Great Articel On Vso's Vets Get Lawyerd Up Now

[Guest fla_viking]

Dear Fellow veterans & Friends

VAwatchdog wrote quotes from VSO's who wrote to Jim Strickland. It appears what we vets have felt all along. VSO's and VA employees are one of the same. Some VSO's feel its the vets responciblity to get records.

Vets get lawyerd up now while you can.

Come June the law will pass allowing vets lawyers. Come the month of May the must pass bill to take away vets rights to lawyers may pass. If we ever do get lawyers a huge battel to take it away shortly there after will begin.

IF you hire a lawyer now to take effect in June before the bill is passed and taken away or shortly there after while the bill is still in effect. The VA will have to grandfather you in and let you keep your lawyer. IF you wait to hire a lawyer they my pass the bill taking lawyers away again and you will be at a loss.

When my mother hired a lawyer for me in 2002. The VA did not like that so they changed the rule not allowing third parties to hire lawyers on behalf of veterans. I got my 100% and back pay for 6 years with my lawyer.

The best thing to do now is hire a lawyer as soon as possibel so the lawyer will be grandfathered in if congress changes the law again.

Terry Higgins

[admiral7]

Dear Fellow veterans & Friends

VAwatchdog wrote quotes from VSO's who wrote to Jim Strickland. It appears what we vets have felt all along. VSO's and VA employees are one of the same. Some VSO's feel its the vets responciblity to get records.

Vets get lawyerd up now while you can.

Come June the law will pass allowing vets lawyers. Come the month of May the must pass bill to take away vets rights to lawyers may pass. If we ever do get lawyers a huge battel to take it away shortly there after will begin.

IF you hire a lawyer now to take effect in June before the bill is passed and taken away or shortly there after while the bill is still in effect. The VA will have to grandfather you in and let you keep your lawyer. IF you wait to hire a lawyer they my pass the bill taking lawyers away again and you will be at a loss.

When my mother hired a lawyer for me in 2002. The VA did not like that so they changed the rule not allowing third parties to hire lawyers on behalf of veterans. I got my 100% and back pay for 6 years with my lawyer.

The best thing to do now is hire a lawyer as soon as possibel so the lawyer will be grandfathered in if congress changes the law again.

Terry Higgins

Lets suppose this is true,now where does a veteran find a lawyer to hire at this time.Lawyers are still very unwilling to take on veterans claims at this time

[Guest rickb54]

Terry,

In reality it is the veteran's responsibility to get records. Remember the VA has a duty to assist, not a responsibility to get records. They will attempt to get records only if the veteran signs the release. The VA can deny a claim if it cannot get the records. When I was a DAV SO, I always recommended to veterans to get their records and mail them certified with their claim, that does not mean I was in bed with the va it just means I passed on some common sense...

Va Watchdog also said in response to a VSO was rated 100% Permanent & Total:

"The disability rating of a qualified veteran who begins to engage in a substantially gainful occupation after January 31, 1985, may not be reduced on the basis of the veteran having secured and followed a substantially gainful occupation unless the veteran maintains such an occupation for a period of 12 consecutive months." I'm guessing that means if you're employed full time more than a year, you aren't eligible for "100% Permanent & Total"

I am not so sure this statement is right, I think this only applies to those awarded Unemployability. And not to those actually rated 100%.

Edited February 5, 2007 by rickb54

[Guest fla_viking]

Dear Fellow veterans & Friends

There are allot of lawyers certified to pratice in the court of veterans claims. I think they are even listed on hadit.com here. I would not hire a lawyer who is not trained and certified in VA law.

As far as the VSO issue. Llike one observaton. The VSO rely on the VA to put the case together. No real advocacy is happening there.

Terry Higgins

[Yong]

I never knew so many vets are having problem with VA.

I my self can't afford to pay a lawer to assist with my claims. However, this is the only way get things out of VA, it should be allow.

Yong

Edited February 5, 2007 by Yong

[Guest fla_viking]

Mr Yong

I would say all lawyers that work on veterans claims will do so on a pay if you win only. So the fact you dont have money now should not stop you from getting a lawyer.

Terry Higgins

[Stretch]

Yong,

Welcome to hadit.com. This is a fine place to get information, and knowledge about how to get that information. You will find, over the years, that the VA and VSO's are basically in the same boat.

My Opinion is:

I have been waiting, with FOIA releases, four years for the VA to get information from its own-self. Finally, the VAMC, in Long Beach, Ca., has sent my records from 1975 onward to the VA in Little Rock, Ar. First FOIA, for this information, was in 2002.

I would suggest that you go to it, getting your own information. At this time you must wait to get a lawyer until your claims have been denied from the BVA (Board of Veterans Appeals). If the VA cannot find its own evidence, that you request from their own facility, the VA will continue to probe for the evidence until time limits are exhausted. This time limit could be well over one year. Then the VA will work on the next piece of evidence that you have requested. Don't think that the VA will help you get anything.

Their is a law that says the VA has to assist the Veteran in the collection of evidence (duty to assist). This law leads many Veterans to believe that the VA will help them in some way. VA people don't have to do their duty to the best of their ability.

What Terry, is talking about is a new law that would give Veterans the right to a lawyer at any stage after your claims are submitted by a VSO or yourself. Once these claims are submitted you can get a lawyer for yourself. The lawyer, in previous years, has worked for Veterans for 25% of the back-pay awarded in the claims, and only then after the claims have been denied by the BVA. No win and you don't have to pay the lawyer.

Even if you win and are poor, you can recoup the legal expense through the EAJA (Equal access to Justice act). Why should a criminal have better representation than a Veteran, and not have to pay for this representation through the EAJA.

http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/sum_eaja.html

The VA and BVA process could take many years. The old law said that you could only hire a lawyer that would work for $10.00 prior to the BVA denials. This new law has passed both houses of Congress and been signed by the President.

There are people, out there, that have been working with all their might to disallow this new law concerning Lawyers for Veterans. Even now, these people have a little secret plan, that was allowed to sneek into legislation during the last Congress, to foil the Veterans Lawyers law, before Veterans can even get the lawyers, when this new law goes into effect around May or June.

Which ever Congress persons steps up to OWN this little secret nulification law, will have their head chopped off. The people, that this Congress person is working for, are in a desperate mode trying to save their own jobs, and these same people are working hand-in-hand with the VA.

All of the opposition to the Veterans having a right to a lawyer are working against the Veteran in his right to choice of representation. Some of the opposition people already have Sevice-Connection. I know that this is all hard to believe, but this is my understanding on what is happening.

Edited February 5, 2007 by Stretch