since 1989.  Now we need to concede that all of them are not favorable to the veteran but I have learned that in a lot of cases even though the veteran lost a case it some rules were established that assisted other veterans.

The document I created has about 200 or so decisions cited in the M21-1.   Considering the fact that there are more than 3500 precedent cases out there I think it is safe to assume the VA purposely left out decisions that would make it almost impossible to deny veteran claims.  Case in point. I know of 14 precedent setting decisions that state the VA cannot ignore or give no weight to outside doctors without providing valid medical reasons as to why.  Most of these decision are not cited by the M21.

It is important that we do our due diligence to make sure we do not get screwed.  I think the M21-1 is incomplete because there is too much information we veterans are finding on our own to get the benefits we deserve

M21-1 Precedent setting decisions .docx

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  • Moderator

Wow!  Great job, JKWilliams!  This may be the best summary of relative precedential case law (with the exception of the Veterans Benefit Manual), that I have ever seen.  (And I have been here over a decade and have asnwered more than 11,000 questions with over 3000 "likes".  

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Thank you for your indepth research and sharing this info with rest of us.  Beginning in the late 80s every claim and appeal I have filed I have used the precedent CAVC court cases to support my arguments including a 2000 CUE claim I appealed myself all the way up to the CAVC in 2005.  

My experience has taught me the VARO raters at the regional office level ignore the hell out of our use of these court decisions even when the favorable decision is nearly identical to our claim details and some even resent it.  

The BVA however does make note of the CAVC and FED Appeals circuit cases extensively and use the cases to support their own arguments both for and against the vet.

I think it is safe to say the VA does not hire the brightest bulbs to be raters and I am sure many suffer from LOW ENERGY.  The fact that many are also veterans has absolutely nothing to do with anything.  I say this to the VA apologist out there.  The appeals I won is proof the raters would rather deny than grant on first instance including reconsideration request.  I won my appeals on same evidence that the VARO rater first saw and then denied.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

JK Very nice job; well done! You put a lot into that and hopefully veterans can use it for their own claims.

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Yes WOW!!!!!!! Thank you so much for that very helpful information.I can't wait to read it all!!!!

We were in such a severe snow band the past few days that I had limited access here.

 

 

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  • Content Curator/HadIt.com Elder

That's awesome!

It is definitely worthy of being made sticky or perhaps even being added to a blog article for easy access.

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